Recently in Recordings
The Sixteen continues its exploration of Henry Purcell’s Welcome Songs for Charles II. As with Robert King’s pioneering Purcell series begun over thirty years ago for Hyperion, Harry Christophers is recording two Welcome Songs per disc.
In February this year, Albanian soprano Ermonela Jaho made a highly lauded debut recital at Wigmore Hall - a concert which both celebrated Opera Rara’s 50th anniversary and honoured the career of the Italian soprano Rosina Storchio (1872-1945), the star of verismo who created the title roles in Leoncavallo’s La bohème and Zazà, Mascagni’s Lodoletta and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly.
Collapsology. Or, perhaps we should use the French word ‘Collapsologie’ because this is a transdisciplinary idea pretty much advocated by a series of French theorists - and apparently, mostly French theorists. It in essence focuses on the imminent collapse of modern society and all its layers - a series of escalating crises on a global scale: environmental, economic, geopolitical, governmental; the list is extensive.
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As Paul Spicer, conductor of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir, observes, the worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary is as ‘old as Christianity itself’, and programmes devoted to settings of texts which venerate the Virgin Mary are commonplace.
Ethel Smyth’s last large-scale work, written in 1930 by the then 72-year-old composer who was increasingly afflicted and depressed by her worsening deafness, was The Prison – a ‘symphony’ for soprano and bass-baritone soloists, chorus and orchestra.
‘Hamilton Harty is Irish to the core, but he is not a musical nationalist.’
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A song-cycle is a narrative, a journey, not necessarily literal or linear, but one which carries performer and listener through time and across an emotional terrain. Through complement and contrast, poetry and music crystallise diverse sentiments and somehow cohere variability into an aesthetic unity.
One of the nicest things about being lucky enough to enjoy opera, music and theatre, week in week out, in London’s fringe theatres, music conservatoires, and international concert halls and opera houses, is the opportunity to encounter striking performances by young talented musicians and then watch with pleasure as they fulfil those sparks of promise.
“It’s forbidden, and where’s the art in that?”
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The English Civil War is raging. The daughter of a Puritan aristocrat has fallen in love with the son of a Royalist supporter of the House of Stuart. Will love triumph over political expediency and religious dogma?
Beethoven Symphony no 9 (the Choral Symphony) in D minor, Op. 125, and the Choral Fantasy in C minor, Op. 80 with soloist Kristian Bezuidenhout, Pablo Heras-Casado conducting the Freiburger Barockorchester, new from Harmonia Mundi.
A Louise Brooks look-a-like, in bobbed black wig and floor-sweeping leather trench-coat, cheeks purple-rouged and eyes shadowed in black, Barbara Hannigan issues taut gestures which elicit fire-cracker punch from the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.
‘Signor Piatti in a fantasia on themes from Beatrice di Tenda had also his triumph. Difficulties, declared to be insuperable, were vanquished by him with consummate skill and precision. He certainly is amazing, his tone magnificent, and his style excellent. His resources appear to be inexhaustible; and altogether for variety, it is the greatest specimen of violoncello playing that has been heard in this country.’
Baritone Roderick Williams seems to have been a pretty constant ‘companion’, on my laptop screen and through my stereo speakers, during the past few ‘lock-down’ months.
Melodramas can be a difficult genre for composers. Before Richard Strauss’s Enoch Arden the concept of the melodrama was its compact size – Weber’s Wolf’s Glen scene in Der Freischütz, Georg Benda’s Ariadne auf Naxos and Medea or even Leonore’s grave scene in Beethoven’s Fidelio.
Recordings
15 Sep 2005
WEBBER: Phantasia; The Woman in White
Probably the best thing that can be said about Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Richard Stilgoe, and Charles Hart’s The Phantom of the Opera becoming the longest running Broadway musical, which it almost certainly will, is that it will take that honor away from Cats. (I am reminded of David Letterman’s comment, made with mock horror, “What if it really is ‘now and forever’?”) Phantom, as it is known both with and without affection, is perhaps Lloyd Webber’s most “traditional” show: it has far more book scenes than his earlier, concept-album-as-musical shows, although the latter, including Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, are tremendously and, arguably, more effective; it recalls operetta despite its pop-heavy score; and it is based on a novel that is already known through incarnations on stage and screen. Its unabashed romanticism, despite its occasional descent into bathos, has endeared it to millions, many of who see it again and again and continue to be moved by it. So I suppose it was only a matter of time until an arranger came up with an orchestral version of the score to satisfy pop concert audiences and other aficionados of the score.
Geoffrey Alexander, building on an idea of Sir Lloyd Webber and his brother, renowned cellist Julian Lloyd Webber, and drawing from the original score as well as from new material written for the only moderately successful film version, has arranged the work for orchestra and two soloists. The violin solo represents Christine, the soprano heroine, and the cello represents the Phantom, and both Sarah Chang and Lloyd Webber play beautifully. Indeed, Chang’s violin is a far more expressive Christine than Sarah Brightman ever was. Passages of lyricism contrast with virtuosic passages, as is customary in such concert pieces, and the bravura sections are well written for the instruments. But in a work this long – the selection clocks in somewhere between thirty minutes and eternity – repetition is inevitable, and, by the end, only devotees will fail to grow antsy for the final cadence. The cheese factor is not as prevalent or pronounced as it could have been, given the material, although there are some modulations that would cause a first-year music theory student to blush. And Alexander’s orchestration is reminiscent of his film scoring, which means the whole thing is a bit overblown, but it is professional and colorful.
In arranging a suite from the recent musical The Woman in White, Laurence Roman was faced with the old sow’s ear-silk purse conundrum: how can a largely tuneless score be turned into an orchestral suite of any interest? The answer: don’t expect a silk purse. While we occasionally hear snippets that recall earlier scores – a little Evita here, a little Phantom there – for the most part this is, at least based on the tunes used in this suite, probably Lloyd Webber’s least interesting score. Even gussied up in the once more overblown arrangements (Andrew Stewart’s booklet notes calls them “full-blooded”), the score never catches fire. Actually, it never even smolders. This is definitely what would once have been called “B-side material.”
The Phantasia will delight fans of the show and will probably have a long shelf life as a pops concert staple. After all, there is no denying the music’s popularity, and soloists will find it rewarding. Fans of the show will treasure the medley, and many will find the virtuosic fancies a highbrow treatment of melodies they could, and perhaps do, sing in their sleep. And in all fairness, the whole thing could have been much worse. For its intended audience, this should find much success.
The recording quality is superb, as is the orchestra’s playing under Simon Lee. (Lee conducted the film version of Phantom as well as the stage production of The Woman in White and other Lloyd Webber creations, so he definitely knows what he’s doing here.) As mentioned above, the solo playing is exemplary and perhaps does more with the material than is warranted. Still, this is a work for the listener who is already a Lloyd Webber and, in particular, a Phantom fan. The rest of us will continue to prefer our Puccini straight up.
Jim Lovensheimer, Ph.D.
Blair School of Music, Vanderbilt University