Sarah Connolly (mezzo-soprano) Joseph Middleton (piano)

These are such well-matched performers: the pianist responsive, playful yet steadfast, thundering or scintillating, often almost silent; the singer with such a glorious range of pitch and volume, easily filling the church yet glowing, a miracle of control, in endless pianissimos.

And what a versatile programme! Schumann’s ‘Frauenliebe und-leben’ and Berlioz’s ‘Les nuits d’été’, so subtly characterised, either would have crowned a lesser recital. Then came some salon songs by Poulenc, Copland and Richard Rodney Bennett, gay composers expressing universal themes, urbane, witty, vulnerable or tragic. The bitter-sweet encore Dominic Muldowney’s ‘I’m in Paris with You’ completed a perfect evening.

All Saints’ Church, 11 May 2017
Rating:
Andrew Connal