Concert Heaven Concert Hell

Top artists recall their best and worst performances

- Charlotte Smith Editor

THIS MONTH Kitty Whately mezzo-soprano

CONCERT HEAVEN Careful the tale you tell

My 'Concert Heaven' choice is a recital called 'Careful the tale you tell' with my parents, Kevin Whately and Madelaine Newton, who are actors, and the pianist Simon Lepper. It was about fairy tales, and my parents were reading poetry that complemented the songs.

Obviously, we hadn't been performing much in the months running up to this, in 2020, when so many gigs were cancelled. Being on stage with my parents and being able to make music after such a long time made this concert really special.

It was also very strange as there was no audience in the Wigmore Hall. John Gilhooly, who runs the hall, was the only person in the audience. It sort of felt like a 70-minute audition. I would usually really engage with the audience and, with this fairy-tale programme, tell them the stories, so I had to do that to a lot of empty chairs. I remember one festival actually put photos of people all over the chairs, so it looked like an audience.