Rowan Pierce, Julien Van Mellaerts, & Lucy Colquhoun: Songs of the Night
Champs Hill Records

As a theme around which to build a recital programme, night offers no shortage of potential when composers have considered it from so many angles. It's been treated as a realm of secrets, magic, and mystery, but also as a time of foreboding, as well as a harbinger of hope. Night may be tempestuous but also peaceful, the range of possible associations seemingly unlimited. Guided by the concept, pianist Lucy Colquhoun and singers Rowan Pierce (soprano) and Julien Van Mellaerts (baritone) have fashioned a stellar collection that explores the idea across seventy minutes of music. While all of the songs have been, as Colquhoun notes, recorded and performed before, much of what appears on Songs of the Night warrants greater exposure.

Key to the recording's impact is the presence of not one but two award-winning vocalists and dramatically contrasting ones at that. Whereas Van Mellaerts possesses a deep, rich, and powerful voice, Pierce's is naturally brighter and radiant. Both deliver the material with superb phrasing and intonation and enliven it with expressiveness that's carefully pitched, neither too reserved nor overwrought. Colquhoun demonstrates why she's in-demand as a recital partner in lending solid support and empathetic accompaniment. Her playing sparkles throughout a set comprising twenty-one settings by Schubert, Wolf, Pfitzner, Mendelssohn, Strauss, and the Schumanns.

Songs of the Night begins memorably with three Schubert songs, the melodically enticing “Waldesnacht” (Forest Night) essayed with authority and conviction by Van Mellaerts and the pensive “Nachtstück” (Nocturne) given a nuanced and artful reading by Pierce. While the songs are vastly different in character, the singers distinguish them with their expertly calibrated handling of vibrato and dynamics. Listening to their performances as they unfold line by line is a genuine delight. Five Robert Schumann songs follow, “Die feindlichen Brüder” (The Warring Brothers) and “Der Hidalgo” given agitated and boisterous treatments, respectively, by Van Mellaerts. Pierce is alternately declamatory and tremulous for “Es stürmet am Abendhimmel” (There are Storms in the Evening Sky), hushed and reverent in “Nachtlied” (Nightsong). In the subsequent section, she intensifies the romantic passion of Clara's “Er ist gekommen” (He Came in Storm and Rain) and the desperate longing of the protagonist in her “Am Strande” (On the Shore).

Moving into the programme's second half with three pieces by Hugo Wolf, Van Mellaerts is playful in “Der Tambour” (The Drummer-Boy) and then gives ardent voice to the heartfelt paean to spring “Ganymed” and the torment of “Nächtliche Wanderung” (A Walk at Night). After the singers take turns distinguishing Hans Pfitzner's lyrical “Nachts” (At Night) and animated “Nachtwanderer” (Night Wanderer), the two deliver two songs apiece by Richard Strauss, Van Mellaerts rhapsodic in “Des Dichters Abendgang” (The Poet's Evening Walk) and feverish in “Lied an meinen Sohn” (Song to My Son), Pierce lyrical for “Rote Rosen” (Red Roses). At album's end, two exultant settings by Mendelssohn, the “Ich wollt', meine Lieb ergösse sich” (I Wish That I Could Pour My Love) and “Maiglöckchen und die Blümelein” (Lily-of-the-Valley and the Little Flowers), suggests that this excellent recording would be even better had the vocalists dueted more often. Perhaps that's something the three might want to bear in mind when they begin considering selections for a hoped-for follow-up volume.

December 2023