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.
Amongst an avalanche of new Mahler recordings appearing at the moment (Das Lied von der Erde seems to be the most favoured, with three) this 1991 Mahler Second from the 2nd Kassel MahlerFest is one of the more interesting releases.
If there is one myth, it seems believed by some people today, that probably needs shattering it is that post-war recordings or performances of Wagner operas were always of exceptional quality. This 1949 Hamburg Tristan und Isolde is one of those recordings - though quite who is to blame for its many problems takes quite some unearthing.
The voices of six women composers are celebrated by baritone Jeremy Huw Williams and soprano Yunah Lee on this characteristically ambitious and valuable release by Lontano Records Ltd (Lorelt).
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.’
‘After silence, that which comes closest to expressing the inexpressible is music.’ Aldous Huxley’s words have inspired VOCES8’s new disc, After Silence, a ‘double album in four chapters’ which marks the ensemble’s 15th anniversary.
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?”
Dublin-born John F. Larchet (1884-1967) might well be described as the father of post-Independence Irish music, given the immense influenced that he had upon Irish musical life during the first half of the 20th century - as a composer, musician, administrator and teacher.
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.
A little over a year ago Bach scholar Michael Maul found himself in the exceedingly unusual position of having discovered a hitherto unknown Bach composition, a birthday ode for Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar, entitled “Alles mit Gott und nichts ohn’ ihn.
The discovery of Bach works is not unknown in our day—the Neumeister chorale preludes saw light of day in 1984, for instance—but the occurrence is rare and much to be celebrated, as in this first recording of the ode from the Bach forces of John Eliot Gardiner.
For Bach, “Alles mit Gott” is something of an unusual piece: a strophic continuo air for soprano in twelve stanzas with lengthy instrumental ritornello between the strophes. The text is by Johann Anton Mylius, who penned the ducal salute as a trope on the duke’s motto, “Omnia cum deo et nihil sine eo” (All things with God, and nothing without Him). Both he and Bach imbedded separate patronal gestures in the ode itself: orthographically Mylius creates an acrostic of the Duke’s name; Bach, drawn we suspect to things numerological, supplies the continuo introduction to the air with fifty-two notes, corresponding to the Duke’s fifty-second birthday (1713), which occasioned the ode itself.
The discovery of any work by Bach is significant, and “Alles mit Gott” rewards the listener not only with the aura of novelty, but also with an engaging lyrical lilt in the dialogue between soprano and bass. Does the lilt wear out after twelve successive stanzas? We are not given the chance to find out, as Gardiner opts for a three-stanza abbreviation, likely a smart choice where listeners are not closely attuned to the details of the text. The length of the poem raises a significant issue of proportion with regard to the string ritornello, as well. In the abbreviated version, the nineteen string bars seem long relative to the thirty-some odd measures for the voice. With twelve stanzas, however, the need for a substantial variety is a more pressing one, to say nothing of the singer’s need for vocal rest, and the length of the ritornello would meet these needs well.
Soprano Elin Manahan Thomas sings the ode with a congenially youthful sound, light and bright with notably clear articulation. The string band is wonderful in its blossoming of major downbeats and also in its fluent ornamentation on repetitions of the ritornello.
The remainder of the recording is devoted to live cantata excerpts from Gardiner’s millennial Bach Cantata Pilgrimage, celebrating both the dawn of the new millennium as well as the 250th anniversary of Bach’s death. In a mammoth undertaking, Gardiner led performances of the entire corpus of Bach’s surviving church cantatas on the appropriate liturgical dates in churches throughout Europe and in the US from Christmas, 1999 to Christmas, 2000. The present recording offers a number of movements from Pilgrimage performances, mostly arias,that highlight the rich interplay of voice and obbligato instruments. All are accomplished renditions, and one of the pleasures of the disc is the opportunity to hear so many different soloists in a unified context—four different sopranos, singing arias “side-by-side” is here a treat of riches. Of the four, I would particularly single out Gillian Keith, whose performance of “Süsser Trost” from Cantata 151 is memorable for her focus of tone and elegance of execution. Keith is joined in this aria by flautist Rachel Beckett who brings to Bach’s ever-inventive line a remarkable choreography of decorative grace.
Peter Harvey’s performance of “Es ist vollbracht” from Cantata 159 with oboist Xenia Löffler is hauntingly beautiful, as well. One of Bach’s most sensuous arias, “Es ist vollbracht,” weds a slow-moving oboe line to string haloes and exquisite suspensions that underscore Bach’s affective depths. Harvey’s ability to keep the slow motion alive—a formidable challenge of control—and his lean and yet resonant tone combine to make this one of the best in the anthology.
Steven Plank
Oberlin College