Recital
Women In and Out of Love
Nicola Said, soprano
Elizabeth Rossiter, piano
Guildhall School of Music and Drama,
Milton Court Hall, London

Women In and Out of Love was Nicola Said’s final examination recital leading to her Master’s degree in performance.

An unusual element in this recital was that the repertoire consisted entirely of music written by female composers. The implications are obvious from the title she chose for this event. It meant she had an arduous task to convey a myriad highly contrasting and divergent emotions any human being could experience in that mysterious and inexplicable state of being ‘in love’... or out of it.

Women composers in Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn’s day were rare and kept a low profile as such, although the former’s fame was rightly based on her professional concert pianist status. The latter side-tracked prejudice by having her excellent compositions published under her brother’s name.

Works by these two ladies featured in this recital, in full-blown Romantic style. First, Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel’s graceful Schwanenlied, the warmly inspiring Nach Süden and reflective Warum sind denn die Rosen so blaß? Next were Clara Schumann’s rather anxious Warun willst du and’re fragen? and the exuberant O Lust, O Lust.

Did I say that Nicola said she had an “arduous task” before her? She dealt with all those emotions of bliss, despair, cynicism, resignation, anger and loving warmth, switching from one to another with amazing ease. No doubt that the excellently understanding support from and rapport with her accompanist Elizabeth Rossiter was a key element in achieving all this.

To say that she was brilliant is an understatement. She started with the highly passionate Three Browning Songs, Op. 44 by Amy Beach, a pioneer who broke a lance for female composers in the US. Next came Libby Larsen’s triptych from the unique Try Me, Good King: The Last Words of the Wives of Henry VIII.

The first and longest of them, Anne Boleyn, was high tragedy and despair not untouched by a certain dignity. Jane Seymour was very brief and reflected short-lived joy. Anne of Cleves came across as frivolous yet practical. How dull was she if she were clever enough to save her head and live on as ‘the King’s good sister’?

Singing everything by heart in three languages, always so very articulate and with fine diction, Nicola dedicated the entire second half to the French repertoire. It was widely contrasting fare beginning with Pauline Viardot’s Je viens te rendre à l’esperance from the comic chamber opera Cendrillon, all fairy-tale fare of hope and escape from a life of drudgery.

Three songs by Cécile Chaminade followed with a message of love and sweet memories, credulity and of vanished love but no bitterness. Feelings which were very well-etched in Viens! mon bien-aimé!, Ma première lettre and Tu me dirais. On the other hand, Germaine Tailleferre’s set of Six Chansons Françaises was rather alarming and in part based on bitter personal experiences which coloured the music even though the lyrics are based on texts from the 15th-18th centuries.

As if to make a mockery of it all, Nicola concluded with a highly comical Je t’aime by Isabelle Aboulker. This was a great example of interpretative versatility.

Nicola does not aim at stopping here as she is to pursue a further two years of study to obtain a specialist diploma in opera.