Focus on Shostakovich: tenor Oliver Johnston's fearlessness & challenge, plus speaker Philip Ross Bullock in engaging form at the Oxford International Song Festival

Oliver Johnston

Britten: Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, Shostakovich: Six romances on texts by Japanese poets, Elena Langer: Two Mandelstam Songs, Mahler: Des Knaben Wunderhorn; Oliver Johnston, Natalie Burch
Shostakovich: A life in Song: Philip Ross Bullock, Katy Thomson, Rustam Khanmurzin
Holywell Music Room, Oxford International Song Festival
Reviewed 22 October 2025

Shostakovich was very much the focus with a lecture-recital alongside a recital from Oliver Johnston whose fearless performances with his relish for the text brought Shostakovich and Britten's work alive

Wednesday 22 October at the Oxford International Song Festival had something of a Slavic flavour to it, with a focus on Shostakovich whose anniversary is being celebrated. At lunchtime tenor Oliver Johnston and pianist Natalie Burch gave a recital which paired Britten with Shostakovich alongside a new work by Elena Langer whose work also featured in the evening programme. The afternoon was devoted to Shostakovich with a lecture recital by Philip Ross Bullock.

My experience of Oliver Johnston's singing has largely been through opera, he was Don Jose in Opera Holland Park's Carmen, Turiddu in Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana at Blackheath Halls Opera and Bob Boles in Britten's Peter Grimes at Welsh National Opera. When opera singers go into the concert hall, the results can sometimes lack the edge that they bring to their opera performances, but Johnston's lunchtime recital with pianist Natalie Burch on 22 October 2025 at the Holywell Music Room as part of the Oxford International Song Recital had a wonderful fearlessness about it and a sense of challenge, both to him and us. 

He began with Britten's Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo (1940), then moved on to Britten's friend and contemporary Shostakovich with Six romances on texts by Japanese poets (1932), then the premiere of Elena Langer's Two Mandelstam Songs and finally a group of Mahler's songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn.

Throughout the recital, whether singing in Italian, Russian or German, Johnston displayed a remarkable relish for the words, not only projecting them but absorbing them into the musicality of his performance, and also the physicality of his presentation. I have no idea of his familiarity with Renaissance Italian, Russian or German folk-poetry, but his manner convinced us and let us know that every syllable set by the composers really mattered.

Britten's settings of Michelangelo were written for Peter Pears, though there is an argument that the progress of the sonnets reflects Britten's coming to terms with his homosexuality and with the more lyrical final sonnet suggesting more satisfactory new relationship with Pears. In performance they are often associated with lyric voices like that of Pears, but they are not restrictive.

Here, Oliver Johnston opened the Sonnet XVI with firm vibrant tones and a sense of operatic drama. There was a real vividness and immediacy to the performance and this certainly was not a conventional lieder voice. I appreciated his willingness to vary his tone, so along with a firmness of line there were some fabulous floated pianissimo moments. In Sonnet XXXI we got to appreciate bags of temperament, fast and vivid almost operatic with the sense of him living the meaning of the words. Sonnet XXX was light yet vibrant, with the beauty of the quiet moments coming over. Sonnet LV was strongly rhythmic and dramatic with Johnston and Burch giving the music real presence and again, lots of temperament. In Sonnet XXXVIII, Burch's nervous piano supported Johnston's tightly controlled voice, yet there were moments of release too as if he were straining to hold the voice in. Sonnet XXXII was vibrant and intense. This was a tour de force both technically and emotionally, as Johnston delivered the fast chatter all the while conveying the rapidly changing emotions. For Sonnet XXIV with its sequence of rhapsodic, virtually unsupported vocal ariosos, Johnson gave us thrilling tone and a lovely freedom. We ended with a quiet intensity, yet still with words being prominent.

Shostakovich's Six romances on texts by Japanese poets Op. 21a set Russian translations by Aleksandr Nikolayevich Brandt of Japanese poems both anonymous and by Ohotsuno Ozi (663-686). The songs were dedicated to Shostakovich's first wife. Here, in Russian as in the earlier Italian, Johnston really invested in the words.

The first song, 'Love' presented us with vibrantly intense free arioso against wide-ranging but rather austere piano. For all the title was 'Love', I was not sure the music reflected that. Passion and deep feelings, yes, but warmth? The second song was even more disturbing, 'Before committing suicide'. This was dark and uncompromising, almost a dramatic declamation with Johnson and Burch's performances developing into something remarkably fierce. With 'An immodest glance' we were in more lyrical territory, lighter with a hint of seduction. Yet Johnston's performance was still vivid and the piano surprisingly stark. 'For the first and last time' had a quiet intensity to it, strong feelings held in. At the end, a darkness in the piano complemented the gloomy intensity of Johnston's voice. 'Hopeless love' had a quiet simplicity to the vocal line yet the piano writing was highly wrought, almost evoking Bach. And this continued with 'Death' where Johnston sung 'I am dying' in a haunted monotone.

Elena Langer's Two Mandelstam Songs were a new commission, dedicated to Andrew Kahn who has written a major book on Osip Mandelstam. 'Scherzo' featured a Jewish musician obsessively practising Schubert yet there is the shadow of the gulag hanging over him. Langer did not emulate Schubert but her piano part had the right sense of obsessiveness to it. Johnston brought a lovely scherzando swagger to the music, yet as the story developed there was a quiet intensity as well, leading to an ending where the repeated 'Nothing matters' suggested a lot with minimal resources. By contrast, 'Ray of Light' began with Burch's piano creating a light, high web of sound. over which Johnston floated the quiet, yet vivid vocal line. There was a seductive feel here, and his typical relish for the words. As the song developed, Langer gave us a fascinating combination of textures and the performers complemented her with some real intensity of feeling.

We ended on more familiar territory, Mahler's songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Whilst these were a welcome chance to hear Johnston in more familiar, lighter songs there was something about his relish for language that made me wish to hear him singing English. 'Rheinlegendchen' had a lovely swagger to it, along with vivid words allied to a vibrant melody, with Johnston and Burch giving us a sense of character and story telling. 'Verlorne Muh' again had strong character, with Johnston finding the right voices for both he and she. 'Das Irdische Leben' began with anxiety in the piano and a sense of character as Johnston invested in the words and the drama. Finally, something lighter, 'Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt' with Johnston showing he is a born story teller giving the words with relish and a lovely comic swagger.

Shostakovich remained the focus for the afternoon event at Holywell Music Room, when Philip Ross Bullock gave a lecture recital with soprano Katy Thomson and pianist Rustam Khanmurzin. Thomson and Khanmurzin gave performances of a wide range of Shostakovich's songs from Two Fables of Kyrlov from 1922 to Six Poems of Marina Tsetayeva of 1973. In between Bullock introduced us to Shostakovich's song writing, which is not as well known as it ought to be. In fact, Shostakovich was widely read and could quote vast tracts of poetry by heart. But the official response to his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk rather soured his response to words, not helped by the fact that in the 1920s and early 1930s, the official viewpoint was the poetry was bourgeois. All this changed with the centenary of Pushkin in 1937, when poets were encouraged to learn from the past.

The result was a series of song cycles where the poets cleaved to Socialist Realism. Though Shostakovich's writing was often much influenced by his film writing (which gave him an ability to turn a memorable melody) And Bullock told a lovely story of the composer, in London in the late 1960s, ditching his minders and going to see Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar! Shostakovich's contemporaries such as the poet Anna Akhmatova hated his Socialist Realism songs, but from the 1960s he is more interested in the poetic word. Lady Macbeth is rehabilitated and there is a late blossoming of song. The composer's position, his party membership and the fact that though not old he was ill allowed him to push the boundaries of what was acceptable.

The sung contributions were all vividly performed by Thomson and Khanmurzin who brought vivid character and a sense of meaning to all the varied styles. First the Two Fables of Kyrlov. The perky chatter of 'The Dragonfly and the Ant' and vivid narrative of 'The ass and the nightingale'. Then we turned to Pushkin, A youth and a maiden lyrical and intriguing with a touching ending with a haunting piano postlude.

We then moved to the Socialist Realism era. We heard two of the Six Romances on Verses by British Poets, first 'Jenny' setting Burns in a charming folk-like way, then 'The grand old duke of York' with its vigorous strong rhythms. Next 'Lullabye' from the Jewish Folk Poetry Op.79 from 1943. But Bullock explained that with the advent of greater antisemitism in USSR, Shostakovich withdrew the songs for a period. This song had a subtle rhythmic lilt in the piano and a haunting melody. Lullabye, setting Evgeny Dolmatovsky had a lyric beauty to it though it was more conventional. 'Ronda' from the Spanish Songs was delightfully dance inspired, the material having originated with a refugee from the 1936 Spanish civil war. Finally in this group, Dream where Shostakovich's lyrically attractive writing hinted at Faure in the piano.

Next came the Satires Op. 109 setting texts by Sasha Chorny (1880-1932), a poet who had emigrated after the October Revolution and in the 1960s his work, though still daring was being republished. There was a riskiness to these songs, and a satirical edge very much in contrast to the instrumental music Shostakovich was writing at the time. 'To the critic' gave us brilliant story telling and a satirical narrative relished by Thomson and Khanmurzin, and they were wonderfully over the top in 'The Awakening of Spring'. 'Descendants' had a slow build to it, a picture of the poet steadily overwhelmed. There was a delightfully comic narrative to 'A misunderstanding' rather like a mini operatic scene, whilst 'The Kreutzer Sonata' managed to alternate moments of delightful waltz with more vividly over the top moments.

The final two songs took us into Shostakovich's late period. From Seven Romances on Poems of Alexander Blok, written for Galina Vishnevskaya, we heard 'Gamayun, the Bird of Prophecy' an intense, vibrant performance that took us into a different world where voice, piano and music coalesced into something powerful and special. Then 'To Anna Akhmatova' from Six Poems of Marina Tsvetayeva was bleak and powerful, leaving us wishing to hear these performers in more.

Bullock was wonderfully engaged in his subject and made an engaging speaker, his words illuminated by the terrific performances from Thomson and Khanmurzin.

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