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.
Among the plentiful selections of orchestral music from the operas of Richard Wagner, it is rare to find recordings that truly stand out, and this recent release of performances conducted by the late Klaus Tennstedt merits distinction.
Taken from the 1992 Proms concerts by the London Philharmonic, these live recordings from that season demonstrate the famed conductor’s master hand at presenting familiar works with energy and style.
The pieces included on this CD are the prelude to the opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg; the overtures to Rienzi and Tannhaüser, along with the “Venusberg” music from the latter opera; “Dawn and Siegfried’s Rhine Journey,” along with “Siegfried’s Funeral Music” from Götterdämmerung; and the concert version of the “Ride of the Valkyries” from Die Walküre. As familiar as these excerpts are, the performances preserved here are quite vivid and immediate with regard to the quality of the sound and, more importantly, the interpretation Tennstedt contributed to these performances.
The level of quality found in this CD is hardly unusual for Tennstedt, who left a number of solid recordings of various works that remain engaging. Most of all, Tennstedt’s legacy includes performances that are memorable for solidly musical reasons. Without resorting to artifice or innovation for its own sake, Tennstedt brought a certain vitality to familiar works like these by not sacrificing the musical line to sheer effect. At times Tennstedt would bring out details that may be less distinct in more routine performances of works like these. Yet the descending line of the upper strings at the end of the first section of the “Venusberg” music reinforces the transition to the more expressive middle section that offers a signal to the perceptive audience.
Likewise, Tennstedt’s treatment of the familiar overture to Rienzi stands out for the way in which the drama emerges in this interpretation, which is notably slower than some of the more familiar recorded versions of the piece. By approaching this overture in this manner, Tennstedt brought out some details that contribute to the sense of drama implicit in the score. The gradual crescendo toward the full orchestral statement of the principal theme is noticeable and thus highly effective. At the same time, the slower tempos help to accentuate the drum rolls that are critical for the way they suspend the pulse of the work – an effect Mahler would use to a similar end in the last movement of his Second Symphony. At the same time, the careful tempos found in this performance of the Rienzi overture allow the orchestra to shape lines. Thus, in this piece and the other examples a vocal quality emerges from these exquisite orchestral pieces from Wagner’s operas, such that the interpretations reflect the nuances that are in the score, but difficult, at times, to achieve in other circumstances.
Those familiar with Tennstedt’s fine recordings of Mahler’s symphonies will appreciate his similar command of the London Philharmonic Orchestra in these pieces by Wagner. They exhibit the level of performance mentioned in the program notes, in which the critic Hugh Canning is quoted as referring to the “exalted” quality of music-making in these performances. Released by the London Philharmonic’s own archives, this is one of the Orchestra’s own releases, and not a recording made through a commercial agency. It is laudable that the London Philharmonic has brought out such a fine set of performances that stem from a single season, rather than selections from various years which might involve some variance in execution and sound quality.
Granted, this is Wagner presented in concert and in excerpt, with the selections presented out of the context of the operas and music dramas to which they belong. Even so, performances like these have been instrumental in bringing the music to a wider audience and also in attracting audiences to the full versions of the works to which they belong. The quality of these performances certainly communicated the music effectively, as evidenced by enthusiastic applause retained in the recordings conveys the intensity in this recent release of some exceptional performances.
James L. Zychowicz
Madison, Wisconsin