A well-chosen programme and an attractive proposition for anyone wanting to extend their collection with a representative group of Russian lyrical songs (no Mussorgsky or Prokofiev); also, of course, an interesting debut. Daniil Shtoda has won attention both as a recitalist and a member of the Kirov Opera, though it must be said that his recent appearance at Covent Garden as the Tsar in Rimsky’s Snowmaiden left a somewhat mixed impression. His part in this new recital encourages more confidence, though here too there are qualifications to be registered. More urgently, one would like to hear him with a different pianist.
Larissa Gergieva, strong in touch and personality, may be good for some great prima donna – a Gorchakova or Borodina – but for a young lyric tenor who needs encouragement to sing intimately, nourishing his inner perceptions with sensitivity to the ‘inscape’ of tones and colours, reacting to the rise and fall of phrases, gaining freedom from mere literalism, catching the caress and yearning of these romantic songs, a more discriminating style of piano-playing is wanted. Even apart from the question of what is suitable for a particular singer, the songs themselves deserve a subtler, less muscular treatment. Tchaikovsky’s It was in the early spring, for example, opens and closes with an impulsive figure in the piano part in which Gergieva’s unresponsiveness is shown up by comparison to Roger Vignoles with Joan Rodgers, where not only is there more flexibility but also the perceptiveness to see the left hand as in imitative duet with the right. Repeatedly, comparison with others (Howard Shelley in Rachmaninov especially) exposes this too extrovert style in Gergieva, accomplished and masterful as she is in other respects.
Shtoda also is shown in comparisons as needing to develop a more imaginative expressiveness. In the opening Tchaikovsky group a kind of formality works against the conviction we ought to have that the songs come from within, newly minted. He is at his best in Rachmaninov, often singing most beautifully, as in Before my window, and ending with an effectively dramatic performance of Fragment from Musset. The voice is one to be treated with care (the occasional pressure on high notes gives warning): tenors of this quality are rare. Certainly one would like to hear more of him – and next time, please, with printed texts and translations, or at least synopses