Vocal and Choral

SounZSCApes: From Our Lands
Toronto Children’s Chorus; Elise Bradley
Marquis MAR 439

Following in the footsteps of Jean Ashworth Bartle (who founded the Toronto Children’s Chorus and shaped its sound for 29 years), Elise Bradley emigrated from New Zealand in 2007 to take the helm. This recording honours her journey with a collection of songs from both New Zealand and Canada, including Maori chants alongside compositions celebrating the traditions of Canadian First Nations peoples. Other Canadian favourites such as Song of the Mira and songs by Eleanor Daley and Srul Irving Glick, are paired with New Zealander Dorothy Buchanan’s Peace Song as well as many other compositions, sacred and secular, from both countries.

One continues to be struck by the disciplined care that goes into shaping the sound of young voices in this choir as well as the juxtaposition of seasoned musicians recruited to accompany, teaching excellent musicality to the choristers by example. In this recording the children perform with (amongst others) organist Christopher Dawes, TSO principal oboe Sarah Jeffrey and clarinettist Joaquin Valdepeñas. Elise Bradley hopes to share this music by taking the choir to her native country in the near future; I’m sure they will enjoy the partnership (and the chorus) just as much as we do here.

Zimmermann – Die Soldaten
Laura Akin; Gabriela Beňačková;
Renée Morloc; Daniel Brenna;
Tomasz Konieczny; Alfred Muff;
Wiener Philharmoniker; Ingo Metzmacher
EuroArts 2072588

Salzburg’s Felsenreitschule, a 17th-century riding school carved into a cliff, makes a brilliant setting for this must-see production of Bernd Alois Zimmerman’s landmark opera. It was filmed at the 2012 Salzburg Festival, where director Alvis Hermanis staged the non-stop action in front of a series of archways, with live horses parading around behind.

Die Soldaten (The Soldiers) tells a bleak, violent story. But Hermanis avoids sensationalizing it, and instead takes a poetic approach. So at key moments, like the pivotal rape scene, his dramatic use of the bales of hay that are strewn around the stage makes the impact all the more powerful.

The cast is stellar. But it’s Laura Aikin’s tour-de-force performance as Marie that ultimately grabs attention. It’s not just her fearless delivery of the treacherously jagged vocal lines. Her characterization of a naive young lady who is just trying to get ahead is utterly convincing, even when, at the end, she is so brutalized by the soldiers that her own father doesn’t recognize her. Right from the explosive opening chords, the Vienna Philharmonic under Ingo Metzmacher projects the vivid colours and textures that make this opera, now 50 years old, sound thoroughly contemporary.

Unfortunately there are no views into the huge orchestra, while the stage is too often filmed in close-up. When Marie walks across a tightrope suspended high above the stage, it is filmed so closely that it’s evident she’s an acrobatic double dressed as Marie, undermining the potent image of Marie balanced precariously on a high-wire.

Giuseppi Scarlatti – Dove è amore è gelosia
Lenka Máčiková; Aleš Briscein;
Kateřina Knežíková; Jaroslav Březina; Schwarzenberg Court Orchestra;
Vojtěch Spurný
Opus Arte OA 1104 D

Prince Joseph Adam of Schwarzenberg left the education of his children (nine of them by Princess Maria Theresia of Liechtenstein, since you ask) in the hands of one of the Scarlatti family, Giuseppe, probably a nephew of Domenico. Prince Joseph openly referred to his own “low-brow taste” and love for Italian opera buffa and Scarlatti obliged. Dove è amore è gelosia is a lovesick duel between the widowed Marquise Clarice (Lenka Máčiková) and her suitor Count Orazio (Aleš Briscein) who slog it out, aided by failed suicide attempts (the sword got stuck in its scabbard, you see) and cups of tea carelessly poured by Clarice’s maid Vespetta (Kateřina Knežíková) which only forestall the quarrelling and venomous name-calling.

As if that was not enough, the aristocratic dépit amoureux is parallelled by the slapstick duel between Vespetta and Orazio’s confidant Patrizio (Jaroslav Březina). All make for a classic opera buffa, what with comedies of errors, supremely beautiful trompe l’oeil scenery, stage crew in period costume driving their stage manager to the point of nervous breakdown and even musicians who look over their shoulder in amused appreciation of what is going on.

It is difficult to single out any of the singers. All convey their anguish (and their sense of joy at inflicting anguish), and their satisfaction when they have sorted out all the confusion created throughout the course of this delightful farce. Non-speakers of Italian are greatly helped by the onscreen translations, which are both blunt and priceless: the suitor’s misdirected cry of “You blockhead” is more than matched by the widow’s retort “Get lost. Out!”

And then there is the star without any singing part — Český Krumlov castle where this DVD was filmed. The theatre for this re-enactment lies off the fifth(!) courtyard and is described as a baroque stage in its mature form of 1680. Enjoy this amusing performance.

Mendelssohn – Elias
Christine Schäfer; Cornelia Kallisch; Michael Schade; Wolfgang Schöne; Gächinger Kantorei Stuttgart;
Bach-Collegium Stuttgart; Helmuth Rilling
Hänssler Classic CD 098.017

Mendelssohn’s Elias is known as Elijah in the English-speaking world. And it was in English that the oratorio was first performed at the Birmingham Festival in 1846 with Mendelssohn himself conducting. The work became very popular in England, though by the end of the 19th century a reaction had set in. In 1892 George Bernard Shaw called it “sensuously beautiful in the most refined and fastidiously decorous way, but thoughtless.” Shaw was willing to set Elijah next to the “seraphic,” not religious, music of Gounod but could not find more in it than “exquisite prettiness.” Parsifal, Die Zauberflöte, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and the best of Bach and Handel were adduced as contrasts. In recent years interest in Elijah has revived (there are now 25 recordings available), as listeners have begun to consider the work on its own merits, not as a pale imitation of Handel’s oratorios or Bach’s Passions.

The CDs under review constitute a re-release; the music was recorded in 1994 and the discs were first released soon afterwards. There is stiff competition from two earlier recordings, which both date from 1968: the Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos (a very dramatic reading with Janet Baker superb in the alto arias) and the Wolfgang Sawallisch (with Elly Ameling, Peter Schreier and Theo Adam as Elias). It stands up well, both because of Rilling’s conducting and the quality of the singing. The soloists are Christine Schäfer, soprano, Cornelia Kallisch, alto, Michael Schade, tenor, and baritone Wolfgang Schöne as Elias.

Tutto Verdi – Un ballo in maschera
Francesco Meli; Vladimir Stoyanov;
Kristin Lewis; Elisabetta Fiorillo;
Serena Gamberoni; Teatro Regio di Parma; Gianluigi Gelmetti
Cmajor 724208

By age 46 the world famous Verdi had many triumphs behind him, but all was not smooth sailing. His opera on the subject of regicide was strenuously objected to by the Neapolitan censors and he simply cancelled in disgust. Verdi was taken to court, but went to Rome instead; changed the setting and the protagonist to a mere Governor in remote colonial North America and thus the opera, Un ballo in maschera was premiered and succeeded.

This is a wonderful performance, one of the finest in this Tutto Verdi series of the complete operas. Conductor Gianluigi Gelmetti is an unlikely looking gentleman at first glance but at his first wave of the baton one realizes he is a master. His upbeat tempi have a big sweep that gives the opera the brilliance Verdi intended. The tenor, Francesco Meli (Riccardo), is a young fresh voice, powerful and sensitive; the baritone, Vladimir Stoyanov is beginning to take over from the venerable Nucci in the series. His voice is powerful, well shaded, his acting puts a menace into his Renato and we commiserate with his agony of being a betrayed husband. Serena Gamberoni’s Oscar is a delight — a stunning beauty, her voice supple and flexible, she moves like a real opera star! An American from Arkansas, Kristin Lewis is a passionate Amelia with power, secure in her top notes. Elisabetta Fiorillo (Ulrica), an old-timer now with an alto range, makes a strong impression as the wise and not at all wicked soothsayer.

About the scenery: it’s simply eye-popping and stunning, with grandiose highly artistic architecture, monumental creations and gorgeous colouring.

Editor’s Note:Next month’s WholeNote will feature an extended article by Janos Gardonyi in honour of the bicentennial of Verdi’s birth on October 10, 1813.

George Benjamin – Written on Skin
Barbara Hannigan; Bejun Mehta; Chrisopher Purves; Rebecca Jo Loeb;
Allan Clayton; Pierre-Laurent Aimard; Mahler Chamber Orchestra;
George Benjamin
Nimbus Records NI 5885/6

Written on Skin was a hit right from the first performances at the 2012 Aix-en-Provence festival, where this recording was made. The hard-hitting libretto by British playwright Martin Crimp involves murder, cannibalism and suicide, while the riveting score by fellow Brit George Benjamin includes some of the most sexually charged passages in opera since Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Yet the action unfolds subtly, in a series of intimate conversations, while the diaphanous music, with its silky colours and angular textures, avoids sensationalism altogether.

Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan dazzles as the passionately defiant Agnès. Her husband, the oily, malevolent Protector, is masterfully portrayed by baritone Christopher Purves. Counter-tenor Bejun Mehta is thrilling as the Boy, an itinerant artist.

Though the story is set in the Middle Ages, characters occasionally step into the present to “snap the dead back to life.” So the Boy imagines how a forest where he is taking refuge will be covered by “eight lanes of poured concrete” in a thousand years. Moments like these resonate powerfully. Less effective is when the characters slip into the third person to narrate their own story, or, especially, when the Boy turns up as one of the busybody 21st century angels. Their chilling presence may be provocative as a poetic device, but it does interfere with the drama.

A bonus, Benjamin’s imaginative Duet for piano and orchestra, featuring pianist wizard Pierre-Laurent Aimard, adds to the many reasons to enjoy this terrific recording.

La Voix Nue – Songs for Unaccompanied Voice by Living Composers
Patricia Green
Blue Griffin Records BGR279
bluegriffin.com

An entire disc of unaccompanied vocal works is a courageous undertaking for a singer, as the selection and performance of repertoire as well as its pacing and placement must engage the listener from start to finish. In addition, the singer must execute absolute precision of pitch while effectively conveying dramatic content. The beautiful, rich, warm tone of Patricia Green’s voice, combined with her dramatic sensibilities and skilful musicianship, is perfect for this collection of songs by living composers. These pieces, though modern, for the most part draw on historical material with texts from Shakespeare, Norwegian history, Ovid, Native legend, 5th-6th century aphorisms and surrealist French poetry.

As a committed performer of new music, Green is highly attuned to the intention of composers and respectfully steps out of the studio to delightfully make an exception to her solitude, allowing the accompaniment of birdsong for the excerpt from R. Murray Schafer’s Princess of the Stars. Another interesting and iconic work, King Harald’s Saga by Scottish composer Judith Weir, highlights Green’s dramatic flare, featuring a mixture of narrative and interchanging roles, each of which is given its own characteristic voice. Hillary Tann’s dramatic song cycle Arachne, in which an apprentice weaver takes a haughty stance with her teacher Athene and pays dearly for it, gives Green yet another opportunity to characterize more than one voice. The same again for Jonathan Dove’s setting of Shakespeare’s Tempest verses in Ariel. A couple of eclectic cycles by José Evangelista and György Kurtágprovide the singer a chance to exhibit a light and playful air, most charming indeed.