CD Reviews - May 2015

The Choir of Magdalen College, Oxford, conducted by Daniel Hyde, have begun a recording relationship with the label Opus Arte, and two of their discs, of vastly different repertoire, are reviewed here.  Dieterich Buxtehude (c.1637-1707) was probably born in Helsingborg, then part of Denmark but now in Sweden, but later settled in Lübeck, Germany. He worked as an organist, but was widely respected as a composer, and was visited by Handel and Telemann, as well as J S Bach, who walked 200 miles from Armstadt to hear him play.  His Membra Jesu nostri is is a set of seven cantatas, each a meditation on a different part of Christ’s body on the cross. The cantatas all begin with a short instrumental sonata, and then Buxtehude bookends one or more solo arias setting parts of the Salva mundi text with repeated choral settings of various biblical texts.  Throughout, Buxtehude uses exquisite word painting to bring out the text. The arias, some solo and some for a trio of voices, all follow a similar pattern, with three sections set for different voices, over a repeated accompaniment, separated by an instrumental ritornello.  In this way, Buxtehude maintains a potentially constraining repeated format, whilst ensuring variety and scope for expressive exploration of the poetic text.  In this recording, most of the solo soprano arias are sung by several treble voices, and the other solo parts are taken by John Mark Ainsley (tenor), Robin Blaze (countertenor) and Giles Underwood (bass).  The piece would have been originally sung using boys voices, but I have to say I am more used to hearing it (and prefer it) with female voices.  Here, the choir sound best in the full choral sections, producing a strong blended sound.  But the individual or pared down treble voices sound too undernourished for me, with occasionally rather fragile tuning too. This creates an uneven balance with the excellent male soloists, particularly in the sequences of verse arias.  The small viol consort, Phantasm, are excellent throughout, perfectly underpinning the singing as well as providing contrast in the sonatas that begin each section.

Buxtehude, D. 2014. Membra Jesu nostri. John Mark Ainsley, Robin Blaze, Giles Underwood, Choir of Magdalen College Oxford, Phantasm, David Hyde. Compact Disc. Opus Arte  OA CD9023 D.

Matthew Martin (b.1976) won a British Composer Award for his anthem ‘In the year that King Uzziah died’, which is recorded on this disc, along with a selection of his choral compositions, many of these world premiere recordings.  Most of the music was written between 2011 and 2014, mostly commissions from cathedral and college choirs and festivals.  The style is clearly rooted in the Anglican cathedral tradition, and the choir here are thus in very comfortable territory.   As a result, this was a much more successful recording for me than their Buxtehude. Organist Stephen Farr gives able support throughout. The ‘Magnificat’ and ‘Nunc Dimittis’ written for The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge are dramatic settings, with striking bitonal harmonies between choir and organ.  In contrast, the brief, a capella ‘Justorum animae’, written to commemorate the death of a friend is simple yet touching, and the ethereal lines weaving between organ, choir and solo treble in ‘Dormi, Jesu!’, also written to mark the death of another friend, are equally affecting.  This may not be music to listen to a whole album of in one go, but as a record of this talented composer’s output the performances here are exemplary, and there are a number of works here that could and should be successfully performed in concert settings.

Martin, M. 2015. Jubilate Deo - Sacred Choral Works. Stephen Farr, Choir of Magdalen College, Oxford, Daniel Hyde.

Hugo Stähle (1826-1848) died tragically young from meningitis, aged just twenty-one.  Consequently, despite apparently showing considerable talent and promise, there is little of his music published. His Piano Quartet, Op.1 remains, as do a symphony, one opera and some song cycles and piano pieces. He was a pupil of Louis Spohr, and friends with the composer Gade and the Schumanns. His music in this piano quartet has a definite Schubertian feel – there is nothing that one might call exceptional, but the lyrical and understated slow movement definitely has something original to say, and the finale has real energy in its playful rhythms.  The Mozart Klavierquartett are strong advocates for this undiscovered gem in their spirited performance here (a rereleased recording from 1988).  I was less convinced by their performance of Antonín Dvořák’s (1841-1904) Piano Quartet No. 1, Op. 23. The Czech inflections need much more bite, and the theme and variations that form the slow movement need greater passion.  Having said that, they steer a secure path through the range of musical ideas that Dvořák crammed into the finale, and bring the piece to a rousing conclusion. Overall, the Stähle is the work here that makes this recording a worthwhile purchase – for the Dvořák alone, there are many more worthy rivals out there.

Various. 1988. Hugo Stähle/Antonín Dvořák Piano Quartets. Mozart Klavierquartett. Compact Disc. MDG 615 0233-2.

(Edited versions of some of these reviews first appeared in GScene, May 2015)

CD Reviews - December 2013

Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) was born in Dublin, but was one of the founding professors of the Royal College of Music in London at the age of 29.  However, his music has perhaps always been overshadowed by the success of his pupils, such as Holst and Vaughan Williams.  He left us with a considerable body of music, including seven symphonies, but it is perhaps for his choral music that he is best known.  Even within this repertoire, however, his sacred music is more well known than his many secular partsongs.  The Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir, conducted by Paul Spicer, have released a disc of 25 of these part songs, and they demonstrate the great variety, and command of his choral writing, as well as his ability to use harmony and choral textures to illuminate a text.  On the disc, they have broken up the songs from their sets, which is a good idea, as the variety comes from the different texts and changes in Stanford’s style over the twenty years these songs span.  His settings of Mary Coleridge are the most interesting and successful, but he also set texts by Tennyson, May Byron and anonymous Elizabethan texts.  The most well-known of the partsongs, The Blue Bird, receives an accomplished performance here, with a crystal clear solo from Natalie Hyde.  The Swallow (lightly reflective) and The Haven (dark and atmospheric), two more Coleridge settings, are sensitively performed here.  A few of the songs feel very dated and time-bound now, not least the sycophantic hymn to Queen Victoria, Out in the Windy West.  However, Stanford also shows how far the format can be stretched, with ambitious double choir textures in On Time, similar in some ways to his well-known double-choir Magnificat.  The voices here are strong, full of energy and precision, and incredibly well-drilled.  Occasionally, the higher voices sound a little strident, and I miss the mellower tones that more mature voices would bring.  But these are highly accomplished performances, making this a great collection of Stanford’s partsongs, many not previously available on CD.

Stanford, Sir C. V. 2013. Part Songs. Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir, Paul Spicer. Compact Disc. Somm SOMMCD 0128.

The Hickox Legacy series continues, with a rerelease includind three works by Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) - his Cantata misericordium, and two shorter works, Deus in adjutorium meum, and a Chorale after an Old French Carol.  These are sandwiched between the Requiem da camera by Gerald Finzi (1901-1956) and Two Psalms by Gustav Holst (1987-1934).  The great champion of English music, the late Richard Hickox, conducted the City of London Sinfonia, and The Britten Singers in these recordings from 1991.  Finzi's Requiem da camera, dedicated to his teacher who was killed in action in 1918, is as much of a protest against the pointless of war as Britten's later War Requiem, and deserves to be performed more.  Britten's Cantata misericordium came hot on the heels of his War Requiem, the success of which explains why this later work hasn’t achieved the same status.  Yet it follows the War Requiem remarkably well, being composed for a ceremony to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Red Cross.   It receives a solid performance here, with John Mark Ainsley (tenor) and Stephen Varcoe (baritone) as soloists.  The two Holst Psalms which complete the disc, although well performed, seem slightly out of place in the company of Finzi & Britten's weightier, solemn works.

Various. 2013. Britten, Finzi, Holst: Works for Chorus and Orchestra. John Mark Ainsley, Stephen Varcoe, The Britten Singers, City of London Sinfonia, Richard Hickox. First released 1991. Compact Disc.  Chandos CHAN10783X.

Finally, a disc of piano transcriptions of orchestral works by Frederick Delius (1862-1934).  Delius was born in Bradford, the son of German parents, but lived the latter part of his life in France, after a spell in the USA.  As such, his music shows the influence of both African-American and more significantly, French music, and later embraced a much more individual and chromatic style.  In the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, the transcription of orchestral works for piano solo or duet had become very popular.  In the days before mass availability of recordings, this was often the only way people could ‘hear’ the works at home that they had perhaps heard performed in the concert hall, and domestic piano playing was a significant form of home entertainment.  In this second volume of transcriptions for two pianos, pianists Simon Callaghan and Hiroaki Takenouchi perform five works, all in transcriptions made by friends and fellow composers of Delius.  Paris – The Song of a Great City has a great feel of the cafés, dance halls and night clubs of Paris, jazz harmonies and rhythms mixed with lyrical, atmospheric nocturnal scene painting.  Summer Night on the River is the second of Two pieces for Small Orchestra, the first being the well-known On hearing the first Cuckoo in Spring.  Delius’ amenuensis, Eric Fenby said of this piece: ‘One can almost see the gnats and dragonflies darting over the waterlilies, and the faint white mist hovering over willow-tressed banks and overhanging trees’.  The arrangement by Philip Heseltine (otherwise known as the composer Peter Warlock) captures this idyllic scene perfectly.  The Song of the High Hills, for wordless chorus and large orchestra is a wonderful work, and Percy Grainger’s transcription inevitably cannot capture the magic of the incredibly quiet entry by the choir 10 minutes in, but nevertheless, it does manage to communicate the sense of joy and wonder in nature.  Overall, these are fascinating takes on the orchestral works, and the range of colours and textures achieved by the two pianists here in these delightful performances is highly impressive.

Delius, F. 2013. Orchestral Music arranged for Two Pianos, Volume 2. Simon Callaghan, Hiroaki Takenouchi.  Compact Disc.  Somm SOMMCD0129.

(Edited versions of these reviews first appeared in GScene, December 2013)