There is so much on offer each autumn during the Oxford Lieder Festival that it is difficult to know just what to attend, given that one is not likely to be able to afford the time to go to everything.

I seem to have been very fortunate this year with the younger singers I heard and the range of lieder on offer, and all events I attended were in the splendid environment of the Holywell Music Room.

The lunchtime recital on Thursday 27 October was given jointly by soprano Alison Rose and baritone Ross Ramgobin. While Ross Ramgobin opened slightly tentatively, getting the feel of the room, Alison Rose’s generous tones flooded it from the start. The programme commenced with alternative setting of poems by Goethe which allowed the singers to demonstrate the differing sensitivities which Loewe, Schumann and Liszt brought to the poems.

I particularly enjoyed Alison Rose’s rendition of Liszt’s Die Loreley and Brahms’ In stiller Nacht.The duets worked well, though at this stage there was little sense of frisson between the singers. Gregory Drott accompanied with aplomb and particular sensitivity to the varying levels needed within the duets.

The following lunchtime Portuguese soprano Sonia Grane brought us songs by Faure, Richard Strauss as well as Portuguese and Spanish items. This was probably the finest singing I heard over the two days and a wonderful sense of promise for her future career. Already winner of the Oxford Lieder Young Artist Platform, she brings a relaxed rapport with her audience, together with exemplary ability to communicate the narrative of a song. The wide range of emotions needed for Rodrigo’s Cuatro madrigals amatorios were all crisply encapsulated and she found a wistful melancholia in Carrapataso’s Eu… . She showed real flair for romantic settings and it will be a pleasure to watch her career develop. Throughout, Edwige Herchenroder accompanied with an equally romantic approach, creating swathes of luscious support and tiny moments of wonder in the introductions to many of the songs.

Evenings tend to be given over to established performers and the first brought Roderick Williams, escaping from the rigours of Rameau’s Castor and Pollux. He was, as usual, remarkably relaxed and created an easy, warm rapport with the audience. The gentle melancholy of Faure’s Mirages settings was offset by the overt sentimentality of Ireland’s Santa Chiara.

Charlotte Bray had been commissioned to provide a new cycle for the festival and we heard the world premiere of her setting of sonnets and songs by the Portuguese poet Pessoa. Her approach is declamatory rather than lyrical, allowing the text to come through with great clarity and leaving the emotional impact to dwell in the accompaniment rather than in the voice. There are hints of Finzi in the opening and the whole cycle is reserved in tone and range. The unaccompanied opening of Far Blue Skies is particularly effective.

The evening ended with Elgar’s Sea Pictures. This was unusual for two reasons – it is normally sung with full orchestra and is usually sung by a contralto. The contrasts were immediate with the text being to the fore to the point where the narrative became a clearer point of focus that the emotional turmoil of the setting. Andrew West’s accompaniment was superb here, finding the dramatic heart of the music without ever overpowering the singer. A wonderful evening.

The next evening Dame Felicity Lott sang to the guitar accompaniment of Christoph Denoth. Though there was much to enjoy in a very varied programme the musical impact was far less than on any of the events over the previous two days.  Dame Felicity has no problem with the range of the works she chose but there was little sense of subtlety in the delivery and Mozart’s Batti, batti was surely a mistake as it no longer suits her. The other Mozart items pleased as did the Schubert in the second half but the Dowland items suite an early music specialist rather than an operatic voice. We have heard so many wonderful performances from Dame Felicity over the years that this was a somewhat sad occasion. BH