Choral & Song Reviews
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Choral & Song Reviews performance captures the work’s This series of discs to record power and its intimacy. the complete madrigals here We’re also treated to a clutch reaches Books Three and Four. of superb but little-known pieces The texts – mostly by Ferrarese by Biber’s contemporaries. In two poets – revel in morbid themes of motets by Christoph Bernhard love unrequited and an obsessional (works which fuse the intricate longing for death. The singers sobriety of Renaissance polyphony pay studious attention to the with Italian Baroque lyricism), the poetry and its nuances, painting performers balance clean and lucid the words with a rich palette and timbres with pliant expressivity. contrasting light and shade to While in Johann Joseph Fux’s Omnis reflect Gesualdo’s chiaroscuro. terra adoret, the mixed ensemble ‘Dolce spirto d’amore’, for example, is beautifully balanced – not least is seductively whispered in breathy by Alpha’s recording engineers. tones suggesting ‘The sweet spirit The singers are very much part of of love, greeted with a sigh’; in the instrumental consort so the ‘Sospirava il mio core’ the singers threads of Fux’s musical texture plumb resonant depths to carve out all weave together in a diaphanous the words ‘You may die, but your fabric. Finally, sonatas by Fux and martyrdom will continue’; ‘Se vi Johann Michael Nicolai showcase miro pietosa’ oscillates between Fire and finesse: the Freiburger Barockconsort and Vox Luminis peform Biber the supple finesse of the Freiburg pulsating life and hushed silence, players. Kate Bolton-Porciatti pointing up the textual antitheses; PERFORMANCE HHHHH in ‘Io tacerò, ma nel silentio mio’, For the most not quite work – in the duet ‘Zefiro RECORDING HHHHH steel-edged sopranos suggest the part we torna’, for example, the second ‘heartless lady’ of the poet’s fixation. associate Anna voice part is sometimes confusingly Gesualdo There’s an almost unbearable bitter- Lucia Richter performed on the violin – but Madrigali, Books 3 & 4 sweetness to ‘Dolcissimo sospiro’, with German this selection provides a fresh and Les Arts Florissants/Paul Agnew while in ‘Moro, e mentre sospiro’ the repertoire – unusual look at many Monteverdi Harmonia Mundi HAF8905309-10 singers’ ghostly wailings create an Schumann, Schubert, Bach even – favourites. Anthony Pryer 90:05 mins (2 discs) anguished interior monologue. but this is a bold new step. Here she PERFORMANCE HHHH It’s often Harmonia Mundi’s recording is presents some of the finest pieces for RECORDNG HHHH speculated clean and immediate: individual solo voice by Monteverdi stretching that Gesualdo’s parts are easily discernible within across his career. Schubert extreme musical the finely balanced ensemble and She begins strongly with the Schubert’s Women language is the words cut through with feverish Prologue to Orfeo where she makes – Lieder and Scenas the mirror of a intensity. Kate Bolton-Porciatti the most of the entreaties in each Klaudia Tandl (mezzo-soprano), tortured soul who murdered his PERFORMANCE HHHHH verse without drenching the Gabriele Jacoby (narrator), wife and her lover whom he found RECORDING HHHHH melodic line in ornamentation – a Niall Kinsella (piano) in flagrante delicto. Here, though, danger not entirely avoided in the Gramola 99223 62:26 mins Les Arts Florissants’s director, Monteverdi orchestral ritornellos which also This recital offers tenor Paul Agnew, suggests that Il delirio della passione – Songs seem oddly fast compared with the an appealing his scorching dissonances and and Arias pace of the vocal narrative. Richter’s selection of chromaticisms were the natural Anna Lucia Richter (soprano), Dmitri declamatory storytelling reaches largely well- continuation of a highly expressive Sinkovsky (countertenor), Teo Aroni, an impressive peak in the Lamento known Schubert musical language which had Ciro Aroni (tenor), Alessandro d’Arianna where every device of settings, with emerged in Ferrara in the later Ravasio (bass); Ensemble Claudiana characterisation and emotional added interest given by interleaving 16th century. Pentatone PTC 5186 845 62:25 mins evocation is brilliantly deployed, the groups of songs with poems including a collapse into speech Schubert set – heard in thrilling, towards the end. Quieter pieces, animated readings by Austrian actor such as ‘Pur ti miro’ from Poppea Gabriele Jacoby. This attractive (sung with the countertenor Dmitri idea both recalls the musical- BACKGROUND TO… Sinkovsky), perhaps lack a little declamatory evenings of Schubert’s Heinrich Biber’s Requiem tenderness. In the free-standing day, as well as more recent series’ songs the performers have fun such as Graham Johnson’s Though officially undated, Biber’s Requiem in with some stylistic parodies and Songmaker’s Almanac. F minor is believed to have been written in the arrangements: ‘La mia turca’ uses The recital was born at the Franz early 1690s. That places it just a few years after the Turkish reference to introduce Schubert Institute where pianist the composition of the more grandiose and drumming and ‘exotic’ scales worthy Niall Kinsella devised a programme slightly longer Requiem in A major that he wrote of the film music for Lawrence that would show different sides of in 1687. No record exists for whom this piece of Arabia, and the jazzy cornetto the female character as depicted was written, though its intimate scale might playing of Andrea Inghisciano in the poetry of Schubert’s day, suggest it was for a more low-key persona. Even (matched by Richter’s artful organised in small groups. though this setting of the Latin mass was written for smaller forces – it distortions of rhythm in favour of Familiar musical ground is trod features just five soloists and a five-part choir – Biber succeeds in creating the clarity of the text) adds much to with the inclusion of the famous an intense and atmospheric soundworld. the languid tale of a forlorn lover in settings of Goethe’s Mignon and ‘Ohimè, ch’io cado’. Some pieces do Gretchen poems. b7ec086b-3230-40ee-8fab-35bf6a8a67bd BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 81 Choral & Song Reviews Does it work as a programme? There are some inexplicable shifts Proud Songsters A proud songster: – English Solo Song of mood, and more could have been Lawrence Zazzo is done to connect textures, keys and expressive in Dove Songs by Bell, Bridge, Britten, ideas, but that does not detract from Browne, Rebecca Clarke, Dove, the basic quality of the chosen songs Finzi, Celia Harper, Quilter, and poems; Goethe’s ‘Kennst du Thiman and Vaughan Williams das Land’ is spellbinding as poem Michael Chance, Lawrence Zazzo, or song. ‘Der Jüngling an der Quelle’ Tim Mead (countertenor), Ruairi opens magically, with perfectly Bowen, James Gilchrist, Andrew judged colour, but ‘Der Fischer’ feels Staples (tenor), Ashley Riches, Mark heavy. The recorded sound could Stone (bass), Simon Lepper (piano) be more even and blooming, and King’s College KGS0052 65:59 mins balance between voice and piano This is an is not always sympathetic. Mezzo unusual album Klaudia Tandl has a beautiful, rich from King’s, sound and an elegant, untroubled Cambridge. delivery; Kinsella is a meticulous Clearly conceived collaborator; and both could push during the present for greater elasticity and variety. COVID pandemic, it showcases If not revelatory, altogether this several, often highly distinguished is polished music-making of fine former choral scholars singing repertoire. Natasha Loges English solo songs, all with excellent PERFORMANCE HHH piano accompaniment by Simon RECORDING HHH Lepper – apart from Celia Harper’s unaccompanied folksong-style Raymond Yiu whose music Burgess delighted Satie is also fair, as being their ‘My love gave me an apple’ (sung by The London Citizen Exceedingly in. While the work lacks some of mentor. But there are pitfalls. Not countertenor Michael Chance). Injured*; The World Was Once the imaginative zing of the disc’s least that, apart from a jolly ‘Valse’ Presumably the singers chose the All Miracle**; Symphony† opening track, this is nonetheless by Poulenc, the music really isn’t up songs themselves from their own †Andrew Watts (countertenor), a fascinating piece and Roderick to much: enough that it served its repertoire. The resulting programme **Roderick Williams (baritone); Williams’s dextrous and intelligent propaganda purpose of launching is perhaps not ideally varied: richly BBC Symphony Orchestra/ performance meets every challenge the musicians’ group. harmonised Edwardian salon *David Robertson, **Andrew Davis, of the score with aplomb. The later songs are much better settings of distinguished poetry †Edward Gardner Yiu’s First Symphony is as on the whole, with a delightful mingle with mildly poignant, almost Delphian DCD 34225 67:44 mins much a song cycle as a symphony, ‘Chansons françaises’ by Germaine Ravelian (though avoiding that This terrifically with a glorious performance Tailleferre. Unlike Auric, Honegger French master’s occasional acerbic engaging disc here from countertenor Andrew and Milhaud, she never subscribed tartness) post-World War I songs. of music by Watts. Setting texts by Whitman, to the ‘wrong-note’ brigade, relying There are exceptions. Rebecca Raymond Yiu Cavafy, Gunn and Donne, the rather on her command of orthodox Clarke’s ‘The Seal Man’ invigorates opens with a work references everything from melody and harmony. But the the post-Ravel style into something bang. Subtitled ’70s disco to Domenico Scarlatti choice of the two songs making distinctive and truly atmospheric,