Toronto Summer Music: Songs by Duparc, Fauré, Debussy, Lili Boulanger, Amy Beach, Déodat de Séverac, Jeanne Landry, Nadia Boulanger, Pauline Viardot, Mel Bonis, Pierre de Bréville, Marguerite Canal. Mary Bevan, soprano; Roger Vignoles, piano. Walter Hall, July 14, 2025.
A major component of the annual Toronto Summer Musical Festival is its Art of the Song program, which includes an Academy wing that offers intensive training for aspiring singers and collaborative pianists.
Each year, two established professionals, a singer and a pianist, serve as mentors in the Academy. They also give a recital to the TSM public. Over the years, we’ve heard many outstanding Canadian and international artists in performance.
This year, the Art of Song guests are two well known UK artists, soprano Mary Bevan and pianist Roger Vignoles. While Vignoles has performed in Canada multiple times, I have a feeling that this might be Ms. Bevan’s Canadian recital debut. Last evening, an enthusiastic crowd of song lovers were treated to a delectable program of art songs in the intimate, 495-seat Walter Hall.
The Program
It was an interesting program of songs about love, composed by well known male composers, contrasted with songs by more obscure women composers. That said, names such as Pauline Viardot, Nadia Boulanger and Amy Beach hardly need introductions these days. It’s a testament to the changing times and the increasing recognition of the contribution of women song composers.
Mary Bevan has recorded quite a few of these songs in a Signum Classics CD that came out in 2017. You can find a taste of it on YouTube here. Just like her CD, she sounded lovely last evening in some of these songs, offering a felicitous mix of beauty of tone and communicative power. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWxS7kUIwm8&list=RDFWxS7kUIwm8&start_radio=1
Performance
Her delivery has remarkable intensity, through her voice as well as through facial expression and body language. Some of these songs have almost operatic moments, which she delivered with aplomb.
Some are well known, such as Duparc’s “L’Invitation au voyage” and “Romance de Mignon.” For the less familiar ones, the surtitles came in handy. That said, it was strange that song titles were omitted in the projections.
Bevan is a very fine recitalist, without question. But, perhaps in her aim to produce the loveliest sounds possible, her delivery of the text was not ideally clear. It was difficult to make out the words. While it could be my poor French, but not entirely; I also noticed that in the single encore, it took me awhile to figure out it was sung in English!
Final Thoughts
Another point — while I appreciate the thematic nature of the program, I would have liked a bit more variety and contrast in the songs — the inclusion of one or two happy songs would have been nice!
Through it all, Mr. Vignoles was the rock-solid, supportive pianist. He has been to TSM before, and it is always a pleasure to hear him play. I look forward to his upcoming masterclass.
The concert was relative short, with under an hour of music. The audience showed its appreciation with huge ovations, especially from the young members. A great way to spend a summer evening.
- There are plenty of wonderful concerts to come between now and August 2 at Toronto Summer Music; find details [HERE].
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