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.
The program for this recent recording from the choir of Westminster Cathedral presents sacred choral works by Brahms and Rheinberger, anchored at one end by Brahms’s youthful Missa Canonica and at the other by Rheinberger’s Mass for Double Choir in E-flat, Op. 109. with a handful of motets by Brahms in between.
Somewhat problematically, however, neither of the “anchors” seems to have sufficient interest or weight to support the recording as a whole. Brahms’ Missa Canonica consists of only a Kyrie, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei, and derives from the 1850s when Brahms was in his early twenties. The study of counterpoint and the influence of Joseph Joachim helped fortify Brahms for significant aspects of this musical chapter, and the Missa Canonica, a work that lay dormant until the middle of the twentieth century, bears the stamp of his contrapuntal immersion. The Kyrie seems to announce Renaissance ideals that are wed to melodic lines with a compelling Romantic sweep. And the conclusion of the Agnus is quite beautifully constructed. However, too much of this incomplete “Missa” feels like student exercise. We should welcome its modern rediscovery, publication, and recording, but I suspect its interest will lie as much in what it tells us about Brahms as the music itself.
Similarly, Rheinberger’s E-flat Mass will certainly present interesting moments—the halo effect of the “et incarnatus est” in the Creed is effective, as is the “sepultus est” that follows, and the intertwining of the voices of the Agnus Dei is wonderfully engaging—but much of the Mass is economical (the Gloria takes only a little over three minutes) and offers little that will substantially engage the listener.
Fortunately, the Brahms motets are jewels all, including both “Es ist das Heil” and “O Heiland reiss,” works that show Brahms’s affinity for the German motet tradition—they are chorale based and impressively contrapuntal—and his fluency in making that tradition his own. None of the motets are lovelier, however, than the Geistliches Lied, “Lass dich nur nichts nicht dauern.” Richly canonic—it comes from the same period as the canonic mass—it nevertheless veils its canonic richness with wonderfully unfolding lines and a congenially supportive organ accompaniment. The sense of return in leading to the final strophe is nothing short of magical, and the rich chain of suspensions that comprise the final Amen is breathtaking.
The trebles of the Westminster Choir sing with a decidedly “continental” edge to the sound, an often observed aspect of their tradition. Characterized by a bright timbre, the treble sound can indeed be thrilling in some contexts, but in the present recording the line separating brilliance and shrillness is sometimes too narrow, especially at loud volume and in the upper register. By analogy, too, the overall interpretive approach favors a high-energy level that in some instances is engagingly full of verve—the freudige Geist section of “Schaffe in mir” is a good example--but in other instances, the line that separates verve from aggression is also a narrow one, and sometimes misjudged here.
In the final reckoning, the program itself will perhaps leave the listener wanting a bigger serving of more substantial fare, and the choir’s style is at times overly brilliant and energized where warmth and a more graceful line might serve well. There are many beautiful moments, however, and the listener who seeks them out will find reward.
Steven Plank
Oberlin College