Samling Artist Programme in Masterclass

Marchmont House, Berwickshire 7/3/26

Samling Artist Programme in Masterclass on 7th March commenced Samling Institute for Young Artists’ thirtieth anniversary season in the glorious setting of Marchmont House in Berwickshire.

 My third attendance at a Samling Masterclass, the event was greatly anticipated, with its promise of six impressive performances across the musical repertoire from young artists on the threshold of a career in song, with the opportunity to observe the critical, yet generous nurturing input to those talents by a range of established artists from different performing arts backgrounds. As always there was a break in the proceedings in the shape of a splendid afternoon tea and an opportunity to meet the performers.

 Our Samling Artists, accompanied by Samling Artist staff pianist Ella O’Neill and Samling Artist pianists Alfred Fardell and George Herbert, had all spent the previous week at Marchmont, joined by their three leaders for the week – Samling Artist mezzo-soprano Anna Stéphany, pianist Malcolm Martineau, and actor and director Adrian Lester, each of them bringing their own unique perspective to the masterclass. Not being a seasoned musical reviewer, I rather approached the event as a sort of masterclass for me which would increase my knowledge and understanding of how a musical performance works. However, even in the fourth row of the audience, it was unfortunately rather difficult to hear clearly quite a bit of what was being said in the masterclass sections; indeed, I was keenly aware of having missed, somewhat frustratingly, quite a few of the jokes that were clearly audible to those nearer the platform.

 The performances were all as accomplished as expected. Whether passionately expressive or softer and perhaps more obviously nuanced, they each filled the room. While all the performances were impressive, further pleasure was yielded by the various adaptations suggested in the critique each performer subsequently received, thereby demonstrating the multiplicity of elements that combine to achieve a good musical performance for both artist and audience.

 The programme opened with tenor Philippe Durant’s highly expressive ‘Ganymed’ by Schubert. Malcolm Martineau’s subsequent critique drew attention to how a performer’s knowledge of the context of a piece can guide the audience, thereby ensuring that they fully listen – and understand - as well as simply hear an aria, “every song (being) an opera in itself”. In his later conversation following baritone Sonny Fielding’s  ‘L’assiola canta’ by Francesco Santoliquido, Martineau made much of the play that a singer might make of the “language of consonants” that is Italian. I was interested to learn, too, that 70% of Italian words are consonants and 50% of those double ones. In Martineau’s view, this linguistic feature offered considerable interpretative scope to the singer in this language.

 Mezzo-soprano Louisa Stuart-Smith’s passionate ‘Smanie implacabile’ from ‘Cosi fan tutte’ certainly conveyed for me Dorabella’s “implacable torments”!  As one who regards the portrayal of the existence of a character’s inner life as the gold standard for an actor’s performance and something that is often missing, I was pleased to see Adrian Lester encouraging Louisa to aim for just that in her portrayal of Dorabella. He returned to this theme later in the afternoon with soprano Eyra Norman and her Queen of the Night’s ‘Der Hölle Rache’. Although I had seen this performed decades previously in a small scale production, it was really quite something to experience it in the chamber setting of Marchmont. Eyra was invited to consider the dramatic context of the piece and focus on an imaginary Pamina at the other end of the room, which had the desired effect of transforming what had hitherto been an electrifying performance into an almost terrifying one!

 Unfortunately, and very disappointingly, I was unable to hear quite a bit of what was being said by Anna Stéphany, the result of her soft voice together with the more intimate nature of her conversation with the tutees. However, what I did catch was highly instructive, specifically her focus on what might be called the biomechanics of singing and the many ways in which the body may be used by a singer to specific effect.

 In her conversation with mezzo-soprano Caitlin Mackenzie, I was impressed by Stéphany’s invitation to consider how the vocal chords might better “catch the silvery bits” in her performance of Elgar’s languid yet complex ‘Sea Slumber Song’. While a comparison of this with more obviously powerful pieces might be considered invidious, I nevertheless felt this was an example of less being more. Although clearly lacking the obvious drama of some of the other performances that afternoon, there was much that grabbed one’s senses and soul in the subtle and shifting landscape of this somnolent piece.  While Stéphany clearly addressed this in her conversation with Caitlin – indeed of the three leaders that afternoon, she had the most to say - it was most frustrating not to have caught more of it.

 I was particularly impressed by her second tutee, countertenor Zheng Jiang’s powerful, controlled and beautifully mellifluous performance of ‘Dopo notte’ from Handel’s  ‘Ariodante’. Like some others in the audience, I’m sure, I had had little previous exposure to this rarest of voice type. One felt that this piece, like Der Hölle Rache, had to be sung exceptionally well – as indeed they were - or not at all. Both were, I felt, brave choices.

 I really would like to have heard more of what Anna Stéphany had to say here, as what she did say was from the unique perspective that only another singer could offer on the process of singing. Among other improvements, she suggested that Zheng focus on the interior of a piece of music, specifically its place in the narrative, in real time, and, most interestingly, not with a knowledge of when it is going to end. She also drew his attention to those parts of Handel’s music in general that offer considerable scope for vocal ornamentation.

 It was a highly enjoyable afternoon. While the performances were a pleasure in themselves, it was a real treat to observe how each developed in response to the guidance and insight of the three leaders. In the Samling Masterclass tradition, the afternoon drew to a close with a delightful ensemble encore from the participating artists. This year’s treat was a joyous performance of ‘Rede Mädchen, allzu liebes' from the ‘Liebeslieder Waltzes’ by Johannes Brahms. The next Samling Artist Programme In Masterclass at Marchmont takes place on 1st August.

photo credit: Mark Pinder