Louise Alder & Joseph Middleton - Lines Written During a Sleepless Night review | Erica Jeal's classical album of the week

The Guardian 100

(Chandos)
Alder’s glorious soprano is wonderfully supported by Middleton’s expressive piano in songs by Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky, Medtner and Britten

Here’s a really lovely disc from two of classical song’s brightest artists. The soprano Louise Alder and pianist Joseph Middleton start with Rachmaninov and end with Britten, taking in Sibelius, Grieg, Tchaikovsky and Medtner on the way; the music’s geographical progress mirrors the journey Alder’s great-grandparents made as refugees in 1916, from Odessa to Finland, Norway and finally Britain. Alder describes it as a “meandering sleigh ride”, though if that conveys the unhurried way in which these well-chosen songs lead into one another it doesn’t quite do justice to the focus with which they come across. Alder is in glorious voice, her soprano fresh and untethered; the assurance of youth and the doubt born of experience come across equally convincingly. Her high notes gleam, and her words are direct and communicative, whether in Russian, Swedish, German or French.