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.
Stephen Paulus provided the musical world, and particularly the choral world, with music both provocative and pleasing through a combination of lyricism and a modern-Romantic tonal palette.
This new recording places at its center Paulus’ last large scale work, Far in the Heavens, a commission for the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Like his other large scale oratorios, it covers the full range of his expressive and accessible style. Combining words from disparate cultures, centuries, and faith, the texts include prayers from St. Francis of Assisi, Mohammed, and the Navajo as well as poetry from Henry Vaughan, Percy Bysshe Shelly, and William Blake. Paulus mines each of these sources for the common human experience of grief, recovery, and spirituality to provide a balm of healing years removed from tragedy.
The words of each movement are almost exclusively in a homorhythmic texture allowing Paulus to carefully craft their setting. He follows the words’ natural poetic stress resulting in both reflective and emphatic recitations. Color and word stress become the primary focus of the texts’ meanings. For instance, the word “light” receives notable attention - a loud consonant chord in a major key - in both the first and second movements.
The most dramatic elements of the work appear in the opening chorus, “They are All Gone,” where Paulus’ use of orchestral colors is on full display. Throbbing timpani and brass fanfares announce that “they are all gone” while the lightness of harp and woodwinds evoke the “glows and glitters” of an air of glory of the high heavens. Likewise, the movement “Great Spirit” is marked by marked contrast between the opening invocation of the Great Spirit through animated outbursts of percussion, woodwinds, strings and the hushed sustained colors of the choir’s childlike incantations that follow. Here Paulus sounds Britten-esque as an arrhythmic recitation of words sounds over sustained tones in the orchestra.
The performance of True Concord Voices and Orchestra is excellent. Paulus’ trademark bright harmonies and cluster chords ring true with perfect choral intonation. The expressiveness of the music and texts come through effectively with clear articulation and distinct enunciation. The choral tone is generally crystalline with minimal vibrato which suits Paulus’ sound world, but at times fails to match the vibrancy, depth, and balance of the orchestra.
The remainder of the recording provides exposure to lesser known small form works of Paulus’ catalogue. The most intriguing of these is “Little Elegy” which is beautifully expressive in its simplicity much like his beloved “Pilgrim’s Hymn.” This recording will appeal to many, as Paulus’ music is undeniably beautiful and pleasing; but it also important because it serves to introduce lesser known music, including a new masterwork, of an influential 21st century American voice.
Adam Luebke