Mahler’s settings of translations of ancient Chinese verses in his symphony Das Lied von der Erde are probably the best known of their kind, but he was not alone in being seduced by the poetry of the Tang dynasty. For this recital, marking the beginning of the Chinese new year, the bass-baritone Shenyang assembled songs by 15 composers (a sequence slightly extended in their Wigmore Hall appearance on the weekend). By no means all familiar, these were mainly 20th-century names, though sometimes more 19th-century Romantic in style.
Entitling the programme Variations of Jade – the stone whose name means pure, explained Shenyang – it was both the variety of style and the variations in the richly expressive detail Shenyang brought to his interpretations that made for compelling listening. Simon Lepper’s teasing out of the descriptive character of the piano writing was crucial, whether complementing the vocal colours or driving the music on.
