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.
Only a few seconds after watching this DVD I was reminded of one of the great marketing failures in records. More than forty years ago, RCA brought out several glorious LP’s of young Gigli’s records and they put photographs of the sixty-five year old tenor on the sleeve.
On this DVD we get a recent photograph of the tenor. Moreover the sleeve notes mention that “despite his advanced age, the cellist’s control is exemplary” as if 79-year old Rostropovich recorded this DVD some months ago. Both gentlemen, however, look splendid, more youthful than their advanced age would tell you. I’m sorry to report this has nothing to do with a miraculous youth cure but more with the fact that one quick look into Domingo’s performing career revealed he gave this concert on July 17, 1991. And, this date probably solves another small mystery. For a few minutes I was slightly amazed the recording firm would send a review copy with less than perfect picture quality till I remembered the concert date (not to be found in the sleeve notes). There’s always some haziness and the colours are a little bit whitewashed. But as a former TV producer, I remember too well the decade between the late seventies and the late eighties. We no longer used kinescope to record live performances as we had switched to an amazing amount of video recording means. When we watched them a few years later, this turned out to be a small disaster. Whereas film, and even kinescope, kept their full colour glory, a lot of recordings on video were almost beyond repair. By the nineties the technique once more had improved beyond recognition; but I fear that this DVD is one of the last testimonies of those early video years.
I’m a little bit sceptical concerning the programme. I wonder how many admirers of Rostropovich want to hear Domingo. Vice versa, how many Domingistes are interested in a Haydn concerto well-played though it is? This was a big open air concert and therefore pot boilers like the Tchaikovsky and the Verdi overtures were maybe necessary to sell tickets, but I seriously doubt there will be many people thirsting for a Domingo conducted Forza. The tenor is in good voice though, as often with Domingo, there is that generalized beautiful sound in the middle register without much characterizing and some pushing over the staff. For such concerts, he always carefully selected arias and duets that didn’t reach high B, which by that time was already beyond his means. The duet with Borodina is generously sung and is one of the first documents of the later star mezzo. And one has to admit, especially if one cannot comment on Domingo’s mastery of Russian, that rarely Lensky aria will have sounded better. But the best piece is the fine Massenet Élégie, which he sings more beautifully than old Gigli or younger Corelli. This time the colours in his voice are hauntingly plangent and Domingo himself plays the piano with Rostropovich at the cello. I wish both gentlemen had chosen more of such pieces. And I think that 58 minutes is rather short value.
Jan Neckers