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.
In spite of the religious warfare that consumed France during the second half of the sixteenth century (which claimed the life of one eminent Catholic composer, Antoine de Bertrand, who was murdered by Protestants)*, musical life continued unabated.
Claude Le Jeune, perhaps the most important of Protestant composers, lived to see the accession of Henri IV, a Protestant who abjured his religion and returned to the Catholic Church in order to become King (1593), but who managed to achieve a cease-fire between the sides with the Edict of Nantes, which allowed freedom of religion to the Protestants (1598). Le Jeune died at about seventy in 1600, and we are fortunate that, though politics prevented his works being printed during his lifetime, they were issued posthumously. Until recently few had been issued in modern editions (though I recall being entranced as a teen by his Te Deum, recorded in the Anthologie Sonore in the fifties).
Le Jeune's output reflects a wide variety of styles — the more traditional Parisian chanson, the settings of vers mésuré by the poet Baif, Protestant psalm settings, and even a substantial number of canzonettas to Italian texts (I have yet to see these last on disc). This is the third disc by the Ensemble Clément Janequin to mine this rich vein (the two previous devoted to chansons and sacred music respectively). The ECJ is one of our treasures, resuscitating a huge and fascinating repertoire in almost four (!!) decades of recordings, and it is to be expected that this collection is first-rate. The quibbler/curmudgeon in me just sees a few mis-steps here. I can't imagine that the arrangement of Laute joun (a rustic piece in Gascon dialect) reflects the original — it's just too folk. As I don't have access to the source, I can't nail this down in chapter and verse. Povre coeur, entourné de de passions, de tant de nouveautés, de tant de fictions makes ample reference to the musical novelties and musica ficta of Le Jeune's Italian contemporaries (Marenzio, Luzzaschi, Gesualdo). Unfortunately the busy lute added here confuses rather than clarifies the musical difficulties. This should be a cappella, and much more Italian in style — flexibility of rhythm, lingering over the chromaticisms. And finally, the booklet, though it has notes in French, English and German, gives the French texts, with no translations. Shame, shame, shame! I would not like to see this continue. Even Anglophones with some French may need help once in a while.
But these niggles are not enough to detract from your enjoyment of a well-programmed and beautifully sung recording of important repertoire, a worthy addition to the oeuvre of a fundamental ensemble. Warmly recommended.
Tom Moore
* Editor's Note: The Protestant composer, Claude Goudimel, was also a victim of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in August 1572. He is best known for his contributions to the so-called Geneva Psalter. See Paul-André Gaillard/Richard Freedman: 'Goudimel, Claude: Works', Grove Music Online.