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Mary Chambers
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« on: 18:54:00, 01-09-2007 » |
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A marvellous concert for the most part, particularly the Auden stuff from the 30s. I've never heard the Cabaret Songs better sung (Christine Rice), and I loved the Daryl Runswick arrangement for chamber ensemble, echt Britten or not. I thought Andrew Kennedy and Iain Burnside did On this Island very well, except that not all the words were audible, but that is difficult in this piece. The Way to the Sea was very enjoyable (though whoever was introducing it was quite wrong to say that Britten didn't find his own "way to the sea" until he moved to Aldeburgh. He lived his whole childhood and youth in a house facing the sea in Lowestoft). Night Mail is always a winner - I only wish I'd been in the hall to watch the film and see how good the synchronisation was.
I wasn't very impressed by the Matthews-completed piece in memory of Dennis Brain. It started well, but sort of drifted after that. The Serenade was spoiled for me by Andrew Kennedy's very distorted vowels. This time I could hear the words, but not as they were meant to be - "The splendour folls on castle wolls", not to mention "oll hees skeell" (all his skill). I also thought he chopped up the phrasing rather, though he can hit all the notes. Horn pretty good (Richard Watkins), but the odd blip. Orchestra fine (Nash Ensemble, Edward Gardner).
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Ruth Elleson
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« Reply #1 on: 00:39:52, 02-09-2007 » |
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I certainly agree about AK's vowels!
I am glad that this concert seems to have come across better on the radio than it did in the hall. Normally my seats for PCMs and PSMs are front centre-ish; this time for some reason I was seated on a side aisle (the five or six of my friends who were there were all also seated in a side block or side gallery) and most agreed that the acoustic completely failed us. In the narrated pieces (which were amplified) the sound seemed to be going somewhere else; the words of the Cabaret Songs (sung by an extremely pregnant Christine Rice) disappeared too.
The "In memoriam" was inconsequential I thought, and it was a shame about the cracked note at the very start. I loved the Serenade, though many of my friends didn't, and I was also impressed by On This Island.
Completely off-topic other than it being about Britten: On the way out of the hall I picked up a leaflet for the City of London Sinfonia's upcoming performance of Owen Wingrave. What better night could they have chosen for this than 4th December, which clashes with the tickets I have for GOT's Albert Herring at Sadler's Wells. AH is also being performed on the 7th, but I can't re-book for that date as I have tickets for the LSO's Billy Budd! What is it with Britten scheduling in this city? Last November the Philharmonia decided to do Death in Venice on exactly the same two nights that Opera North was doing Peter Grimes.
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« Last Edit: 00:42:11, 02-09-2007 by Ruth Elleson »
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Oft hat ein Seufzer, deiner Harf' entflossen,
Ein süßer, heiliger Akkord von dir
Den Himmel beßrer Zeiten mir erschlossen,
Du holde Kunst, ich danke dir dafür!
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Mary Chambers
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« Reply #2 on: 10:12:59, 02-09-2007 » |
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Not only that, Ruth, but Turn of the Screw is on at the Coliseum in early December as well. A few years ago I had to choose between Peter Grimes at the ROH and Midsummer Night's Dream at the Coli. I don't live in London so my visits are limited.
It's a shame that you couldn't hear the words of the Cabaret Songs, because Christine Rice did them so well. The narrations for the two films were very well done as well. I've never been to the Cadogan Hall, but if I ever do I'll remember to be careful where I sit.
I should think the horn player who cracked the opening note will be furious with himself, but "inconsequential" is a good word for that piece - after all, Britten presumably abandoned it for a good reason.
I'm interested that your friends didn't like the Serenade. That's the Britten piece that almost everyone likes.
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #3 on: 10:29:47, 02-09-2007 » |
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I'm interested that your friends didn't like the Serenade. That's the Britten piece that almost everyone likes. Seconded there. The Serenade was part of a mini-Fest of British music we toured around regional cities in Russia in 2005/6 under the auspices of the British Council, with David Barrell (WNO) and Alexei Raev (Principal Horn of Bolshoi Theatre Orch) as soloists. Britten's work is sadly underplayed in Russia (there still hasn't ever been a professional production of MND, although there is quiet progress on plans for one, ehem...) and wherever we took this programme the Serenade was rapturously received. (This was due in no small part to the bravura performance it got... Barrell is a fairly beefy tenor (he also sings Grimes) and we had wanted to take a robust approach to the work by way of a change). British music is rarely played in places like Nizhny Novgorod, Ekaterinburg, Perm, Krasnodar or Sochi... we're fairly certain that the entire programme was "for the first time" in all the locations we played. We are hoping to do LES ILLUMINATIONS next year by way of follow-up. (There were also works by three living UK composers represented on the programmes). Conductors were Vladislav Bulakhov (Vremena Goda Orchestra) and Mikhail Granovsky (Bolshoi Theatre). |
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
- Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
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time_is_now
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« Reply #4 on: 10:34:43, 02-09-2007 » |
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We are hoping to do LES ILLUMINATIONS next year by way of follow-up. With a tenor, I hope! Les Illuminations sung by a female voice should be my contribution to the 'Musical phobias' thread, although I'm not sure I can explain why. There were also works by three living UK composers represented on the programmes. Who/what were they, out of interest? |
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The city is a process which always veers away from the form envisaged and desired, ... whose revenge upon its architects and planners undoes every dream of mastery. It is [also] one of the sites where Dasein is assigned the impossible task of putting right what can never be put right. - Rob Lapsley
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Mary Chambers
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« Reply #5 on: 10:36:20, 02-09-2007 » |
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MND was certainly planned for performance at the Bolshoi in the 1960s (the time when Britten's music was plugged by Rostropovich) - perhaps it never happened? It's mentioned either in letters or Pears's diaries that Oberon was sung by a woman, there being no counter-tenors around at the time.
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Ian Pace
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« Reply #6 on: 10:46:42, 02-09-2007 » |
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Les Illuminations sung by a female voice should be my contribution to the 'Musical phobias' thread, although I'm not sure I can explain why. Hmmmm - personally, I could remove 'sung by a female voice' from the above  . Wonderful texts, though. |
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'These acts of keeping politics out of music, however, do not prevent musicology from being a political act . . .they assure that every apolitical act assumes a greater political immediacy' - Philip Bohlman, 'Musicology as a Political Act'
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time_is_now
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« Reply #7 on: 10:50:17, 02-09-2007 » |
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Les Illuminations sung by a female voice should be my contribution to the 'Musical phobias' thread, although I'm not sure I can explain why. Hmmmm - personally, I could remove 'sung by a female voice' from the above . Erm, I'm glad you said that, because I was having a seriously confused moment. I actually meant Our Hunting Fathers, believe it or not.   |
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The city is a process which always veers away from the form envisaged and desired, ... whose revenge upon its architects and planners undoes every dream of mastery. It is [also] one of the sites where Dasein is assigned the impossible task of putting right what can never be put right. - Rob Lapsley
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Mary Chambers
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« Reply #8 on: 10:51:35, 02-09-2007 » |
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Rimbaud's just not girl stuff, either.
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richard barrett
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« Reply #9 on: 10:58:06, 02-09-2007 » |
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Rimbaud's just not girl stuff, either.
Dear me no. I wonder what BB thought about that... |
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George Garnett
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« Reply #10 on: 11:10:57, 02-09-2007 » |
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But written for a female voice in the first instance (by Britten, I mean, not Rimbaud)?
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Ian Pace
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« Reply #11 on: 11:21:15, 02-09-2007 » |
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Rimbaud's just not girl stuff, either. A bit like Yorkie Bars. |
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'These acts of keeping politics out of music, however, do not prevent musicology from being a political act . . .they assure that every apolitical act assumes a greater political immediacy' - Philip Bohlman, 'Musicology as a Political Act'
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Mary Chambers
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« Reply #12 on: 12:09:11, 02-09-2007 » |
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But written for a female voice in the first instance (by Britten, I mean, not Rimbaud)?
First performed by a female voice, yes, but as I've quoted before, Britten wrote in a letter about the first two "terrific" Rimbaud songs, "Actually for Sophie in Birmingham, but eventually for PP everywhere!". It's safe to assume that he had Pears's voice in mind, certainly by the time he wrote the rest, and he went to some lengths to make sure that Sophie Wyss didn't record them or perform them much, if at all, once Pears was a soloist. |
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oliver sudden
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« Reply #13 on: 12:16:26, 02-09-2007 » |
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But written for a female voice in the first instance (by Britten, I mean, not Rimbaud)?
Both Our Hunting Fathers and Les Illuminations for that matter. I have no problem with either being sung by singers of either of the two principal genders... Indeed I think I might even have a preference for a female voice in Les Illuminations; some of it does for me sit rather better in the orchestral texture at the upper octave, I find (and of course a female singer is far more likely to have the full two octaves and a bit at her disposal). I did also see a particularly fine young Australian soprano perform it a decade and a bit ago which doubtless has a bit to do with it. It did get me in trouble with my mezzo-soprano then-girlfriend on the other hand. Especially when a bit later on we were in Tuscany for Christmas and the said soprano joined us for a few days. We weren't having the very stablest of relationships by that point and there was one evening when the mezzo ordered me out of bed to go and sleep in the other bed in the room where the soprano was sleeping. We must have sung through a fair percentage of Les Illuminations before I was ordered to come back to the other room. Ah, memories. Looking back on it that's a particularly odd one but I'm quite sure it did actually happen. |
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #14 on: 12:17:17, 02-09-2007 » |
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Erm, I'm glad you said that, because I was having a seriously confused moment. I actually meant Our Hunting Fathers, believe it or not. Really? Have you heard either of the Heather Harper live recordings? But then I seem to be in a minority here regarding the Bostridge recording. The live Pears is pretty stunning, though, but I still feel in my heart of hearts that the sheer technical dazzle of Harper and the change in balance from having the voice over (rather than within) the orchestra's range adds something extra.( Though, as I've mentioned before, the fact that I came to learn the piece from an off-air recording of a performance by a rather younger Harper has a lot to do with this....) |
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