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.
If there ever was a moment where architecture and music became passionately tied to one another, it would be when the polychoral music of the 16th century was tied to St. Mark’s cathedral in Venice.
By placing choral members in various positions across the chapel, the western choir leaders created the first ‘surround sound’ experience. Cori Spezzati or, “Divided Chorus” was the method in which this polychoral music was positioned across the chapel to create such a spellbinding effect. Of all composers working in this genre, Giovanni Gabrieli seemed most capable of creating such magic. This method rooted itself in Venice partially with thanks to St Marks Cathedrals choirmaster and composer Adrian Willaert. He formed the connective tissue between post-Josquin De Prez composition and what we now hear on this masterful compact disc presented to us by the Chamber Choir of Europe.
This recording, also offered as a Super Audio CD, displays the composers who flourished under the Venetian School established by Willaert. The Chamber Choir of Europe presents us with a dazzling performance centered on the secular madrigal and sacred works of Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli and Claudio Merulo. Performances of pieces by Andrea Gabrieli, who studied under Willaert, provide a link from the Franco-Netherlandish style to a later style typical of Venetian polychoral music, exemplified by his nephew, Giovanni.
Listening to these transitions, we can be thankful that Giovanni kept copious records of his uncle’s work. He kept a scrupulous eye on the past, but Giovanni was an innovator for his time, and even when compared to his uncle. Andrea’s “Alla battaaglia” or “A le guancie de rose” are simple, direct and uncomplicated compared to Giovanni’s “Amor dove mi guidi” which employs three four-part choirs. Even Giovanni’s “Kyrie eleison” a massive sounding call and response between choirs - showcases a change in composition and choir organization from Andrea’s compositions.
Giovanni is surely the cinemascopic composer of the Venetian school of polyphonic vocal music on this disc. His madrigals show a quality and complexity that the other composers featured on “Cori Spezzati” lack. However, Willaert, who played such an integral part in this genre, seems shortchanged with merely one minuscule yet scintillating piece, “Oh bene mio.” The listener will benefit from hearing this piece; not only does it refer to the root of the art form of the madrigal, but one can follow its evolution by listening to Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli afterward.
“Cori Spezzati” makes a curious inclusion of three composers from outside of the Venetian school, sent by their kings to study with Giovanni Gabrieli, master his style and return to their respective countries with their own version of the polychoral music of Venice in hand. Still, the madrigals of Johann Grabbe, Hans Nielson and Mogens Perdersøn do serve more than historical interest. Grabbe’s “Cor Mio” and Nielson’s “Deh dolce anima” sound slightly more dark and brooding than Giovanni’s preceding, “Alma cortee s’e bella”. They lack the intensity and elaborations either Gabrieli. But their presence on this album brings the listener a wider scope and variety of the mid-sixteenth century’s polychoral spectrum.
“Cori Spezzati” is an exquisite recording. The Chamber Choir of Europe perform near flawlessly and offer the listener a world of stereoscopic sound and vocal beauty. Only the mostly-English liner notes pose a problem; they lyrics are translated into German. But language should not deter one from hearing a piece such as Giovanni’s “Kyrie eleison”, whose vocals spiral to the heavens and almost echo or cascade off of one another. The beauty of this piece and others on “Cori Spezzati” is as impressive and miraculous as Saint Marks itself.
Blair Fraipont