Eimear Mangan (mezzo soprano) Patrick Zuk (piano)

There can be few things more daunting than giving a recital of songs, especially when an extremely wide range of sympathy is called for, not to mention proficiency in various languages. Eimear Mangan has a vocal technique and personality well able to grapple with the problems offered by composers as diverse as Rossini, Donizetti, Mendelssohn, Duparc, Richard Strauss and Frank Bridge. She has a happy knack of bringing out the drama in the songs without excessive emphasis or any straining of the voice, and on Wednesday of last week in the NCH John Field Room she had as accompanist Patrick Zuk, whose velvet touch can bring out the best in even unresponsive pianos.

The bel canto songs by Rossini and Donizetti were sung with a refreshing naturalness which made light of their florid decorations. More testing were three songs by Duparc; one would have appreciated a little more of the luxe, calme et volupte mentioned in L'invitation au Voyage, but her treatment of the sometimes contradictory textual and melodic accents in Chanson Triste was masterly.

The four songs by Mendelssohn had the requisite lightness, with just a hint of profound feelings, and made an interesting contrast with Strauss's overblown sentimentality. Mendelssohn's witches and fairies may be less credible than the lovers described by Strauss, but they are more acceptable. The flowers in the latter's songs are of the hothouse variety.

Three of the four songs by Bridge are heard too often at recitals, but What Shall I Your True Love Tell, despite its extraordinary mixture of dictions, now folksy, now refined, was made most moving by the music and by a superlative performance.