A week of song

Two delightful song concerts in London this week: Brahms’ Four Serious Songs and Richard Rodney Bennett’s Songs Before Sleep (settings of nursery rhyme texts) with bass Oliver Hunt took the phrase ‘the sublime to the ridiculous’ to a new level; and then Schumann’s Frauenliebe und -leben with mezzo Ciara Hendrick was in a venue so cold we had to perform, glamorously, in coats and scarves. Inspiring to start the year with a week of such wonderful songs.