Just occasionally, musicians rise above excellence to a level that sums up the best in what people can do and can be. Before tonight, I'd seen this three times - Louis Armstrong, late in life at the Hammersmith Odeon; a recital by Segovia at the Festival Hall in which his hands and fingers seemed to flow, gently but without pause, for three hours; Sir Thomas Allen with Sir Simon Rattle and the CBSO in Don Giovanni; and now himself, Dame Felicity Lott, and their wonderful, lyrical accompanist Eugene Asti in the finale of this year's Cambridge summer music festival.
The format was their practised and highly successful "Knight and Dame", which offers mostly classical songs in the first half, and mostly popular songs in the second. It's played both seriously and for fun, this time with Purcell, sea songs, Bridge and Schumamm followed by Saint-Saens, Poulenc and Faure, then moving, via John Wilson's arrangements of All the Things You Are and The Folks Who Live on the Hill, to a series of popular songs leading up to People Will Say We're in Love.
That's more or less what they did - how they did it was something else. The classical pieces had clarity, sensitivity and verve, sustained by piano playing as lyrical and expressive as the singing. Mr Asti would have been - no doubt, is - a phenomenal soloist, but in this company he became an inseparable part of the blend, at times breathtakingly quick (Dame Felicity's breath, at the end of Messager's De Ci, De La), at others quietly, expressively precise, holding everything together, singing into himself as he did so, as many conductors do. His illustrious partners quite rightly put him in the centre more than once for the loud applause that punctuated and celebrated the evening. This was the best piano accompaniment of singers I've ever heard, and made the difficult, pale-textured Estuary by Head a real showstopper for Sir Tom.
Dame Felicity's soaring, glittering French would justify her Légion d'Honneur if she could not sing a note. Put together with her rich voice, perfect stagecraft, gorgeous appearance and partnership with the best actor on the operatic stage, it was simply unforgettable. Then a hint of a sway, one tap of a foot and she was a vamp - more Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered than Ella Fitzgerald and more alluring than Billie Holiday. Sir Tom's knack of getting the most out of the smallest gesture, fixing our attention even when three-quarters turned away from us, meant that between them they brought out everything from each duet, and especially from People Will Say We're in Love. This is reputed to be the "our song" of the Queen and Duke, though HRH apparently told Ken Dodd that he'd never heard it in his life. We can only hope they get to hear this version.
"We sing opera, 'Er and Me," said Sir Tom, introducing one of the encores, La Chi Darem La Mano, which again brought together that wonderful combination of stagecraft and glorious voice that made it seem not just as if they were living it, but as if we were too. At the end, a kiss on the forehead for Flotte was just enough to remind us that it was stagecraft. Ah yes, I remember it well, perfect, by turns flamboyant - Dame Felicity's Spanish flourish - and subtly touching in the ensemble singing, was the right conclusion. If Hepburn and Tracey had seen it, they would have been torn between envy and admiration. Remember it well. We certainly will. I think they might, too.
