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.
Okay, okay, I freely admit this up front: I am not inordinately fond of operetta. Just thought you should know. All the more remarkable then that I found myself listening to this new recording several times over.
Or perhaps not remarkable at all when you take into account the considerable talents of Angelika Kirchschlager and Simon Keenlyside. Fans of this pair (count me in) and/or operetta should revel in their fine renditions of predictable standards along with some delectable excerpts that are less performed. Strauss, Lehar, von Suppe,and Kalman are all well represented, of course, alongside a pair of jewels from works by Milloecker and Stolz.
The recital kicks off with the duet “Weisst Du Es Noch” (“Die Csardasfuerstin”) that alternates playful patter with a lushly expansive and deeply felt “haunting refrain.” The duo establishes their impeccable credentials at once, displaying sound technique, naturally beautiful instruments, clear diction, compatible partnering, and complete command of the material and style. It is doubtful that either artist has performed all, or perhaps any of these roles in a staged production, yet each seems immersed in the material, conferring each selection with an appropriate characterization.
The many waltz numbers do tend to have a certain (albeit lovely) aural sameness to them, but that is not the fault of the artists. Still, von Suppe’s 3/4-time “Mia Bella Fiorentina” (“Boccaccio”) offers some diversity of mood, not to mention language. And both singers show imagination and seriousness of purpose in quite successfully creating a fresh take on each piece.
My personal pick of the mezzo’s offerings would have to be the hushed pleasure she lavishes on “Hab’ Ich Nur Deine Liebe” (“Boccaccio” again). The underlying tango rhythms of the aria from Kalman’s “The Violet of Montmartre” (oh, that again!) buoy the baritone to perhaps his best and most nuanced reading in the collection.
Did the world really need another traversal of “Ich Lade Gern Mir Gaeste Ein” (“Chacun a Son Gout”), “Viljalied,” or “Meine Lippen Die Kuessen So Heiss”? Perhaps not. But Ms. Kirchschlager is idiomatic and persuasive on them, and the first does serve to bring a needed bit of cheeky variation in the material. If the “Vilja” does not have quite the freedom and panache in the upper reaches that some lyrico-spinto sopranos have brought to it, and if “Meine Lippen. . .” does not have the hedonistic abandon that Anna Netrebko brought to it recently in Baden-Baden, they are nonetheless beautifully voiced.
Among his other always enjoyable arias, the baritone charms us with a delightfully sly “Da Geh’ Ich Zu Maxim” (“Die Lustige Witwe”) marked as much by virile full-throated phrases as it is by playful, hushed, and coy asides. The CD’s titular “Dein Ist Mein Ganzes Herz” finds Keenlyside (standing in for the usual tenor) in rapturous command of all the schmaltz, crooning, and tonal outpouring needed for maximum effect in bringing the whole affair to a thrilling close.
The Tonkuenstler-Orchester Noe under the secure leadership of Alfred Eschwe is an able partner in these highly enjoyable, and eminently listenable results offering pliable phrasing, nice solo work, and solid rhythmic pulse as required.
Operetta. Like it or not, you probably just aren’t ever going to hear these tunes better sung. Maybe that is why “The Merry Widow” waltz is now stuck in my head? Hell, I may just play the whole thing yet again and rejoice in the guilty pleasure that two outstanding artists have perpetrated a highly infectious recording.
James Sohre