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.
This installment in the remarkable Bach Cantata Pilgrimage series presents four Christmas cantatas: “Gelobet seist du, Jesus Christ,” BWV 91; “Unser Mund sei voll Lachens,” BWV 110; “Dazu ist erschienen,” BWV 40; and “Christum wir sollen loben schon,” BWV 121, all recorded live in St. Bartholomew’s Church, New York City.
Given the festal context of Christmas, it is no surprise that the music often takes a celebrative turn. The opening chorus of “Gelobet seist du” is exuberant energy superimposed on a sturdy chorale frame; the opening chorus of “Dazu ist erschienen” teems with sprightly rhythmic verve and regal horn writing (both of which are echoed in the rollicking tenor aria, “Christenkinder, freuet euch”); and the melismatic laughter of the opening chorus of “Unser Mund sei voll Lachens” is a richly spirited example of seasonal joy. Instrumentation also plays a part in underscoring the affective propensities of Christmas, and the virtuoso trumpeting of Gabriele Cassone is certainly a case in point, especially in collaboration with bass Peter Harvey in the aria “Wacht auf” from “Unser Mund sei voll Lachens.” Harvey, as in other of the Cantata Pilgrimage recordings, is a joy to savor, rendering his solos with a sound that is lithe, resonant and flexible and with a remarkable flair for stylistic expression. Cassone, who impressively also plays the solo horn parts on the recording, brings to the demanding trumpet lines a fine combination of contoured phrasing, fluid articulation, and overall brilliance. “Wacht auf,” unsurprisingly, is one of the high points of the recording.
Certainly, this volume of Christmas cantatas manifests the high standards, the attention to stylistic detail, and the zest for performance that have long characterized the work of Gardiner and company. Not everything is equally successful, however. In “Dazu ist erschienen” the first two chorales are rendered with an exaggerated articulation that seems to turn rhetorical gesture into mannerism. Bach’s homophonic settings are no strangers to expressive content, certainly, as harmonic twists for the enrichment of particular words well document, but here the clipped consonants seem to do no more than surprise. The use of strong articulation to dramatic ends fares much better in the solo singing of tenor James Gilchrist, especially in this same cantata’s “Christenkinder, freuet euch.” Gilchrist is a powerful singer, to be sure, and the affective content and floridity of the aria are well met by his confidence. In other places in the recording, however, some may find his sound rather too complex and vibrant, especially in places where attention to the undulation of verbal stress offers the chance for more contour.
Organized by liturgical feast, the recordings in this series can make Bach’s developing compositional style conveniently visible. In volume 14 the cantatas are drawn from 1723, 1724, and 1725, a small chronological window, but significantly we see Bach embracing dramatically different approaches to cantata structure. While all use the familiar components of extended chorus, da capo aria, and declamatory recitative, Bach’s reliance on the chorale in the 1724 cantatas (BWV 91 and BWV 121) is distinctively extensive, using paraphrases of choral verses to accommodate the modern musical forms without obscuring the cohesion the choral text offers. And in one instance, he mixes the choral text and melody with paraphrased declamatory recitative, somewhat in the manner of a medieval trope. Thus, while in sound the four cantatas here remain close one to another, the varied structures behind the sound show Bach’s grappling with questions of form. This, along with the spirited music making, gives the listener much to savor, indeed.
Steven Plank
Oberlin College