Ailish Tynan and Iain Burnside’s lunchtime recital closed with Somewhere Over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz, followed by Si, mi chiamano Mimì from Puccini’s La Bohème as the single encore, an ending that was as personal as it was touching. Harold Arlen’s famous number from The Wizard of Oz has become both something of an anthem during lockdown and a tribute song to honour workers on the NHS frontline – members of Tynan’s family among them – and she sang it with unforced sincerity and astonishing beauty of tone. The week of the recital, meanwhile, she was originally scheduled to sing her first ever Mimì, at Grange Park Opera, so the aria – taken slowly and exquisitely phrased – was a glimpse of what might have been in a role that, on this showing, suits her down to the ground.
Her voice, with its glorious high notes, has gained something in richness of late. One notices a newfound warmth and expressive freedom in her lower registers, heard to often startling effect in Kennst du das Land?, the last of a group of Hugo Wolf’s Goethe Lieder, which included a rapturous, heady performance of Ganymed.
Grieg’s Op 48 Songs were all sensual refinement and poised lyricism, while a group of traditional Irish ballads, arranged by Herbert Hughes, included a particularly lovely account of the bittersweet I Know Where I’m Going. Over the Rainbow was prefaced by Ives both at his wittiest (Memories) and most touching (Songs My Mother Taught Me), and by Pregnant from Libby Larsen’s striking 2015 song cycle The Birth Project. Burnside, meanwhile, Tynan’s regular recital partner, played with understated elegance and great subtlety throughout.
Available on the Wigmore Hall website and BBC Sounds. The Wigmore Hall lunchtime series continues until 26 June.
