Review: Mark Padmore, Richard Watkins, Julius Drake, at Malvern Theatres

At first sight the programming of Malvern Concert Club’s latest sellout concert looked eccentric, with Beethoven and Schubert sandwiching two of Britten’s somewhat lesser-known offerings; but in reality it worked brilliantly.

Britten was represented by two of his Canticles, ‘Still Falls the Rain’ sustainedly sombre with suppressed anger (hornist Richard Watkins rich in piercing timbres, tenor Mark Padmore expressively equal to the challenge set by his great predecessor Peter Pears, pianist Julius Drake such an empathetic foil), and the warmly serene ‘My Beloved is Mine’, for tenor and piano alone, bringing such a contrast.

Watkins and Drake delivered a hugely enjoyable reading of Beethoven’s occasionally quirky Horn Sonata, Drake fearless in what is virtually concerto-writing for the piano.

All three reassembled for a rare hearing of Schubert’s ‘Auf dem Strom’, bringing a silkily lyrical conclusion to the evening.

But perhaps the highlights were Padmore’s delivery of a selection of Lieder by Beethoven (best of all, for me, the ineffable ‘An die ferne Geliebte’) and Schubert, his tones mellifluous (with an amazing command of head voice), superlative diction, and a fluently expressive body-language which those punters whose heads were deep into their programmes following the texts (with their odd translations) will have been sorry to have missed.