Youthful promise: four young artists in the Musicians’ Company concerts at Wigmore Hall

Jay Broadhurst (Photo: Julian Guidera)

The Musicians’ Company Concerts: Dani Howard, Francis Poulenc, Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann; Danushka Edirisinghe, George Herbert, Jay Broadhurst, Zany Denyer; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 5 May 2026

Recipients of the Concordia Foundation awards in a concert full of strong performances, and vivid character culminating in a finely poetic account of Schumann’s Dichterliebe by a young tenor who has impressed before.

On Tuesday 5 May 2026, the Musicians’ Company presented a concert by prize winners from the Concordia Foundation Artists Fund at Wigmore Hall. We heard cellist Danushka Edirisinghe and pianist George Herbert in Dani Howard‘s Add Oil, Poulenc’s Sonata for cello and piano and Clara Schumann’s Romance in D flat from her Three Romances, Op. 22 (originally for violin and piano). Then tenor Jay Broadhurst and pianist Zany Denyer performed Schumann’s Dichterliebe.

We first came across Broadhurst last December in Chelsea Opera Group’s 75th anniversary performance of Verdi’s Macbeth when Broadhurst (singing Malcolm) stepped in for an ailing José de Eça (singing Macduff) to give a thrilling performance of Macduff’s Act Four aria [see my review].

Danushka Edirisinghe began with a piece for solo cello by Dani Howard. She was born in Hong Kong and the title of her piece Add Oil is from a Hong Kong expression used to encourage, support or cheer someone on. The piece was commissioned by the Royal Academy of Music for its Bicentenary 200 Pieces Project. It began with rhythmic repeated notes, the odd variation from the single repeated tone gradually developing into short motifs that became increasingly urgent. Edirisinghe played with vividly compelling tone, making the most of the piece’s developing excitement and virtuosity.

Danushka Edirisinghe

Poulenc’s Cello Sonata was written in 1948 and dedicated to Pierre Fournier. The first movement began with a strong cello sound, the two bringing out the work’s highly coloured moments and rapid changes of mood as lyricism and rhythmic energy alternated. The second movement featured ;Edirisinghe’s singing tone over Herbert’s more intimate piano with the middle section turning more strenuous yet Edirisinghe kept the thread of lyricism. The third movement was fast and perky with changeable moods. The opening of the finale moved between strong gestures and mysterious cello harmonics before launching into a perky allegro with the insouciant cello providing strong colours and vivid character.

Edirisinghe and Herbert’s final contribution to the recital was Clara Schumann’s Romance where Herbert’s fluid piano complemented Edirisinghe’s singing line.

Tenor Jay Broadhurst was joined by pianist Zany Denyer for Schumann’s Dichterliebe. ‘Im wunderschönen Monat Mai’ began with Denyer’s wonderfully sympathetic piano with Broadhurst’s intimate evocation of a remembrance of things past. ‘Aus meinen Tränen sprießen’ continued this sense of bittersweet remembrance, an only in ‘Die Rose, die Lilie, die Taube, die Sonne’ did things get up-tempo with vivid projection from both. Broadhurst sang from memory and throughout is diction and sense of the text was excellent. His was quite a histrionic performance without ever veering into the operatic, and he gave us a strong sense of the young poet remembering and regretting.

The sense of melancholy in ‘Wenn ich in deine Augen seh’ did not preclude vibrant tone and a tender ending. There was a baritonal tang to Broadhurst’s timbre which suited the music especially as he combined it with a fine sense of line. For all the lyrical flow of ‘Ich will meine Seele tauchen’ the two performers brought out the sense of underlying emotion. ‘Im Rhein, im heiligen Strome’ was strong indeed and finely expansive.

‘Ich grolle nicht’ was serious and intent contrasting with the lightness of ‘Und wüßten’s die Blumen, die kleinen’. Yet the end of this latter was powerful indeed and Denyer really brought out the emotional undercurrents of the postlude. ‘Das ist ein Flöten und Geigen’ was fast and bitter, intense indeed. Denyer’s spare piano playing in ‘Hör’ ich das Liedchen klingen’ contrasted with Broadhurst’s inward concentrated performance and an intense postlude led to the perky swagger of ‘Ein Jüngling liebt ein Mädchen’ but even here bitterness crept in.

‘Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen’ gave us a moment of pure lyric beauty but Denyer ensured that the motivic complexity of the postlude really told, questioning what we had heard before. The piano turned dark in ‘Ich hab’ im Traum geweinet’ as the poet became desperate, then ‘Allnächtlich im Traume ‘ was pure bitterness and pain. By contrast ‘Aus alten Märchen winkt es’ seemed pure joy until the bitter final verses when the magical land remains out of reach. Denyer’s strong, uncompromising piano in ‘Die alten, bösen Lieder’ complemented the sheer bitter fierceness of Broadhurst’s tone. In the final verse Broadhurst became confiding, still in pain and leaving the final phrase almost suspended in mid-air, to be completed by Denyer’s profoundly moving and rather magical postlude.

This was an impressive and wonderfully engaging performance, the two young artists bringing out the sense of the poet’s youth and the emotional immediacy of Schumann’s settings. Broadhurst wore the poet’s heart firmly on his sleeve, complemented by the wonderful technical proficiency of his lieder singing. This is a voice that promises to develop dramatic depths but here we heard lyrical subtlety. Throughout Denyer was far more than a partner, creating a sense of the piano as co-creator of this cycle. Denyer proved a wonderfully sympathetic Schumann interpreter.