Page 81 - BBC Music (January 2020)
P. 81
Choral & Song Reviews
Debussy Gesualdo Reissues Reviewed by Paul Riley
Trois Nocturnes; Première Madrigals – Books I and II: Baci
Rhapsodie*; Marche Écossaise soavi e cari; Madonna io ben
sur un theme populaire; Les vorrei; Com’esser può ch’io viva Buxtehude • Campion • Milano • Purcell
soirs illuminés par l’ardeur du se m’uccidi; Gelo ha Madonna il Vocal and Instrumental Works
charbon; La Damoiselle élue seno; Mentre Madonna il lasso Eloquence 484 0518 (1954/55) 72:21 mins
Sophie Bevan (soprano), Anna fianco posa; Se da sì nobil Alfred Deller’s distinctive countertenor lends a
Stéphany (mezzo-soprano), *Sergio mano; Sì gioioso mi fanno i period hue all of its own to Buxtehude and Campion.
Castelló López (clarinet); Upper dolor miei; O dolce mio martire; Once past the arthritic opening, Purcell’s ‘artful’ ode
Voices from the Hallé Choirs; Hallé Tirsi morir volea; Mentre, mia dispenses resolute pomp and circumstance. HHH
Orchestra/Mark Elder stella, miri; Questi leggiadri The Purcell Album Songs and arias
odorosetti fiori, etc
Hallé CD HLL 7552 64:56 mins Alto ALC 1402 (1957-9) 79:20 mins
This is an Les Arts Florissants/Paul Agnew Church and theatre collide in an enjoyable anthology
album to delight Harmonia Mundi HAF 8905307.08 surfing some of Purcell’s most popular works. Poised
students of 81:43 mins (2 discs) and plangent, Alfred Deller’s unmistakeable voice is,
Debussy’s work Usually unhelpfully, the only one credited! HHH
who wish to hear recordings of Handel Cantatas for Saint Cecilia, etc
exactly all the Gesualdo’s Eloquence 482 4753 (1962/70) 65:57 mins
ingredients to his orchestration and madrigals An instinctive nobility informs Helen Watts’s firmly-
how he deploys his instruments. concentrate on contoured Cecilian cantatas; by way of postscript,
Though compiled from four the later books the intimate Neue Deutschen Arien find Robert Tear
different sessions, Mark Elder’s where the harmonies get truly weird operatically full-on. HHHH
vision here remains constant: the and opportunity opens up to link Family Connections
playing is cool-headed, precise the music to the composer’s tortured
and sonically beautiful with soul (he famously murdered his Songs by Mendelssohn, Spohr, Hahn et al
carefully calibrated ensemble, all wife). This by contrast is a welcome Nimbus NI 6395 (1993) 64:14 mins
A scion of the famous banking dynasty explores a
sympathetically recorded with just attempt to record the early books
enough acoustic not to obscure and glimpse for once the basis of unique family album. Charlotte de Rothschild’s poise
any detail. Gesualdo’s style in the basic skills and impeccable phrasing are matched by aristocratic
pianism from Malcolm Martineau. HHHH
Yet this is truly a case of being common to most madrigal writers.
faithful to the letter rather than the Paul Agnew’s group comprises
spirit of the music. There is little a mix of female and male voices
or none of that chemistry required singing just one to a part. This spare
not just by Debussy but also many texture helps the clarity of line and, Haydn the unprecedented setting of the
composers at the turn of the 20th in a work such as ‘Bella Angioletta’ Mass in B flat Benedictus as a breathless Allegro;
century, who expected certain (Book I), fosters coordinated (Harmoniemesse); and the invocation of the sounds
effects to be lovingly burnished, phrasing and dramatic drive. The Symphony No. 99 in E flat; of war preceding the prayer for
and others to be ever so slightly singers also manage nicely the Mireille Asselin (soprano), peace of the Dona nobis. This last
blurred or approximate: under Elder dance rhythms in ‘Danza le ninfe’ Catherine Wyn-Rogers (mezzo- inspiration was one that Beethoven
everything, without exception, is (Book I) and in ‘All’apparir di soprano), Jeremy Budd (tenor), took to still greater heights in his
precisely delineated – which largely quella luci’ (Book II). Mostly these Sumner Thompson (baritone); Missa solemnis.
accounts for the almost total lack performances are quite fast. ‘Sento Handel and Haydn Society Chorus; No less opulently scored than
of any sense of place or atmosphere che nel partire’ (Book II) for example Handel and Haydn Society the Mass is the Symphony No. 99
that Debussy intends his music is moderately chromatic and can Orchestra/Harry Christophers – Haydn’s first to include clarinets.
to conjure. One is always aware drift aimlessly when performed CORO COR16176 68:24 mins Unusually, it even uses the trumpets
foremost of a performance by a slowly – as it does slightly on The and drums in its slow movement,
disciplined group of musicians. the Naxos complete Gesualdo Harmoniemesse which also contains two extended
Elder does not even allow a degree madrigals, and catastrophically on not only marked passages for winds alone. Harry
of excitement to spoil the pristine the Quinto Vocale Italiano complete the end of Christophers takes the minuet at
perfection of ‘Fêtes’ in Nocturnes, recording on Newton Classics. The the series of quite a lick and has to slow down
taken at a steady pace as reliable as a Arts Florissants group is framed Masses Haydn drastically for the ländler-like trio
ticking grandfather clock’s. by a distinct soprano at the top composed for Princess Esterházy’s section. But since the trio is in a
Elder’s sturdy and well-defined and sonorous bass – but they are name-day, but was also his last distant key from the minuet, Haydn
way with this music offers its not always centred enough on the significant composition. Certainly, provides a modulating link back to
own insights: one may hear how pitch to make the best of this music, it’s a monumental piece, and an the da capo, and Christophers’s shift
Debussy’s Marche écossaise took either harmonically or in terms of altogether appropriate way for him of gear here is rather disconcerting.
inspiration from Balakirev’s agility (as in ‘Gelo ha Madonna’ to have bowed out. Still, these are highly convincing
tone poem Tamara, and what from Book I). Some of the pieces Its nickname arises out of the accounts, with a fine line-up of
precisely Vaughan Williams took have been transposed to make the richness of its wind section – soloists in the Mass. These ‘live’
from Debussy’s soundworld. But singers more comfortable, and ‘Harmonie’ being the German performances may not be without
something essential is missing: to this has produced some pleasingly for a wind-band. Among its their occasional blemishes, but their
misquote the French Marshal Pierre controlled, widely ranging dynamic startlingly original features are warmth and their affection for the
Bosquet, ‘C’est magnifique, mais ce contrasts (‘Mentre mia stella’, the way the chorus first enters, music are everywhere in evidence.
n’est pas Debussy’. Daniel Jaffé Book I). Anthony Pryer on a dramatic discord; the fusion Misha Donat
PERFORMANCE HHH PERFORMANCE HHHH of the opening Kyrie and Christe PERFORMANCE HHHH
RECORDING HHHH RECORDING HHHH sections into a continuous whole; RECORDING HHHH
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 83
