A great Wigmore Hall Concert but a day of two parts and not a single picture taken..

I set off this morning with great excitement to meet Pete for  a new (for me) London Church to discover and a Lieder concert - both firsts for me.

The train was 5 minutes late at my local station... it got later at each station we arrived at.. walking would seem faster.  At one station an apology was made for the lateness of the train... this accompanied by the announcement that the train was waiting for a crew member to arrive.. they wouldn't get for another 15 minutes -so yet another delay which was now impacting on viability of Plan A...

We finally got going - now 30 minutes late.  After conferring with Pete I decided that it would be have to be Plan B..better to give the Church visit a miss - timing too tight... so went directly to Wigmore.. for a coffee and then some rather nice Tuscan soup at Pret.  So 2 hours on a train!!!!

And so into Wigmore for some music,

I've never been to a concert with a solo singer before so didn't really know whether I was going to enjoy it or not.  BUT  - thoroughly enjoyed the entire concert.

The soprano Christiane Karg was beautifully accompanied by the pianist Gerold Huber.

We started with Hugo Wolf's Mignon Lieder 1 - III - as it began I wasn't sure, but by the time the third piece has ended I was hooked!!

This was followed by Brahms
-  Wie erkenn' ich den Treulieb WoO 22 No. 1 and Sein Leichenhemd weiss WoO.22 No 4.

Now the turn of Richard Strauss
- Wie erkenn' ich mei nTreulieb Op. 67 No. 1 before back to

Brahms
- with Auf Morgen ist Sankt Valentins Tag WoO, 22 No. 3

To follow we had Richard Strauss again with -
Guten Morgen, 's ist Sankt Valentinstag Op. 67 No 2

and the Brahms
Sie trugen ihn auf der Bahre Bloss WoO,22 No 4 and
Und kommt er icht mehr zuruck? Woo.22 No. 5.

Strauss again with -
Sie trugen ihn auf der Bahre bloss Op.67 No. 3

The turn then of  Saint-Saens with the haunting  La mort d'Ophelie

Now the turn of Reynaldo Hahn.. a composer with whom I'm not familiar , and Lyde from Etudes latines and A Chloris, and Seraphine

and to close - we had Henri Duparc Phidyle and Romance de Migon.

Such a beautiful voice brought magic to the music... a superb singer and I would love to hear more from Christiane...

So despite the rather disappointing start, with not a single picture being taken from either of the cameras I took with me... a very rewarding and most enjoyable concert - and being treated to an encore as well :D   .... bring it on :D ..