Classical CDs Weekly: Britten, Poulenc, Peter Whelan | reviews, news & interviews
Classical CDs Weekly: Britten, Poulenc, Peter Whelan
Classical CDs Weekly: Britten, Poulenc, Peter Whelan
Rediscovered scores for stage and radio, sacred French choral music and a showcase for the Baroque bassoon
Britten to America – music for radio and theatre Hallé/Sir Mark Elder, Ex Cathedra/Jeffrey Skidmore Samuel West (narrator) (NMC)
The official catalogue of Britten’s music currently runs to 1183 pieces – so, besides the 95 works with opus numbers there’s an enormous amount which remains little-known. The works assembled here can’t be described as juvenilia. Not everything stands up to repeated listening, but much of the music is highly engaging. Britten’s score for Auden and Isherwood’s mountaineering drama The Ascent of F6 was written largely on the hoof, and he was exasperated by the director’s continual demands for extra cues and alterations. Scored for voices, two pianos and percussion, the better numbers have a freshness and wit which still shines through. There’s an effective fake Tibetan chant for a chorus of monks, and the brittle, bright textures already suggest mature Britten. The problems lie with Auden and Isherwood’s words, which are irritatingly arch and self-concious – they read beautifully as plain text, but sound cumbersome when sung. Similar issues blight the same team’s 1937 follow up, On the Frontier – though the music is frequently fabulous heard on its own terms. Did any 20th century composer write so well for trumpets?
More satisfying is an incidental orchestral score composed for a joint BBC/CBS radio series in 1942, An American in England – a propaganda project designed to foster Anglo-US relations by describing the realities of life in wartime Britain. The lyrical horn solos were written for the young Dennis Brain. But if only more of the music was audible – having an excellent Samuel West recreating the original narration over the top becomes increasingly intrusive, however mellifluous the voice. But we’re lucky to be able to hear these works at all; the performances are consistently good and this disc contains 79 minutes of music. It closes with a 1943 setting of Louis MacNeice’s Where Do We Go From Here? Soprano Mary Carewe’s full-throated delivery suggests that Britten could have written a fantastic Broadway musical.
Poulenc: Sept Répons des Ténèbres, Stabat Mater Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Capella Amsterdam, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra/Daniel Reuss (Harmonia Mundi)
Poulenc’s Stabat Mater is relatively well-known, and his Gloria has almost gained the status of popular classic. Far less well-known is his final choral work, the Sept Répons des Ténèbres. Commissioned by Leonard Bernstein, it was premiered posthumously in New York 1963 - Poulenc having died shortly after correcting the manuscript for publication. He specified that it should be performed by boys’ and mens’ voices with a treble soloist. This new recording is given by a mixed choir, but Daniel Reuss’s sopranos and altos do sing with piercing clarity and a noticeable lack of vibrato. They're matched by soprano Carolyn Sampson's cool, clean approach. The Sept Répons really need to be heard as they were conceived, but this version is an appealing compromise. Musically, it’s remarkable – the levels of dissonance and violence far higher than you’d expect from Poulenc. Some of the more angular vocal lines sound dodecaphonic, but they invariably modulate into squelchy, rich carpets of sonic loveliness. It’s fantastic, in other words. Listen to the brief Tenebrae factae sunt – a three minute encapsulation of this composer’s idiosyncratic genius. Sensuality, colour, drama, immediacy – they’re all here. I defy any sensitive listener to remain dry-eyed when they reach the closing minutes, as Poulenc bids us farewell with an exquisite, bluesy chord. Reservations about mixed voices notwithstanding, this is a fantastic reading, Daniel Reuss’s choirs singing with fearless security over fine orchestral support.
We're not short of good recordings of Poulenc's Stabat Mater, his "requiem without despair". As with the Sept Répons, there are occasional terrors, though always offset by consolation. Reuss's performance has plenty of dramatic bite, and his massed voices have satisfying weight. Sampson is again excellent, her voice more coloured in a work which needs a more full-blooded approach. She's marvellous in the Vidit suum dulcem natum, given sumptuous, velvety support by the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. All handsomely recorded - an essential purchase.
The Proud Bassoon: Virtuoso Works for Baroque Bassoon and Continuo Peter Whelan & Ensemble Marsyas (Linn)
Bassoonists have every right to feel proud. Theirs is an oft-maligned, neglected instrument – presumably down to a dearth of good teachers and the scarcity of beginner bassoons in schools. There are already legions of junior flautists and clarinetists clogging up youth orchestras and wind bands, so those readers with musically inclined offspring should steer them bassoonwards. Geoffrey Burgess’s sleeve note traces the instrument's history - the bassoon’s prestige had soared in the court of Louis XIV, and Baroque composers were quick to exploit the developing instrument’s lyrical upper register. Its unmatched ability to sing is heard to brilliant effect on this superb CD, played by the Dublin-born principal of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Peter Whelan. There’s a delightful Sonata in G by Boismortier; its sublime opening Largo could be a wordless operatic aria. The ensuing Allemanda’s bassoon writing is more typical, the rapid octave leaps both athletic and musical. You’ll marvel at Whelan's supernatural ability to sustain improbably long phrases with a single breath.
Couperin’s brief four-movement suite Les gouts-réunis is a charming set of duets for bassoon and cello; with the bassoon taking the upper part. Especially rewarding is a Sonata in F minor by the much-maligned Telemann. He’s still dismissed as an inconsistent composer who wrote far too much, but this little work is a delight. The accompaniment is beautifully judged too; Thomas Dunford’s lute adding a touch of lightness in contrast to Philippe Grisvard’s veiled continuo. Boismortier’s Sonata in E minor is another treat, and the recital closes with an Irish folk song arranged for bassoon and continuo by Matthew Dubourg – who led the violins in the first Dublin performance of Handel’s Messiah. An enchanting collection – accompanied with deft brilliance, and nicely recorded too.
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