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.
Tomas Luis de Victoria’s Tenebrae Responsories are designed to occupy the final three days of Holy Week, and contemplate the themes of loss, betrayal and death that dominate the Easter week. As such, the Responsories demand a sense of darkness, reflection and depth that this new recording by Stile Antico - at least partially - captures.
The varied programming is the disc’s greatest strength, with the inclusion of a six-voice motet and excerpts from the Lamentations showing a mindfulness to provide listeners with textural and harmonic contrast. However, this is a competitive market, with a critically acclaimed recording from Tenebrae under Nigel Short, not to mention a warm and thick-textured account by The Sixteen under Harry Christophers. This new release brings plenty of imagination in the programme, but the performances of the Responsories themselves - whilst engaging and persuasive - may struggle to add anything over their competitors.
The Responsories are all about darkness; in the 16th-century in which Victoria was writing, the service would have concluded in total darkness, as the candles representing Christ, the Disciples and the three Marys were gradually extinguished during the service (‘Tenebrae’ is the Latin for darkness). Stile Antico convey the bleakness of the text well, using men’s voices alone in ‘Tenebrae factae sunt’ and ‘Aestimatus sum’; the darker hue of the bass singers is particularly striking here, conveying the pain and despair of the text. Indeed, it is a tradition that, in performance, a selection of the Responsories for upper voices are instead performed by the lower ones; whilst enabling a more vivid portrayal of the text, it also allows for contrast with the SATB scoring of the other Responsories.
Contrast is vital in the Responsories, as a danger of Victoria’s setting is monotony; all eighteen Responsories use the same mode, and similar three or four-part textures. Thus, the reversion to male-only voices for two of the Responsories creates an edifying contrast that makes it more comfortable to listen to the full disc in one sitting. Further contrast is created by the admirable inclusion of Victoria’s six-voice motet ‘O Domine Jesu Christe’ at the end of the disc, in which the more adventurous harmonies provide an interesting snapshot into the broader musical language of this Renaissance master. Equally interesting is how the disc intersperses excerpts from the Lamentations readings, sung to a plainchant setting; given that the broader Liturgy in which the Responsories appear would have been dominated by plainchant, such works provide a useful context for Victoria’s polyphonic Responsories. Such variety creates an imaginative and elegant programme that is perfectly enjoyable in a single sitting.
Contrast within the Responsories themselves is, however, slightly lacking. A mezzo forte dominates the Responsories, with the portrayal of the “innocent lamb” in ‘Eram quasi agnus innocens’ finding much the same dynamic as the presentation of the “hanged man” in ‘Amicus Meus’. Surely greater nuance could be found between these two starkly opposed images, connotations and emotions? Although one mood pervades all eighteen Responsories, the text includes some striking oppositions, contrasting good with evil, and peace with violence. Such varied images - even if united by a common emotion - deserve more nuanced treatment.
Within individual Responsories, too, there lacks dynamic subtlety; although ‘Una hora’ opens with a delicate hush courtesy of a solo voice, as soon as the choir enters, one yearns for greater dynamic nuance. Such gradations are only more important given how the text sustains a single mood.
Having said this, Stile Antico perform with great clarity of diction and purity of line. Take, for instance, the immediate solo opening of ‘Una hora’; the plaintive simplicity of the solo line contrasts with the distracting vibrato of the soloist in Schola Antiqua’s 2005 recording. However, this section also provides a useful example of how, like the disc more broadly, this new release offers a pleasant reading but nothing that adds a great deal to its numerous rivals; Ensemble Corund feature a striking crescendo on the opening note of ‘Una hora’, something that maintains the purity of the line but also imbues it with greater dramatism and weight. Both Tenebrae and Stile Antico opt for stillness instead, which communicates melancholy but arguably at the expense of drama.
Stile Antico’s acoustic allows for greater clarity and delineation of lines in ‘Animam meam dilectam’, in comparison to Tenebrae. Such a keen sense of interweaving voices is vital given that the Responsories form part of a much longer liturgy, the majority of which would have been performed to plainchant; as such, Victoria’s polyphony would have provided noticeable contrast within the broader liturgy, a fact that Stile Antico are keen to emphasise through their own clarity of line and texture.
The programming of this release is its greatest strength, with the inclusion of excerpts from the Lamentations readings as well as the concluding motet providing both engaging contrast and useful context for the Responsories as part of a longer liturgy. The performances are dark and powerful, with the use of lower voices alone for selected Responsories a striking way of illustrating the darker texts. However, the relative dynamic uniformity of the Responsories reduces the dramatic power of the text. Overall, these are engaging performances, but with strong competition from Tenebrae in particular, they are a pleasant alternative, if not a game-changer.
Jack Pepper
Recordings:
Nigel Short, Tenebrae, 2013, Signum Classics
Harry Christophers, The Sixteen, 2011, Coro
Juan Carlos Asensio, Schola Antiqua, 2005, Glossa
Stephen Smith, Ensemble Corund, 2006, Dorian Recordings