Catherine Bott does not possess the most effortless voice in the business, yet in this imaginative concert entitled Haydn at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens she brilliantly underlined that it's not what you've got, but how you use it.
While many angelic sopranos in this situation would have been as wooden as the famous Chippendale curtains in the Harewood House art gallery, every phrase and carefully placed decoration confirmed Bott's irrefutable integrity. She took a little while to warm up in two of Haydn's English songs, although her high notes were formidably sustained, and her emotive, breathy interpretation suited the sufferings of a sighing pastoral lover. Haydn did not specifically compose any music for the entertainments at Vauxhall Gardens, unlike William Boyce. Bott's agile coloratura was comfortable with the demands of Boyce's music. Her semi-elaborate ornamentation was exemplary throughout the recital.
Co-conspirator David Owen Norris provided animated accompaniments, and stretched the dynamic envelope of his fortepiano. Occasionally Norris exaggerated effects too much, yet it is fair to observe that much of the music on offer was never intended to be subtle. For instance, Bott and Norris did not take Johann Christian Bach's masterfully trivial song, Ah, Seek to Know, very seriously. Instead of making extravagant claims for its greatness as high art, they simply played it for laughs and had tremendous fun.
Songs by James Hook and Thomas Linley were given the same comic yet affectionate treatment. Bott's most endearing quality is her skill at communicating with her audience, both through her theatrically physical singing and approachable witty banter. She observed that much of this music "features possibly the most banal lyrics ever, and was intended to be sung while people were drunk, gambling, and snogging". Naturally, the Harewood audience was rather more polite and attentive, yet regular soft chuckling enhanced the elegant environment.
Bott's emotional and entirely serious delivery of Haydn's cantata Arianna a Naxos leapt into a sublime and powerful musical world. Yet, like the lighter songs, it proved Bott is in a class of her own as a performer who can communicate. This was not a highfalutin recital despite some sophisticated elements yet, perhaps like an evening at the pleasure gardens, it found ample justification in being a charming and entertaining experience.
