Master Singer

The life of an English teacher is generally not much like that of the eponymous hero of ‘Goodbye Mr. Chips’, or of Hector in Alan Bennett’s ‘The History Boys’, still less like that of  John Keating in ‘Dead Poets Society’. A teacher’s life is likely to be far more humdrum, faced with pupils who very definitely do not love the subject, who want to be told what to think and write, who will not behave, and whose main ambition seems to be to go to an ok university and get a ‘good’ job (i.e. well paid) in ‘the City’. Most of my pupils, if they think of me at all, will probably remember me as being rather lax, particularly where the setting and marking of homework was concerned, and as getting bizarrely excited when talking about literature which left them cold.

And yet… Occasionally I taught boys (I worked in an all-boys’ school) who reminded me why teaching, despite everything, is, without question, the finest and most rewarding job in the world. One group stands out – a sixth form class of extraordinary ability, who pushed each other (and me) to excel. I hope I taught them something; they undoubtedly taught me far more.

All, I think have ‘done well’, some, I am gratified to say, have gone on to teach English or pursue post graduate studies in that subject. One, to my delight, is a singer and is studying at The Royal Academy of Music. So now, let the spotlight shine on Theo Nisbett and his final MA recital in the David Josefowitz Recital Hall at RAM.

In a teaching set full of larger than life personalities, Theo was relatively quiet, but his keen intelligence and great sensitivity always shone through. A Head Chorister at St Paul’s Cathedral, he was later a Bass Academical Clerk at New College Oxford. His recital programme did full justice to this sterling pedigree.

His programme was entitled ‘Sometimes in Visions (Dreams, Mysteries and Revelations)’. It was beautifully conceived and exquisitely delivered by Theo and his exemplary accompanist, Dominika Mak.

We began with a selection from Benjamin Britten’s ‘Song and Proverbs of William Blake’. Still not as well known or as often performed as they deserve to be, Theo sang these superb songs with great sensitivity but with ample power when required, as in the climax of ‘Every Night and Every Morn’: ‘God appears and God is light’. There followed Hugo Wolf’s miraculous setting of Eduard Morike’s ‘Auf ein Altes Bild’ and the tour de force which is ‘Der Feuerreiter’. Dominika Mak’s totally secure virtuosity gave Theo ample opportunity to engage in some vivid word painting as the old mill burns. A gentler mood was established by Theo’s own arrangement of Charles Wesley’s ‘O Lovely Appearance of Death’ and two exquisite French songs, Ravel’s ‘Ronsard a son ame’ and Duparc’s ‘L’invitation au voyage’, all ravishingly sung and played. The comparative rarity, Korngold’s ‘Tanzlied des Pierrots’ from ‘Die Tote Stadt’ was a quirky aural palate cleanser (to mix my metaphors shamelessly) before the ineffable beauty of three of Vaughan Williams’ ‘Five Mystical Songs’. George Herbert is a favourite poet of mine and, while I can’t remember if we studied him together, Theo’s immaculate delivery of Herbert’s miraculous words, still made me very proud. The metaphysical complexities of ‘Easter’ and ‘Love Bade Me Welcome’ were very nicely offset by the calm, assured simplicity of ‘The Call’ – ‘Come my Way, my Truth, my Life’. Here, as throughout the recital, Dominika Mak, was the perfect collaborator.

I found this recital almost unbearably moving. The shy teenager I taught has become a self-assured, highly talented young man and I shall watch his developing career with the keenest interest. At the end, as with D.H. Lawrence in his poem ‘Piano’:

my manhood is cast

Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past.