Christopher Maltman with Malcolm Martineau: From Severn to Somme

What a privilege to experience this sublime pairing of voice and piano in a programme of songs that took the audience on an intensely emotional journey. Martineau is the most expressive of players, wringing every possible sound and texture from his instrument and working with the singer in a way that suggests there is some extraordinary connection that goes beyond the mere physical.
Maltman has the same ability to be so connected with his performance partner that they become as one. His voice is of course sublime, a richness and depth that gets better and better every time I hear him perform. But in this collection of songs, an impressively curated selection of music, something else becomes so apparent. Maltman is a fine musician but also a fine actor, extracting every moment of both drama and character in his performance. One minute the young boy, the next a fevered man ‘whooped’ into an excited patriotic passion, and then moments later the plaintive saddened voice of loss and despair.
In each of the four parts; Home, Journey, Battle and Epitaph the choice of songs is so expertly selected, so many nations represented, that the whole becomes a fascinating view of both war and of a hope for peace. Butterworth, Gurney, Mahler, Ives… astonishing Musorgsky, Schumann and Finzi… and words by AE Houseman, Hans Christian Andersen, Thomas Hardy and more, the programme was bejeweled by poetry and Maltman’s ability to sing with such clarity allows us to hear the poetry of the works, nothing is lost in his performance and so much is added. It is perhaps not enough to say that this baritone is merely dramatic, he is perhaps cinematic. So expansive is he in his delivery, precise in every musical sense, whether raised to a fierce growl or dropped back to the slightest whisper, that he reaches out and invades your body, wrapping his voice around your heart and either gently stroking your emotions or squeezing them out with force. I was brought to tears by this intelligently constructed evening and by the amazing combination of piano and voice brought to us by such undeniable talents. If allowed I would award five stars for Maltman, five for Martineau and five for the selection of songs, a well earned 15 stars, but sadly I am not.
13 May
All Saints Hove
Andrew Kay
5 stars