Review by Rebecca Clarke – Composer of lively chamber music and songs Worth Finally | classical music

AAmong the plethora of female composers who have finally gotten their due in recent years, Rebecca Clarke stands out for sheer quality and consistency of inspiration. Born in 1886, she studied at Stanford University, worked with Vaughan Williams, and as a virtuoso violinist, became one of the first professional female orchestral players in London. Upon moving to the United States, her output declined, but her energetic music and recently rediscovered vocals have proven fertile ground for today’s performers.

In a skillfully orchestrated programme, the culmination of a day of study at Clarke’s Wigmore Hall, youth compositions rubbed shoulders with music from their most productive period, the 1920s. Ailish Tynan opened proceedings, her soaring soprano and rapid-fire delivery illuminating songs that suggested the influence of Vaughan Williams. Ravel, in his Orientalist style, hovered over settings of Chinese poetry, perfect material for Kitty Whateley’s breezy, smoldering mezzo-soprano with her padded lower register. Ashley Riches’ warm baritone embraced Clarke’s memorable melody of Yeats Down by the Salley Gardens while raising a smile in The Aspidistra, a melodramatic ballad about the deliberate killing of a pot plant.

American tenor Nicholas Vann lent his flamboyant instrument and expressive stillness to a handful of early German songs and brought a minimalist sensibility to The Cherry-Blossom Wand (Clarke once described the line between music and sex as “so thin as to be almost non-existent”). Max Bailey was a sensitive guide to the masterful viola sonata, immersing himself in the heady waters of the spirited outer movements and reveling in the ironic trickery of the fleet central scherzo. Anna Tilbrook has been a trusted and poetic guide throughout. Not all of the combinations here were pure gold, but the hit rate was remarkably high.

Clarke’s most famous song is The Seal Man, a story by John Masefield in which a young woman is drawn to her death by a mysterious figure from beyond the sea. Whately was performed in a new arrangement for voice, piano and viola. However, Tynan, a singer at her best, was hard to beat. Accompanied by Billy on fiddle, she brought delicacy, wit and an idiomatic touch to three sparkling Irish country songs.