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Review of Benjamin Britten, Sacred and Profane, AMDG, Five Flower Songs, Old French Carol, Choral Dances from Gloriana, Polyphony, Stephen Layton, Conductor

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Review of Benjamin Britten, Sacred and Profane, AMDG, Five Flower Songs, Old French Carol, Choral Dances from Gloriana, Polyphony, Stephen Layton, Conductor Marshall University Marshall Digital Scholar Music Faculty Research School of Music 5-2003 Review of Benjamin Britten, Sacred and Profane, AMDG, Five Flower Songs, Old French Carol, Choral Dances From Gloriana, Polyphony, Stephen Layton, conductor. Hyperion, 2000 Vicki Stroeher Marshall University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://mds.marshall.edu/music_faculty Part of the Musicology Commons Recommended Citation Stroeher, Vickie. Review of Benjamin Britten, Sacred and Profane, AMDG, Five Flower Songs, Old French Carol, Choral Dances From Gloriana, Polyphony, Stephen Layton, conductor. Hyperion, 2001. Choral Journal 43 (May 2003): 59-63, 65. This Review of a Music Recording is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Music at Marshall Digital Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Music Faculty Research by an authorized administrator of Marshall Digital Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. MAY 2003 CHORAL JOURNAL <[email protected]> Benjamin Britten maturity. SacredAnd Profane • A.MD. G. Britten's choral works were composed most often to fulfill commissions, either RECORDING COMPANIES Five Flower Songs • OldFrench Carol THIS ISSUE ChoralDances From Gloriana from church choirs or individuals, or in the commemoration of specific occasions. Arts Music GmbH Polyphony, Stephen Layton, conductor Allegro, agent Recorded in Te mple Church, London, The Five Flower Songs (1950), the first 14134 NE Airport Way on October 6, 1999 and April 26 and 27, selections on the current disc, are a case Portland, OR 97230 in point. Britten composed these pieces 2000 Hyperion: CDA67140, ODD, Deutsche Grammophon 61'26 co honor Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirsc, Universal Classics Group, agent contributors to Britten's English Opera Worldwide Plaza Group, on the occasion of their silver 825 Eighth Avenue Editor's Note: Dr. Vicki Stroeher ex­ New York, NY 10019 pands upon the typical review format wedding anniversary. The texts were cho­ in this discussion of Sacred And Pro­ sen to celebrate the Elmhirsts's fondness Newport Classics, Ltd. for botany. 3 A student choir directed by 11 Willow Sr., #4 fane, drawing upon her extensive dis­ Newport, RI 02840 sertation research for "Form and Imogen Holst, daughter of Gustav Holst Meaning in Benjamin Britten's Sonnet and a tireless employee of Britten, pre­ Philips Classics miered the work outdoors on July 23, Universal Classics Group, agent Cycles," along with materials assembled Worldwide Plaza for publications and through her resi­ 1950. Britten almost certainly knew of 825 Eighth Avenue dency at the Britten-Pears Library in the outdoor arrangements and the inher­ New York, NY 10019 Aldeburgh, England. By linking rel­ ent difficulties they would present, and evant background information with the potential limitations of the student performance considerations of selected vocalists. Accustomed to writing under a sensibility. works, she provides insights meaning­ variety of constraints, however, Britten The cycle gathers poems from seem­ ful to listeners and conductors prepar­ produced some of his most important ingly random although wholly English 4 ing these works for performance. works in just chis way. Five Flower Songs pens, from Robert Herrick to George captures at once the essence of English Crabbe to John Clare, to an anonymous The choral works of English composer part song, the flexibility of young voices, writer of a near bawdy song. For their Benjamin Britten (1913-76), like his ef­ and the joy of singing beautiful, poignant settings, Britten employs a variety of styles fortsin other forms, have been overshad­ melodies and rollicking ballads. Each set­ and techniques, including two-part coun­ owed by his operas. 1 War Requiem, ting is wholly fitting to its subject and terpoint, fagato, word painting, and wist- essentially operatic in character, along with Rejoice in the Lamb, and A Ceremony of Carols, have risen to the top of the choral repertoire and receive the majority of the D'ROOKT.YN attention paid today as concert and re­ cording fare. These, however, obscure a Conservatory of Music, BrooklynCollege I number of other excellent works in " Britten's choral output. Sacred and Pro­ Degree Programs in fane, a release by Stephen Layton and • Music Performance Polyphony, provides a useful glimpse at • Music Education some of Britten's lesser known works for • Performance Practice mixed chorus, including previously un­ • Composition published (and even discarded) juvenilia.2 The recording spans Britten's career with (718) 951-5846 2900 Bedford Avenue works from his school days, his prime, Nancy Hager, Conservatory Director Brooklyn, NY 11210 and his final choral offering, and takes Jonathan Babcock, Director of Choirs [email protected] listeners on a chronological journey through the composer's development and VOLUME FORTY-THREE 59 NUMBER TEN CHORAL JOURNAL MAY 2003 ful,angular melodies. sound that is the "Succession of the Four delight in Britten's text setting, the "strum­ To make this group cohere, requires Sweet Months" and turn "Marsh Flow­ ming" of the guitar and the tolling of an understanding of the sheer individual­ ers" into a poignant sonic event, with wedding bells on "green broom," this ity of each offering.Stephen Layton and precise diction and a jarring rhythmic en­ reading fallsflat. The beginning is so slow Polyphony succeed admirably on this ergy that heightens Britten's dissonances. that it never gains the momentum neces­ count, bringing to the work a maturity The "Ballad of Green Broom," unfortu­ sary for its bacchanalian finish. Indeed, that belies the student performance ori­ nately, suffers under the weight of this the score dictates an accelerando---which gins. The singers capture the richness of same maturity. Rather than conveying some have interpreted to mean execute as fast as possible-but this performance barely increases in speed.5 Too studied and controlled, it lacks rhythmic drive and displays a curious lack of clarity when acceleration does occur. The second work on this recording, A. M D. G., would have never been heard in public, were it not for the efforts of Colin Matthews, Donald Mitchell and Faber Music. In August 1939, while liv­ ing in the United States, Britten wrote the piece for Peter Pears's "Round Table Singers." The intended performance did not take place and Britten never made a www.music-contact.com/Prague fair copy of his sketch for publication Music Contact International 1-800-624-0166 purposes. He later abandoned the work altogether, and in 1976 assigned its in­ tended opus number (17) to a revision of his American opera Paul Bunyan. Whether due to intense self-criticism, as Mervyn Cooke suggests in the recording Multicultural notes, the cancellation of its performance, Adaptations or simply because Britten got caught up Spirituals Classical in other works, notably Peter Grimes, the Jazz/Pop work was buried. Enter Colin Matthews, Tributes who has prepared many of Britten's aban­ Concert doned works for performance and publi­ Operas cation. Through his efforts, the work Secular Gospel received its premiere on August 22, 1984, during the Aldeburgh Festival at The Maltings, Snape by the London SinfoniettaChorus, and was subsequently YVONNE FARROW edited by Colin Matthews and published by Faber (1989). It has received a few Choralographer performances and recordings since and Dramatic Coaching seems, at least for a while, to enjoy its AvaiJabJe for Movement Design renaissance. Although the poems for Choral Riser Performance A. M. D. G. Floor Pattern Movement all stem fromthe hand of Gerard Manley Production Numbers Hopkins they, like Flower Songs, could not be more diverse. From the meditative contact "Rosa Mystica" to the emotive love song www.twinbiz.com "O Deus, ego amo te," to "The Soldier," (click on Choreographer) Britten's eclectic tendencies in text choice or shine through, as does his ability to give Twinbiz each poem individuality within a coher­ PO Box 351881 ent whole. Particularly striking in this re­ Los Angeles, CA 90035 cording are the performances of "Prayer I" with its dissonant clashes, "Rosa VOLUME FORTY-THREE NUMBER TEN 60 MAY 2003 CHORAL JOURNAL Mystica" with its rosary-like chant below Lowestoft Music Society (Britten's home- Britten achieves great effect with minimal the meditator's wandering, but relevant, town) on January 5, 1931, and the com- melodic material. A reviewer of the first thoughts and "The Soldier," which Britten poser revised it at the ripe old age of 21. performance commented, "The music of set aptly as a march. Polyphony is persua- Though there is some naivety and sim- the composition was tuneful and pleas sive in conveying these defining elements, plicity in the melodic writing, the work ing, with a refined delicacy which de The use of straight tone in the soprano in still displays Britten's incredible sense of mands careful treatment."7 There are no "Prayer I" allows the Brittenesque disso- text and style. Britten's writing sometimes special technical difficulties in the work, nances to cut through effectively. Like- seems inevitable in that, once one has but it does demand exactness, particu wise, their precision in "The Soldier" heard his setting of a text phrase, no other larly in the balance of the two choruses, underscores the jaunty rhythms of seems possible. Even in this early work, Britten used antiphonal SATB chorus and Britten's march. The group's rendition of "Rosa Mystica" stands out for its clarity of diction and rhythm, and for its inter pretative insights. The "chanters" provide a distance that suggests meditation and leaves the glossing above it floating as though spontaneous. Two of Britten's The Institute of smaller Sacred Music settings are The Hymn to theat Yale University Virgin (1930) and the Chorale after an Old French Carol (1944). Britten wrote The Hymn to the Virgin in a matter of hours at the age of 16, while still in preparatory school, just prior to his entering the Royal College of Music.6 The work received its premiere by the AA Cappella Cappella? Marguerite L.
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