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| Soprano Fatma Said (Photo: James Bort) |
By Norman Lebrecht
The Egyptian soprano, based in London and Berlin, had a mix of Western and Arabic classical songs on her debut album, illustrating musical connections around the Mediterranean. Her ease in both ethnicities was enviable. To change tracks from microtonal maqam precision to the lushness of Ravel’s Shéhérezade was a hair-raising act of cultural transcendence, achieved without a hair out of place.
Fatma Said’s new album is pure German: Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms. Hard to tell which she adores most. The opening track, ‘Ständchen’, has an arresting liquidity, only to be outshone by ‘Auf dem Wasser zu Singen’. Felix Mendelssohn’s ‘Suleika’ has authentic romanticism, irrefutable in its naive analogy of young lovers and the west wind. Fanny Mendelssohn’s less familiar ‘Suleika’ offers a pin-perfect counterpoint, as apt as it is fresh.
I thought Brahms’s ‘Immer leiser’ might be my favourite track, only for it to be superseded by Schumann’s ‘Liebeslied’. Cut to the chase: whoever signed off the running order on this selection has immaculate taste. Three outstanding pianists are credited with accompaniment – Malcolm Martineau, Yonatan Cohen and Joseph Middleton – along with the Arod Quartet, evergreen clarinetist Sabine Meyer, harpist Anneleen Lenaerts, a male chorus and baritone Huw Montague Rendall. Quite a crowd, but no jostling.
It feels like music-making in a Biedermeier drawing room.
Having written this review, I find myself replaying one song or other each morning for sheer sensual pleasure. Not since the young Bryn Terfel have I so cherished a recital album. Do not delay: get hold of a copy before everyone else raves about it.
First published at Ludwig van (Toronto), January 31, 2025
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