Below is a review of the lunchtime recital from the last post written by Mark Russell, brother, but unbiased!, of Ben.
Next Ben sang two songs, first ‘Mondnacht’ by Schumann and secondly ‘Der Musensohn’ by Schubert. Followed by Anna’s performances of : ‘Ich atmet einen linden Duft’ by Mahlen and 'Ich hab’im penna' by Wolf. Ben then entertained us with ‘I hold your hand in mine’ by Tom Lehrer, an amusing song about an insane husband missing his dead wife! Anna created a lingering atmosphere with the next song ‘Sure on this shining night’ by Baber. As everyone agreed, the following three songs, really showed off Anna and Ben’s musical talent, especially the duet ‘Bess, you is my woman now’.
I can’t decide which was my favourite: the final songs ‘Last night was one of those nights’ performed by Anna and the’ Hippopotamus song’ performed by Ben, both of which were very entertaining and got a lot of laughs. Or, the unexpected encore of the Popagena duet, which must have been very difficult to learn because of its incredible speed!
Everybody really enjoyed the concert and we look forward to future performances by Ben and Anna!
Review
On Thursday the 29th of January, we went to St Anne’s church on Dawson street to hear Benjamin Russell, a baritone, and Anna Brady, a soprano, give their recital. Lasting about an hour, the performances were very well accompanied by the pianist Mairead Hurley. Ben started off the concert brilliantly with ‘Deh vieni alla finestra’ from Don Giovanni. After that Anna beautifully sang ‘In uomini in soldati’ from ‘Cosi fan tutte’ also by Mozart. This was followed by the duet ‘la ci darem’ which also features in Don Giovanni.Next Ben sang two songs, first ‘Mondnacht’ by Schumann and secondly ‘Der Musensohn’ by Schubert. Followed by Anna’s performances of : ‘Ich atmet einen linden Duft’ by Mahlen and 'Ich hab’im penna' by Wolf. Ben then entertained us with ‘I hold your hand in mine’ by Tom Lehrer, an amusing song about an insane husband missing his dead wife! Anna created a lingering atmosphere with the next song ‘Sure on this shining night’ by Baber. As everyone agreed, the following three songs, really showed off Anna and Ben’s musical talent, especially the duet ‘Bess, you is my woman now’.
I can’t decide which was my favourite: the final songs ‘Last night was one of those nights’ performed by Anna and the’ Hippopotamus song’ performed by Ben, both of which were very entertaining and got a lot of laughs. Or, the unexpected encore of the Popagena duet, which must have been very difficult to learn because of its incredible speed!
Everybody really enjoyed the concert and we look forward to future performances by Ben and Anna!
