> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.scenemag.co.uk/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# REVIEW: Benson Wilson at Brighton Festival
- URL: https://www.scenemag.co.uk/review-benson-wilson-at-brighton-festival/
- Published: 2021-05-26T10:57:43.000Z
- Updated: 2021-05-26T10:57:43.000Z
- Description: Brian Butler is wowed by the giant voice of New Zealander Benson Wilson
- Author: Brian Butler
- Tags: Arts, Brighton Festival, Music, Reviews, Brighton Dome

One hour was certainly not enough time to hear the magical voice of young New Zealander **Benson Wilson** who sang **Schubert**, **Mahler**, **Britten** and **Ravel** in his lunchtime concert at **Brighton Dome** as part of the **Brighton Festival**.

![](https://www.gscene.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Untitled-22.png)

BENSON WILSON

Brilliantly and sensitively accompanied at the piano by **Lucy Colqhoun**, Benson is the winner of the prestigious **Joan Sutherland** award in 2018 and has a wonderful clarity and purity in his high notes and a rich voice below.

In *Nacht Und Traume* he gave us Schubert’s meditation on night and dreams with a wonderfully light floating section. The dramatic and tragic *Erlkonig,* with its frightening tale of an abducted and murdered child, had a dramatic intensity that filled the hall. And the same composer’s *Im Abendrot* was sad, lilting and gentle by comparison.

Mahler’s *Songs of the Wayfarer* are complex and multi-layered and bring out the huge contrasts in Benson’s stunning vocal range – at once sad, then joyful, then full of high drama.

![](https://www.gscene.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Lucy-Colquhoun.jpg)

LUCY COLQHOUN

On a much lighter note his rendition of Britten’s three folk tunes – *The Salley Gardens*, *The Foggy Foggy Dew* and *The Last Rose Of Summer* were light, whimsical and a joy to hear.

His final selection was three songs Maurice Ravel wrote for a film version of *Don Quixote* and they are – well – Quixotic! At times dissonant, at others drunkenly comic and at others deeply romantic – they were a delight to hear.

As an encore we got a sung prayer from his homeland. Let’s pray he comes back to Brighton soon.

**For more info on Benson [CLICK HERE](http://www.bensonwilson.com/?ref=scenemag.co.uk) or to view Brighton Festival’s final week [CLICK HERE](http://www.brightonfestival.org/?ref=scenemag.co.uk)**