United Kingdom Love Without Borders: A Journey in Three Chapters: Aigul Akhmetshina (mezzo-soprano), Jonathan Palmer Lakeland (piano). Milton Court Concert Hall, London, 30.9.2026. (CC)
While Bashkir/Tatar (and British citizen, as she proudly reminded us from the stage) mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina’s recent Decca disc, Mujer Fatal, with Antonio Pappano on piano, explored the femme fatale and love from a female perspective, this recital, carefully curated by Akhmetshina and Jonathan Palmer Lakeland, shifts the emphasis to Love as a concept and experience in its various forms. From the idealised love of the Romantics to Broadway and music fresh off the page, Akhmetshina and Lakeland took us on an evening in three ‘chapters’: Russian song portraying Love in its idealised aspect; the second exploring its darker aspects of toxicity, harm, heartbreak and loss, and its repercussions (can we stop ourselves loving again as a result?); and finally, love via a fresher, freer perspective.
The first song, ‘Morning,’ is the second of Rachmaninov’s Six Romances, Op.4 and sets M. L. Yonov, who offers a portrait of a radiant world as the Dawn says to the Day, ‘I love you’. Vocally, it was the perfect opening as it starts in the singer’s lowest register – and Akhmetshina’s voice is maximally resonant and secure down there. It acted as a reminder as to just how huge Akhmetshina’s voice is, and how lyrical she can be. The core of this short song was beautifully conveyed,
There is no Rachmaninov on the Decca disc, so good to hear some here, his ‘I Wait for Thee’ (the first of a set of 12 Romances, Op.14, text M. Davidova). It is the perfect complement to ‘Morning’: now, the sun has set, but Nature is again used as the primary metaphor. The protagonist awaits their lover. Akhmetshina was beautifully shaded, dolorous at first, before hope appears via a maximally florid piano part. Lakeland’s tone was thin, though, heard from just over halfway down the hall; the piano said Steinway on the side, but the actual sound somehow did not equate.
Another first of a set of Romances next, but now from the pen of Balakirev: ‘I Loved Him’ the fifth of 10 Romances. It is inspired to include this composer, whose songs bring so much joy. This one is to a text by the short-lived poet Aleksey Vasilievich Koltsov (1808-42, sometimes called ‘the Russian Robert Burns’), a text of incendiary love: ‘I have loved him / more ardently than the day and the fire’. Balakirev’s line is impulsive, ever aspirational in its ascents against a glowering piano. The piece contains more contrasts but is no less Russian. This is a terrific song, and Akhmetshina’s sense of emotional warp and weft was faultless (as it is on her album). Finally for the first chapter, Tchaikovsky, his ‘Whether the Day Reigns,’ the sixth of seven Romances of 1880, its long piano opening well played by Lakeland, Akhmetshina superb in conveying the song’s opening out. This is a song of fervent devotion (‘All my thoughts, feelings, songs and vigour. Always for you!’), the perfect crowning of the first chapter, and positively ecstatic here.
The second ‘chapter’ opened with a Rimsky-Korsakov song – like Balakirev, we desperately need to hear more of this side of his output. ‘Captivated by the Rose’ is from his Four Romances, Op.2 and is another setting of Koltsov. Its long melismas take is to the world of Sheherazade and Tsar Saltan, all so evocatively delivered by Akhmetshina. It is actually the earliest song of the recital (1866 – the first group spanned 1880-96) and positively shines with inspiration in its depiction of a forlorn nightingale. The geography shifts magically to Argentine composer Carlos Guastavino’s La rose y el sauce (The Rose and the Willow, 1942) to a poignant text by Francisco Silva y Valdés. A weeping willow, this – and how cleverly the music’s parallels with the previous song create continuity (the vocal melismatic live, for instance) while the harmonies take us across the globe. A shift then to France and a composer maximally associated with Akhmetshina: Bizet, here Adieux de l’hôtesse arabe (to a text by Victor Hugo, from his 1829 collection, Les Orientales). This song of leave-taking is closely aligned with the musical world of Carmen (that character is Akhmetshina’s signature role) but predates it by nearly a decade. Interestingly, heard in this context, in mode and demeanour it is the French equivalent to the Guastavino, and unsurprisingly, Akhmetshina was perfectly in alignment.
… As she was with Weill’s Je ne t’aime pas, the epitome of French cabaret, a song commissioned by French chanteuse and actress Lys Gauty (who also commissioned Complainte de la Seine). The song puts sing lines with spoken, and Akhmetshina made the most of the contrasts; but there was just the feeling that she was not completely in congruence with Weill. She certainly was in what was ‘probably’ the UK premiere of Elena Roussanova’s 2025 song Mujer Fatal (which gives the Decca album its name). The smoky vocal line is encrusted with diamante roulades on the piano. ‘Love is a sweet, ferocious poison’ is the first line; the melody seeks repeatedly to fly, though, to believe. Roussanova exploits the glory of Akhmetshina’s voice in the aspirational ascents as the protagonist pleads for love to come and stay. The chapter, and the first half, closed with one of Piazzolla’s better pieces, Yo soy Maria, in which Lakeland let his hair down (metaphorically and literally, as Akhmetshina’s tidying afterwards attested) via the many glissandos. It was a moment of pure virtuosity, with Akhmetshina on a parallel crescendo of involvement with the text.
We did all need a bit of an interval after that. Post-rest, a generally more contemporary look at idealised love, with an embedded Rach-and-Tchaik Rückblick: the astonishing melancholy of Rachmaninov’s ‘How Fair This Spot’ (the seventh of 12 Romances, Op.21), Akhmetshina so at home here in this quietly exultant celebration of Nature as reflection of deity (complete with echt-Rach melody in the piano that could almost come from the Second Piano Concerto), and, from two decades plus earlier, ‘Softly the Spirit Flew Up to Heaven’ (Op.47/2), to Tolstoy,
The performance of Britten’s delicious ‘Tell Me the Truth About Live’ from the Cabaret Songs that opened the second part (and third chapter!) was surprisingly lacklustre from both performers (and included a bit of a wrong turn). It is slightly low voltage on the Pappano recording too – and in both, the ‘picking your nose’ line loses its effect. Akhmetshina is better at Gershwin, for sure: The Man I Love by the Gershwins (Ira wrote the words), originally from the 1924 musical comedy Lady Be Good and later Strike Up The Band, but known very much as a song in its own right. This felt almost symphonic in the live performance (more so than on Decca). And more from the Golden Age: Kurt Weill’s ‘Speak Low,’ from the 1943 Broadway musical, One Touch of Venus.
The piece by Lakeland, The Temple Bell Stops … is part of a bigger work in progress for mezzo, choir and orchestra and is the most recent piece here. Tonally-based, a little Impressionist, this is an emotionally wide-ranging piece that surely needs to be heard in the context of Lakeland’s larger canvas – although simple yet effective, it felt a little overwhelmed, sandwiched between Tchaikovsky and Bernstein. It was this last’s lovely ‘Somewhere’ from West Side Story which eventually put us back on track (I say ‘eventually’ because of a slightly rocky start from Akhmetshina) before Julie Styne’s People, with its extraordinary lyrics by Bob Merrill. A lovely song, and the perfect end to a thought-provoking programme.
Clearly, a lot of effort over many months has gone into this programme, and Akhmetshina remains a guiding light of the contemporary vocal landscape. But surprisingly, the evening felt a little unfinished; not quite there yet. Nearly, for sure, but still as yet not fully realised.
Colin Clarke
Rachmaninov – Morning, Op.4/2 (1891); I Wait for Thee, Op.14/1 (1894); How Fair the Spot, Op.21/7 (1902)
Balakirev – Romances: No.5, I Loved Him (1896)
Tchaikovsky – Whether the Day Reigns, Op.47/6 (1880); Softly the Spirit Flew Up to Heaven, Op. 47/2 (1880)
Rimsky-Korsakov – Captivated by the Rose, Op.2/2 (1866)
Guastavino – La rosa y el sauce (1942)
Bizet – Adieux de l’hôtesse arabe (1866)
Weill – Je ne t’aime pas (1934); One Touch of Venus – Speak Low (1943)
Piazzolla – Maria de Buenes Aires (1968): Yo soy Maria
Britten – Cabaret Songs (1938) – Tell Me The Truth About Love
Gershwin – The Man I Love (1924)
Lakeland – The Temple Bell Stops … (2025)
Bernstein – West Side Story (1957) – Somewhere
Styne – Funny Girl – People (1963)