Three talented postgraduate students from the Royal Northern College in Manchester have entertained Dolgellau Music Club.

Soprano Ellie Forrester, tenor Oscar Bowen-Hill and pianist Madeleine Brown performed at Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor on Friday, 31 October, delighting their audience with a well-planned, varied programme of art song mixed with short piano solos.

Club member Ben Ridler said: “One effective idea was to progress from a piano solo to songs by the same composer. In the first half Madeleine played one of Rachmaninov's Moments Musicaux (Op. 16 No. 5 in D flat major), following which Ellie presented (in Russian) three of his songs – Lilacs, The Soldier's Wife and A Dream.

“The two musicians deployed great skill in showing something of the sheer range of Rachmaninov's creativity, from rich pianism to romantic hiraeth (Lilacs, Dreams) to subtle pathos. The Soldier's Wife has been married to and separated from a now-conscripted orphan lad, facing a life alone – Ellie put this brief tale across most poignantly. “Madeleine opened the second half with Debussy's sparkling evocation of Spain in La Puerta del Vino plus two more Preludes, to be joined by Ellie in his settings of Verlaine's Fantoches and Mandoline, vividly conjuring a world of elegantly costumed serenaders.

“It was a good choice too to end the opening set of three Strauss songs with that composer's much-loved Allerseelen, fitting for the occasion of All Hallows' Eve.

“A centrepiece of the evening was Oscar's performance with Madeleine of Beethoven's six-song cycle of 1816 An die Ferne Geliebte, the very first through-composed song cycle as such.

“We most often associate Beethoven with bravura works such as his 5th Symphony or the Hammerklavier Sonata but here he is at his most tender and lyrical, Oscar's clear tenor line capturing beautifully the youthful mix of joy in love and pain at separation, sentiments deeply embedded in imagery of hills, clouds, birds, brooks.... Madeleine's realisation of the ever-shifting piano part was a delight – it was hard to imagine it being played better. A good contrast was later achieved in Oscar's selection of five light songs by Arthur Honegger, Petit Cours de Morale, poised and witty. This led to an exuberant final section introduced with panache by Ellie in Madeleine Dring's evergreen Song of a Nightclub Proprietress ('The ashtrays were unemptied, The cleaning unattempted'), and Britten's Highland Balou, Ellie very much at home in the Burns text ('Syne to the Highlands hame to me!') from her native Scotland.

“Britten's arrangement of three English folksongs gave Oscar another chance to shine, some unexpected touches of decoration in She's Like a Swallow showing the lustre of his highest register.

“Opera made for the perfect conclusion: Ellie vocally rich but also emotionally truthful in Puccini's O mio Babbino Caro, and both Ellie and Oscar suitably ecstatic in Nino Rota's Parla Più Piano/'Speak Softly Love' (from The Godfather) – Madeleine unerringly supportive as ever. “Relaxed spoken introductions put the audience at their ease throughout, and warm applause at the end left the three musicians in no doubt that they could chalk up their visit as 'mission accomplished'.”