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Baillieu and Barton review – art song from three centuries at its finest
Jamie Barton joins James Baillieu for the conclusion of his one-day marathon at Wigmore Hall.
Barry Creasy of Opera + Classical Music Reviews
May 19, 2025
"Quite frankly, if someone asked me to give three recitals in a day, I'd laugh and run away."
So joked mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton as she introduced the second half of Saturday evening's concert. This, though, is exactly what the ever-popular and always-brilliant pianist James Baillieu did on Saturday on his 'focus day' at Wigmore Hall. 11:00 saw a recital with baritone Henk Neven, 15:00 another with soprano Elena Villalón and here we were in the evening with a programme of song ranging from 6 Lieder by Clara Schumann to Melissa Dunphy's 4 Poems of Nikita Gill, all sung by – as the New York Times described her – "opera's nose-studded rock star". [...]
[...] Overlapping the pandemic years was the rise of the 'Me Too' movement, and Nikita Gill's four poems – 'Sorcery', 'From the Ashes She Became', 'You Have Become a Forest' and 'Me Too' – encapsulate not only the anger and trauma of women at the hands of men, but the self-healing and self-affirmation that turning pain in to strength begets. Melissa Dunphy's music is as emotional as the text: angular vocal lines; funeral march piano chords; declamatory singing and (in 'You Have Become a Forest') a surprising, Satie-like lightness. This material is close to Barton's heart, and she wrung every ounce of emotion from it to give us a series of uncomfortable, shattering performances, in which gesture and vocal agility were to the fore.