Fairytales and Nightingales

Those who already know the history of the Norfolk & Norwich Festival will tell you that the festival was established as a fundraiser to help build the original Norfolk & Norwich Hospital. With Fairytales & Nightingales, this Monday evening concert at St Andrews Hall celebrated another philanthropic gesture, and one that led to Norwich becoming only the second city in the UK to have a dedicated children's hospital (the first being Great Ormond Street in London). In 1847, and again in 1849, Jenny Lind, the 'Swedish Nightingale', sang at St Andrews Hall. Her arrival brought the city to a standstill, such was her 19th century superstar status. Proceeds from the concerts helped establish the Jenny Lind Infirmary for Sick Children, which opened in Pottergate in 1854.
 
This year's tribute concert featured Simon Crawford-Phillips as compere and pianist, and Lawrence Power on viola and violin. Soprano Carolyn Sampson replaced Swedish opera singer Hanna Husáhr, who was unable to apear. Together, and individually, these three musical artists delivered a venerable tribute to Jenny Lind that was sensitive, informative and beautifully presented.
 
The performance was divided in two distinct sections. The first half of the programme was devoted to music by Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn, interspersed with songs written by Schumann's wife, Clara, and Mendelssohn's sister, Fanny. Simon Crawford-Phillips narrated a path that led to a fascinating insight into the complicated relationships and love stories that existed between these four musicians and Jenny Lind. He also mentioned the obsessive attentions from one Hans Christian Andersen, from whom Jenny Lind received a proposal of marriage. It was one of his fairytales that led to Lind being dubbed 'The Swedish Nightingale', and it was her rejection of him that was seen as the bitter inspiration behind 'The Snow Queen'. Whilst every single piece in this well-structured first half was a total delight, my own personal favourite was the closing, powerful and evocative rendition of Clara Schumann's 'Lorelei'.
 
After the interval we picked up the Jenny Lind story with two fairytale-inspired songs by Swedish composer Adolf Fredrik Lindblad. A friend of Felix Mendelssohn, he also had a strong collaborative relationship with Jenny Lind. A song from Johannes Brahms followed, and then the opening movement from his Sonata for Violin and Piano. Brahms, it turns out, had been good friends with Felix Mendelssohn, one of whose pupils, a certain Otto Goldschmidt, who would later become married  to Jenny Lind.
 
At this point, the evening shifted sharply away from the well-orchestrated, and well presented, bio-gig narrative that we had been following. Maybe Carolyn Sampson replacing Hanna Husáhr at such short notice had necessitated an amendment to the original programme? Whilst the final section of the concert maintained delightful vocal delivery from Sampson, the folk song from Norwegian composer Edvard Greig seemed somewhat out of kilter with the rest of the running order. And, even though I really enjoyed the interplay between Power's violin and Sampson' vocals in Gounod's 'Ave Maria', the decision to include Tosti's 'La Serenata' seemed to lower the bar dangerously close to salon music. As for the inclusion of 'Roses of Picardy' and the closing sing-along to 'It's A Long, Long Way To Tipperary', each of which had not even been written during Jenny Lind's lifetime, I am simply lost for words. Maybe the organisers at St Andrews Hall have one eye on the upcoming Norwich Beer Festival?