Cosma - Fauré - Debussy - Poulenc - Rossini - Duparc - Schumann - Offenbach - Massenet - Rachmaninoff - Tchaikovsky - Guastavino - Bizet - Delibes - Lecoq
Anaïs Constans, soprano
Lucile Verbizier, mezzo-soprano
Benjamin Carré, piano
You can get some charming surprises in the most unexpected places sometimes. Picking up bread from the local baker one morning, I spotted a flyer with a name I've come to know passably well over the last three years - the young French soprano Anaïs Constans, competitor at Toulouse in 2012, and in Cardiff this year. In the middle of the French countryside, in an 18th Century hospital that has been progressively restored over the last thirty years (and it's still a work in progress), she turned out to be giving a joint recital with the mezzo (though I'm half-inclined to call her a contralto) Lucile Verbizier, accompanied by Benjamin Carré, all three recent graduates of the Toulouse Conservatoire.
Constans was quite up-front about the purpose of the exercise, at least for her. She's preparing her participation in the Nadia and Lili Boulanger International Voice-Piano Competition in November of this year, and this concert was an opportunity to test out some of the 35 (!) songs she is required to present for that event. Although Verbizier also performed some songs, she mostly provided the operatic alternatives, and both halves of the concert ended with duos.
The biggest drawback of the evening was the pianist and his piano. The instrument, to begin with, was a salon "baby" grand, probably dating from the early 20th Century, in relatively good condition, but with a rather flat (as in, two-dimensional) sound, and possibly a slightly sticky action. As for Carré himself, he seemed inordinately self-effacing, almost unsure of himself, and unable to draw anything really convincing from the piano, except once or twice - the Barcarolle from The Tales of Hoffmann came across well, and the piano's sound was particularly well suited to Paulina's Romance from The Queen of Spades. I hope, for Constans's sake, that he was merely having to struggle too greatly with the instrument, and that given a fully functioning concert grand, he will be able to provide better support for their appearance at the competition in November.
Verbizier's sultry, dark timbre also came across best in the Tchaikovsky, and in the "Letter Aria" from Massenet's Werther, but was too heavy for "Di tanti palpiti". She lacks focus on the starts and ends of her phrases, where pitch can waver slightly and syllables can be a little snatched, and also a metallic edge creeps into the sound at places, which was jarring. These are, however, flaws which can be corrected if she's made aware of them, and the overall quality of the voice is pleasing, especially if she tends towards a true contralto, because she does not have the hooting timbre that can so often afflict that voice type.
Constans's bright, fresh soprano largely showed to advantage in her choice of songs. The Fauré ("Clair de lune") and the Schumann ("Widmung") seemed a little perfunctory, and the text of Poulenc's mischievous "Les gars qui vont à la fête" wasn't clear enough, but most of the rest was very good. If Rachmaninoff's "O do not sing" didn't quite ache with homesickness as it ought, the heady languor of Duparc's "Phidylé" was well-delivered, and "Les filles de Cadix" was one of the best I've heard, with just the right degree of coquetry, teasing without being vulgar. Both ladies have engaging personalities that came across nicely, and ensured an agreeable evening's entertainment.
[Next : 15th September]
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