It’s a life’s work, learning to accompany the human voice

Interviews this morning with pianists John Reid and Elizabeth Burgess revealed the magic – and the very serious challenge – of accompanying the human voice.

John is accompanying Sidney Outlaw for tomorrow’s final. An unexpected and delightful partnership is developing between the two; they met for the first time on Saturday and had only an hour’s rehearsal before performing in the preliminary round.

‘You can tell, within about thirty seconds, whether a partnership is going to tick,’ John says. ‘Sidney has real courage and a joy of performing which I find tremendously liberating.’

Elizabeth will be performing with Marcus Farnsworth at tomorrow’s final. She puts her success and her love of accompanying vocal work to her time as organ scholar of Christ Church, Oxford. ‘Remaining at performance standard, day in, day out, improved me immensely,’ she explains. In addition, she developed a keen sense of the complexities and specialness of the human voice.

John, a former chorister, agrees. ‘Each time I come back to the lied, I’m reminded both how natural the form is, and how difficult it is for the pianist: producing the full spectrum of colours within a lower dynamic is a tremendous discipline.’