8.111373-75 Bk Bach-Ferrier EU 8.111373-75 Bk Bach-Ferrier EU 20/11/11 23.09 Pagina 8
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8.111373-75 bk Bach-Ferrier_EU_8.111373-75 bk Bach-Ferrier_EU 20/11/11 23.09 Pagina 8 Parsons. Reginald Jacques again conducted his own Kathleen Ferrier’s Bach may not be what we expect 8.111373-75 orchestra, choral support was given by the Cantata of a 21st century contralto (of whom there are, anyway, Singers and the recording engineers were Kenneth all too few); but it set a standard that others have seldom GREAT SINGERS • FERRIER ADD Wilkinson and Arthur Bannister. reached, in richness of sound and nobility of Both cantatas were issued in two formats and it was performance. It is indeed the best of her, as she herself soon noticed by The Gramophone’s reviewer that the expressed with totally justified candour. 78rpm versions were quite different ‘takes’ from their 3 CDs 33rpm counterparts; it is from the 33rpm recording that Paul Campion BACH the performance of BWV 67 on this CD is taken. Ferrier’s contribution to the cantata is modest – little over two minutes of recitative in total – but her presence Paul Campion is the author of Ferrier – A Career St Matthew Passion adds grace and distinction to what was, in its time, an Recorded, a detailed and annotated discography, innovative recording. When released in August 1950, published by Thames in 2005. With acknowledgments Cantata ‘Hold in affection Jesus Christ’, BWV 67 the original 10” LP was among the very earliest 33rpm to Letters and Diaries of Kathleen Ferrier, edited by Dr discs to be issued by Decca. It is presented here in its Christopher Fifield, published by Boydell and Brewer in first ever CD re-issue. a newly revised and enlarged paperback edition in 2011. Kathleen Ferrier Elsie Suddaby • Eric Greene • William Herbert • Henry Cummings The Kathleen Ferrier Society William Parsons • Bruce Boyce • Gordon Clinton A Centenary Celebration Cantata Singers • The Bach Choir • Jacques Orchestra Kathleen Ferrier was one of the greatest British singers of the 20th century. For ten years she enjoyed an Reginald Jacques unparallelled career, admired equally for the generous warmth and sincerity of her interpretations as for her uniquely splendid contralto voice. In 2012, Kathleen Ferrier’s Centenary year, orchestras, choirs and individual performers throughout the United Kingdom are paying tribute to her and celebrating the glories of her voice and musical triumphs. During the year there will be concerts, recitals, lectures and exhibitions dedicated to Kathleen Ferrier’s memory, given by musicians who admire her artistic legacy. The Kathleen Ferrier Society is co-ordinating many of these events. For further details about these, and for more information about Kathleen Ferrier herself, please see: www.kathleenferrier.org.uk 8.111373-75 8 8.111373-75 bk Bach-Ferrier_EU_8.111373-75 bk Bach-Ferrier_EU 20/11/11 23.09 Pagina 2 Kathleen Ferrier (1912-1953) singing. The bass William Parsons (1907-1975) was today. The performance was, of course, sung in English similarly successful during a distinguished career; he as the custom of the time dictated; it was not until 1950 In a career of just ten years Kathleen Ferrier gained a annulment of her marriage in 1947. sang in opera and performed regularly with Ferrier in in Vienna that Ferrier sang her first St Matthew Passion reputation as one of the greatest British singers of the Ferrier sang in Britten’s Rape of Lucretia at oratorios by Bach and Handel and in Ferrier’s only in German. twentieth century and at the time of her death was Glyndebourne Opera in 1946 and, the following year, performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, under Work at these sessions must have been tiring and said to be the second most famous woman in the returned there for performances of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Bruno Walter in November 1947. In addition to these intense; time was limited and things had to be right. country, next only to the Queen. Euridice, gaining great personal success. The German soloists, the Canadian-born bass Bruce Boyce (1910- Happily, Kathleen Ferrier, with her customary good Born in Lancashire, Ferrier was brought up in conductor, Bruno Walter, invited her to appear at the 1996) sang briefly in recitatives recorded in 1947 but did humour, lightened the atmosphere in a way that was Blackburn. Although she always enjoyed singing, it first Edinburgh Festival in 1947 in Mahler’s Das Lied not take part in 1948. Instead, basses Henry Cummings reported by a member of the choir, Clare Campbell, in a was through her piano playing that her natural von der Erde, which became one of her ‘signature’ (1906-1989), who sang Jesus, and Gordon Clinton memoir published in The Gramophone in February musicianship was first evident. In 1937 she entered interpretations. During three North American visits (1912-1988) completed the cast in 1948, with The Bach 1956. Miss Campbell recalled: ‘I remember her seeming the Carlisle Music Festival and, amazed, won both she won a popular following and she was a favourite Choir again much in evidence, the whole performance to wage a veritable war against the microphone — the piano and vocal classes; this led to singing lessons with audiences throughout Europe, and especially in being conducted by Reginald Jacques (1894-1969). although during the lunch intervals she was sufficiently in Newcastle upon Tyne with Dr J. E. Hutchinson, the Netherlands, which she visited often. Indeed, Jacques led that excellent Choir between 1932 relaxed to be seen squirting cherry stones at the tenor who schooled her natural contralto voice and Special highlights in Ferrier’s career were and 1960 and had founded the Jacques Orchestra in soloist… How tired she would look at times while introduced her to challenging new repertoire. performances at the 1950 Vienna Bach Festival, with 1936. His work as a choral conductor, particularly in waiting for that ominous repeat signal — and yet as soon After the outbreak of war, Ferrier sang for the Karajan, during which the conductor was seen to music of the eighteenth century, was highly innovative as she reached the microphone, the song she was about Council for the Encouragement of Music and the weep during the Agnus Dei from the B Minor Mass, for its time, though later overtaken by further to sing was once again the most important thing in the Arts, travelling extensively to perform in churches such was the beauty of her singing. A few months scholarship and the search for greater authenticity in world. I have never felt from any performer a greater and halls to support the local war effort. She appeared later cancer was diagnosed and she underwent performance. sense of concentration, as though the entire resources of in oratorios such as Messiah and Elijah, explored the debilitating treatment. Although she maintained a All the sessions were under the charge of Victor her personality were being lavished upon what she was world of German Lieder and learned a host of busy diary of engagements, her health deteriorated Olof, one of Decca’s senior recording producers, and the doing. The result was that the song somehow came delightful folk-songs, for which she is still well but she appeared in Orfeo at Covent Garden, sound engineer was Kenneth Wilkinson. across as a whole, with each part perfectly phrased and remembered. conducted by her good friend, Sir John Barbirolli. At The 1948 sessions filled in most of the gaps around proportioned to the architecture of the rest.’ In 1942 Ferrier moved to London and enjoyed the second performance she was taken ill on stage but the earlier recordings but did not quite complete the St Throughout this landmark recording, Ferrier’s opportunities to sing at concerts in Westminster managed, heroically, to finish the opera. It was her Matthew Passion. When Decca issued the finished set gloriously rich contralto led the performance, with her Abbey, The Royal Albert Hall and other major last public appearance and Kathleen Ferrier died in (sold in three albums of seven records each) in colleagues equally inspired to giving their best to the venues, as well as undertaking a taxing series of London in October 1953, aged 41. November that year, a recitative for the Evangelist and enterprise. It was the first ‘complete’ British Passion on recitals around the country – she was a tireless Adored by audiences in her own day, Ferrier’s art Judas (score No. 11) was omitted, as were one chorale record, its only rivals at the time being a Dutch worker. Allied to her glorious voice was a keen sense is still admired on record by lovers of fine singing. As (No. 21) and a recitative and aria for the bass (Nos. 65 performance under Willem Mengelberg from 1939 and of humour and her friends recalled not only admiring Bruno Walter wrote after her death, ‘...she will and 66). Several arias and other sections of recitative an incomplete 1942 version from Berlin, under Bruno her wonderful singing but also laughing at her salty always be remembered in a major key…’ were shortened because of the constraints imposed by Kittel. Decca was indeed making musical history. jokes and saucy stories; her positive approach to life the playing time of a 78rpm side – a maximum of about If Ferrier returned often to the St Matthew Passion, saw her through difficult personal times, such as the © Kathleen Ferrier Society 2011 4’40” – but the only aria of Ferrier’s to be reduced for she seems to have performed Cantata BWV 67 on one this reason was ‘Grief for sin’ in Part One of the Passion, occasion only, and that specifically for the gramophone. Producerʼs Note made in 1947. The year 1950 marked the bi-centenary of the death of J.