CANTICUM CANTICORUM--SONG OF SONGS
ATMA Classique: ACD2 2503

This programming concept isn't new--works based on texts from the biblical Song of Songs--but with ensemble singing this good and musical selections of this high caliber, who cares? The one thing that may be original is the particularly interesting mix of old and new, a range that incorporates Dunstable and Lassus as well as the 20th century's Healey Willan and William Walton.

But it's the singing that's the real star here. These six singers--Dorothee Mields, Catherine Webster, Matthew White, Colin Balzer, Sumner Thompson, and Robert Macdonald--sometimes accompanied by baroque strings and winds, sometimes not, are all experienced artists and veterans of some of the world's finest vocal groups and performing venues. All matters of ensemble precision, balance, blend, phrasing, and expressive articulation come naturally to them, whether it's Purcell (My beloved spake) or Palestrina (Osculetur me osculo oris sui). The two Willan selections--the Marian motets Rise up, my love, my fair one, and I beheld her, beautiful as a dove--are exquisite little gems well known to Canadian choirs but deserving of far greater attention elsewhere; it's nice to hear them in these sensitively sung, one-voice-to-a-part renditions. Other highlights are Walton's lovely marriage motet from 1938, Set me as a seal upon thine heart, and Dunstable's Quam pulchra es, sung here by three ideally matched male voices.

The instrumental accompaniments (and one ensemble-only selection--a Passacaille by Marin Marais) are first-rate, consistently complementary to the voices, and everything is expertly captured in the agreeable acoustic of Quebec's Église Saint-Augustin. Liner notes by François Filiatrault are thoughtful and informative, adding helpful background to understanding the program's choices and purpose. Strongly recommended!

Classicstoday.com -- David Vernier (July 28 2008)
http://www.classicstoday.com/review.asp?ReviewNum=11819

Tchaikovsky, “Symphony Pathetique”
Ondine: ODE 1131-5

Tchaikovsky's mighty last work, forever associated with the mystery surrounding his death, is played with thrilling ferocity, grace and poignancy in this live recording by the Philadelphia under Christoph Eschenbach. This must be one of the finest performances on disc - and one of the most unusual - as Eschenbach has the nerve to follow its unfollowable coda (after a decent pause) with the 10-minute piano piece 'Dumka' (Scenes From a Russian Village). The effect is to remind us yet further of this heart-on-sleeve composer's lifelong sense of isolation.

The Observer – Anthony Holden (August 3 2008)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/aug/03/classicalmusicandopera

Britten Abroad
Signum Classics: SIGCD122

The first Britten songs I ever heard were the song cycles Winter Words and the Michelangelo Sonnets. They were a part of the superb Decca Eclipse series that was so influential in the early seventies. In fact, I think I still have the old vinyl recording in my library – I guess I kept it for sentimental reasons and for the beautiful photograph. Of course the Peter Pears/ Benjamin Britten recording of these songs have been released on CD and are no doubt essential discs in every Britten enthusiast’s collection.  Yet it is important that these works are reinterpreted for each generation, and what was an appropriate style of singing in the 1940s may be less satisfactory sixty years later.

For my money, the review in the Daily Telegraph sums up this present release - "Mark Padmore's singing of the Michelangelo Sonnets has all the grace of the young Pears without his mannerisms ...”  It is one of the strange things about Peter Pears - on the one hand I treasure his renditions of English song and on the other I find myself sometimes reacting less than positively to his style. Yet the bottom line is that the Pears/Britten recording is the baseline from which, I imagine, all others will be judged for many years to come. 

After some thirty years of music listening, I still regard the Sonnets and the Winter Words as being amongst Britten’s masterpieces: both cycles seem to re-define many preconceived notions about English lieder. The one is typically English in its explorations and the other turns its focus to the wider musical world. 

It is not necessary to discuss the Sonnets in any detail, save, to point out that they were completed in the United States in 1940 and were the first songs to be composed specifically for Pears. It is a celebration of their love for each other and the beginning of their personal and professional partnership. These songs are inspired by the Italian ‘bel canto’ tradition and this influence informs both the ‘internal structure and the musical language’. 

I do not know the song-cycle The Poet’s Echo Op. 76, so this was a good opportunity to try to get to grips with it. The work was composed whilst Britten and Pears were on holiday in Russia: they were staying with Mstislav Rostropovich and Galina Vishnevskaya.  At this time Britten had been considering a song-cycle with Russian texts for Vishnevskaya and he had purchased a copy of Pushkin’s poems in a parallel Russian/English translation.  The programme notes suggest that the central theme of the cycle is “the artist’s struggle to elicit some response from an uncomprehending world.”  I enjoyed the piece, but feel that the musical language is not as approachable as his earlier cycles. 

Um Mitternacht, a poem by Goethe, is also new to me. It was composed around 1960, however, for some reason this work remained unpublished during the composer’s lifetime. The sentiment of the poem is the passage of time, and this is appropriate as the composer was close to his fiftieth birthday. This is dark music that never has a flash of light. But then again, the theme of the poem is ‘At Midnight’ so that is to be expected. The English translation does not really endear this poem to me and I guess it loses some of its seriousness. 

Perhaps the loveliest thing on the disc is the Sechs Hölderlin-Fragments which was composed in the summer of 1958. Britten himself regarded these songs highly and declared that they were “probably my best vocal works so far”.  It could be argued that these were his attempt at writing German lieder- yet as Dr John Evans in his excellent sleeve-notes points out, they are more Alban Berg that Franz Schubert. That, notwithstanding, this is a stunningly beautiful reflection on life as time passes. The cycle progresses from a consideration of worldly fame, to a longing for the lost innocence of childhood and ending up with a degree of self doubt.

The cycle was a gift to Prince Ludwig of Bavaria on his fiftieth birthday – a thoughtful gift, certainly, with both men dwelling on the frailty of their reputations. 

Some of the most attractive and downright beautiful pieces on this CD are the folksong settings of French texts. In fact if I was to suggest a starting point for people interested in discovering Benjamin Britten’s vocal works it would be these eight arrangements. There is a simplicity and a subtlety about these pieces that make them almost timeless. Britten is well known for his English Folksong settings, including the ubiquitous Sally Gardens. Yet in these present songs he finds all that is best in Gallic charm and infuses this into virtually every note.  The Times critic suggest that "Gritton all but steals the album with the haunting Il est Quelqu'un". It is a sentiment with which I would wholeheartedly agree. This is one of most gorgeous pieces of music by Britten in particular and in European music in general. 

What we have here is a wonderful CD. I accept that not all the pieces presented may be everyone’s cup of tea. Certainly I needed to do a double-take on The Poet’s Echo. But taken in the round it is a fine presentation of a selection of the composer’s works. It covers that which is well-known, such as the Sonnets and works from the ‘hidden’ repertoire such as the Um Mitternacht and the folksong settings. 

The singing and the playing are superb, the presentation is second to none and the programme notes are ideal. All in all, this is a fine production.

John France-   MusicWeb International (July 2008)
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2008/Aug08/Britten_Abroad_sigcd122.htm

Sibelius Theatre Music
B.I.S. BIS-CD-1912-14

This set contains almost all of Sibelius' incidental music written to accompany spoken theater (King Kristian II, Swanwhite, Pelléas and Mélisande, Belshazzar's Feast, Kuolema, Jedermann, The Language of the Birds, and The Tempest), as well as his ballet-pantomime Scaramouche. Missing are the two movements for strings from The Lizard, which presumably will be included in a later release--but in all respects that matter BIS offers an embarrassment of riches. Indeed, you get to hear most of this music twice, since the complete edition includes both the original theatrical scores (from Vänskä) as well as the later concert suites drawn from them (featuring Järvi). Not everything is duplicated: Everyman, for example, never got turned into a suite (it's a bit too fragmentary), but it's well worth hearing.

The performances are all splendid and extremely well-recorded. There's not a weak link in the bunch. The original scores, with the exception of The Tempest, have no competition on disc, while Järvi's versions of the suites all rank with the best. His is still the only complete recording of Scaramouche, a patchy but fascinating piece. It's true that perhaps only diehard Sibelians will want to compare the arrangements side by side, but at a special price (6 CDs for the price of 3) anyone can afford to sample. This extremely well-executed project certainly deserves your support, and will reward it amply.

Classicstoday.com – David Hurwitz (August 6 2008)
http://www.classicstoday.com/review.asp?ReviewNum=11838

Dvorak: Symphony No. 9, “From the New World”
Naxos 8.570714

Marin Alsop, having moved into main-line repertoire with a highly praised set of the four Brahms symphonies, now undertakes what for me is the greatest individual 19th-century Romantic symphony, Dvořák's New World – already recorded by almost everyone who matters! But she makes it very much her own, with her fine Baltimore orchestra responding with an account full of warmth, moments of high drama, and, above all, finely paced with a flowing, spontaneous feeling. One notes the delightful flute-playing, the bold, strong trombones in tuttis, and the luminous grace of the strings, immediately apparent at the affectionate opening of both first and second movements. The delicate close of the Largo, after the songful repeat of the beautifully simple and very lovely cor anglais melody, is memorable. The movement's central episodes are equally poetic, particularly the gentle clarinet theme over the murmuring bass pizzicnti.

The Scherzo bursts in, and the finale has all the impetus one could want. Yet overall, Alsop's is not a histrionic reading but one full of affectionate touches, the appealing little nudge at the end of the second subject of the first movement for instance, while the closing retrospective section of the finale is particularly satisfying, leaving me saying to myself yet again in pleasure: "What a lovely work this is."

What makes this disc doubly recommendable is the superb account of the Symphonic Variations, inspired but surprisingly neglected. It is a work which after the mysterious opening Lento e molto tranquillo, which is perfectly captured here, needs to move on flexibly but with plenty of impetus, capturing the continual changes of mood and colour. The extraordinary variety of invention and scoring captivates the ear, sometimes perky, sometimes gentle (like the enchanting little repeated-note flute solo, followed immediately by gruff trombones), until it reaches its genial fugal apotheosis and the performance sweeps to its folksy, grandiloquent close. The recording is outstanding in every way, well balanced and vivid in detail, heard within the naturally captured acoustic of Baltimore's fine Symphony Hall.

Gramophone – Ivan March (August 2008)

Kraus: La Primavera
Phoenix 101

The Phoenix Edition aims to rediscover long-forgotten scores. The German record company resurrects four long-forgotten vocal cantatas by Joseph Martin Kraus, a contemporary of Mozart, in a collection featuring soprano Simone Kermes, conductor Werner Ehrhardt and the ensemble L'Arte Del Mondo (101 ).

Kraus' music calls for a vocal virtuoso who can sail into the stratosphere and then swoop down several octaves, all the while executing fiendishly ornate vocal lines. Kermes fills the bill. In Kraus' "La Primavera" her radiant, pure-toned soprano rips through the rapid divisions with amazing accuracy. But her voice also cradles the cantata's lyrical arias in a flow of limpid sound. Ehrhardt has dedicated himself to resurrecting Kraus' music. He shapes buoyant accompaniments for the soprano and summons eager, stylish playing from his instrumental ensemble.

Courier Post – Robert Baxter  (August 10 2008)
http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080810/LIFE06/808100311/1043/ENT