Matthew McKinney (tenor), Roelof Temmingh (piano)

Program including songs by Robert and Clara Schumann, Richard Strauss. Full repertoire list at the bottom of this review

Bechstein Hall, London, 28 March 2025

by John Earls. Photo credit below (c) John Earls

Scottish tenor Matthew McKinney is the winner of the 2024 Kathleen Ferrier Awards and there was quite a sense of anticipation for this recital with pianist Roelof Temmingh at the suitably intimate Bechstein Hall.

Performance is of course the key element in voice and piano recitals such as this. But it is also exciting to be presented with a programme that has clearly been put together with such thought and care. Under the theme of Finding Freedom this programme consisted of two parts. The first was an alternating Clara and Robert Schumann affair, the second a more eclectic but no less engaging mix.

The Schumanns’ set consisted of rotating Clara and Robert Schumann songs neatly threaded together in a lovers’ exchange. It demonstrated not only the consideration and skill of the programming but the quality of Clara’s as well as Robert’s songwriting. McKinney’s singing was beautiful throughout.

The set also included two pieces of recited poetry, Afrikaans poet Breyten Breytenbach’s Red-breasted Dove and Rabindranath Tagore’s Unending Love, both of which deftly complimented the sentiment.

For the first half the audience was requested to save applause until the end of the set, entirely appropriate for the mood and respectfully observed. For the second half however McKinney advised “please do clap any time you want to”. And just as well as this was a much more varied affair including a couple of Robert Schumann solo piano pieces for Temmingh to shine.

Opening with Frank Bridge’s Love Went A-Riding it also included two Benjamin Britten songs, a forceful Batter My Heart (from The Holy Sonnets of John Donne) immediately followed by a tender Sonnetto XXX (from Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo), and a rendition of Tosti’s Marechiare that was full of brio and panache.

There then followed a lovely and affecting sequence. Rebecca Clarke’s I’ll Bid My Heart Be Still (originally composed for viola but ‘reimagined’ here for voice), Robbie Burns’ Ae Fond Kiss (McKinney unaccompanied) and Temmingh’s own Verjaarsdagbrief (Birthday Letter) based on a letter written by his grandfather to his grandmother and sang in Afrikaans by McKinney who then looped back to Ae Fond Kiss. The audience silence afterwards was marked and sincere.

The set concluded with a couple of well delivered Richard Strauss songs which led to the inevitable and deserved calls for an encore which McKinney admitted they didn’t have so we got a repeat of the magnificent Marechiare which was gratefully received.

Matthew McKinney and Roelof Temmingh performed the following repertoire:

Breytenbach Red-breasted dove
Clara Schumann and Robert Schumann songs interspersed:
Clara Ich stand in dunkeln Träumen Op.13/1, Liebeszauber Op.13/3, Volkslied, Lorelei,
Robert Der Nussbaum Op.25/3, Volksliedchen Op.51/2, Zwielicht Op.39/10, Kreisleriana Op.16/8 (solo piano), Mondnacht Op.39/5
Tagore Unending love
Clara Der Mond kommt still gegangen Op.13/4, Die stille Lotosblume Op.13/6
Robert Die Lotosblume Op.25/7, Widmung Op.25/1

Bridge Love went a-riding H.114
Weir Sweet Little Red Feet (from The Voice of Desire)
Robert Schumann Ritter vom Steckenpferd Op.15/9
Auden What’s in your mind, my dove, my coney?
Britten Batter my heart Op.35/2, Sonnetto XXX Op.22/3
Robert Schumann Vogel als Prophet Op.82/7
Tosti Marechiare
Clarke I’ll bid my heart be still (reimagined); Trad Scots Ae fond kiss
Temmingh Verjaarsdagbrief
Richard Strauss Befreit Op.39/4, Zueignung Op.10/1

John Earls is Director of Research at Unite the Union. He posts on Bluesky and tweets / updates his ‘X’ content at @john_earls

Published post no.2,489 – Sunday 30 March 2025