Garanca/Vignoles, Wigmore Hall, review: Elina Garanca and Roger Vignoles excel

The wonder of this recital was that Vignoles had stepped in at just two days’ notice

Photo credit Simon Jay Price (Simon Jay Price)

The Latvian mezzo Elina Garanca delivers her recitals with statuesque grace, dominating as much by her regal physical presence as by the power and beauty of her voice; her artistry, honed in the best Soviet tradition, is informed by an acute intellectual command of her material. On this occasion she had chosen twenty-five songs by Brahms, Duparc, and Rachmaninov which cohered through their prevailingly wistful mood; support would come from the British accompanist Roger Vignoles.

Brahms’s texts conjured up worlds of subtly conflicting emotions which Garanca’s singing compellingly evoked; from the bitter-sweet edge of ‘Love and spring II’ to the moonlit rapture of ‘May night’, her phrasing and shading were alive to every nuance. And if her French diction for the Duparc songs was awkward and unidiomatic, Rachmaninov’s Russian set her free to soar gloriously, calling on all her native reserves of expressive intensity.

But the wonder of this recital was that Vignoles had stepped in at just two days’ notice, flawlessly delivering his part in this daunting programme as though he’d spent months preparing it. What other accompanist could have done so with such serene aplomb? No wonder he got his own ovation at the end.