Vocal and Choral

Arvo Pärt – The Deer’s Cry
Vox Clamantis; Jaan-Elk Tulve
ECM New Series ECM 2466

A mixture of the new and old recorded here by Estonian choir Vox Clamantis, this CD includes the world-recording premiere of Habitare fratres in unum and the largely plainchant And One of the Pharisees, which had its world premiere in California in 1992. There is a variety of Pärt’s music here: from the innocence-evoking Drei Hirtenkinder aus Fátima to the ode to a gittern, Sei gelobt, du Baum. (Google the latter via leones.de!).

Serendipitously, I started my day reading St. Patrick’s fourth-century prayer, The Deer’s Cry, and the title track contains a purity I would compare to David Lang’s I Lie. The Alleluia-Tropus is different than my recording by Vox Clamantis with Sinfonietta Riga: at a decade’s distance, this a cappella version is 25 seconds longer and less dance-like, perhaps the liturgical pace being more fitting for the intercession of St. Nicholas of Myra. Most notable to me, however, was Summa, a tintinnabulous piece containing the Apostle’s Creed in Latin. While it is recorded here a cappella, as originally written, I only have the string versions of it, which convey swells of movement (indeed, I made a little film with it accompanying a murmuration); the choral is more plodding and deliberate in its affirmation of belief – I could picture Joan of Arc reciting it defiantly, atop the pyre as she awaits the lighting of the wood. The CD ends with Gebet nach dem Kanon, a fitting closing prayer to the collection.The liner notes are Pärtesque: sparse, multilingual and presuming knowledge of his work and liturgical music history. But if you enjoy looking up information (e.g. the Russian scriptures have different versification at times: Drei Hirtenkinder is about the West’s Psalm 8:2), there’s a wealth of enlightenment available. Artistic director Jaan-Eik Tulve has applied the 81-year-old composer’s personal tutelage faithfully, and Pärt devotees will be enraptured, the faithful and secularists alike.

Mother of Light – Armenian hymns and chants in praise of Mary
Isabel Bayrakdarian; Ani Aznavoorian; Coro Vox Aeterna; Anna Hamre
Delos DE 3521 (delosmusic.com)

When in 1997 Isabel Bayrakdarian took the MET auditions by storm, we knew something special was happening. The voice was breathtaking, light, shimmering, silvery and agile. The compliments piled up after some spectacular stage performances. I still vividly remember her star turn at the side of Ewa Podles in the COC’s Julio Cesare. A succession of JUNO-winning albums followed and then… her career seemingly stalled. When I heard her again a few years later, I realized that her voice was changing. From a light-as-mist soprano, it was becoming more dramatic, gravitating more and more towards a mezzo sound. A voice in search of the right repertoire? Well, fear not, Bayrakdarian has found it! The enchanting, exotic music of Armenia is the perfect foil for Ms. Bayrakdarian’s “grown-up” voice. It’s lush, languid, opulent and absolutely remarkable. The arrangements for cello and voice shock with their purity of melodic line and meditative quality already built in. This may very well be an album to obsess about. In the space of just a week, I must have listened to it at least ten times. The usual superb quality of Delos recordings only enhances the beauty of the experience. It will be exciting to see what will be the next steps in the recording career of this gifted artist.

Dolce Vita
Jonas Kaufmann
Sony Classical 88875183632 (sonymusicmasterworks.com)

Jonas Kaufmann has it all: one of the most beautiful tenor voices in the world and a stage presence that makes him a convincing leading man, especially when portraying a passionate lover. He is sought after by most if not all the important opera companies. He was chosen to inaugurate the beautiful and controversial Elphie, the new Elbenphilharmonie Hall in Hamburg, a $1 billion orgy of architecture and acoustics. He has a rare quality, namely artistic integrity, which enabled him to walk away from a disastrous production of Manon Lescaut at the Met with just weeks to spare. So why, oh why did he record this crossover album?

The answer is very simple: at his level of fame and success, unlike in most of classical music nowadays, these recordings are still big business. Sony Classical realized that they have on their hands a possible platinum or double platinum seller. At different times, different artists have been put under the same pressure: Caruso, Kiepura and now Kaufmann. Having repeatedly stated my bias against crossover recordings in this space, I decided to put it aside and give the disc a thorough listen. It will sell like hotcakes. The reason is simple: Jonas Kaufmann. No matter how schmaltzy the material, no matter how insipid the playing of Orchestra del Teatro Massimo di Palermo, that voice is simply superb. Shower tenors of this world, rejoice! This is your singalong album. The reason I fully support this CD is also simple. I sincerely hope it will obliterate Michael Bolton and Andrea Bocelli in the popular consciousness. If we are going to devour aural candy, it may as well be delicious!

Antonio Lotti – Crucifixus
Syred Consort; Orchestra of St. Paul’s; Ben Palmer
Delphian DCD34182
(delphianrecords.co.uk)

Antonio Lotti died in 1740 and by the end of the 18th century his music had been virtually forgotten. In 1838, however, two of his settings of the Crucifixus were republished and it is these settings by which Lotti is still generally known – in so far as his music is known at all. This recording demonstrates, however, that both pieces are parts of larger works: the Crucifixus for eight voices is part of the Missa Sancti Christophori, while the Crucifixus for six voices is part of a Credo in G Minor. This recording gives performances of both works and shows the context from which the two Crucifixus settings were plucked. Both settings of the Crucifixus gain a great deal from being placed in the right context. There are two other works on the disc: a setting of the psalm Dixit Dominus and a Miserere in C Minor.

In the booklet that comes with the CD Ben Byram-Wingfield mentions the recent interest in early music, saying that Vivaldi’s Gloria and his Four Seasons were “almost unknown only a handful of decades ago.” That is surely an exaggeration. I don’t know about the Gloria but I well remember that The Four Seasons evoked a great deal of interest as far back as the 1950s.

This CD constitutes an important addition to the Baroque music available on disc. Lotti’s voice is distinctive. No one is likely to confuse his style with that of Bach or Handel, although that of Vivaldi comes closer. The Syred Consort is a chamber choir of 13 voices. Much of the music is one on a part and the singers are good enough to perform it. Ben Palmer’s conducting ensures the rhythmic vitality of the performances.

Bach – Birthday Cantatas BWV213; BWV214
Bach Collegium Japan; Masaaki Suzuki
BIS-2161

Most of Bach’s cantatas were written for church performance but he also composed a number of secular works. Masaaki Suzuki has completed his recordings of the religious works and has now turned his attention to the secular cantatas. The first on the disc, Lasst uns sorgen, lasst uns wachen, was written in 1733 on the occasion of the 11th birthday of the Saxon Electoral Prince Friedrich Christian. It dramatizes the Greek myth according to which Hercules was met by Lust and by Virtue. Forced to make a choice, he predictably chooses Virtue. Bach set the part of Lust for a soprano (Joanne Lunn) and that of Virtue for a tenor (Makoto Sakurada). Hercules himself is an alto (Robin Blaze) and the part of Mercury is sung by a bass (Dominik Wörner).

The second cantata, Tönet, ihr Pauken! Erschallet, Trompeten!, also has four soloists (sung here by the same singers): the Goddess of War is a soprano, the Goddess of Arts and Science is an alto, the Goddess of Peace is a tenor and the Goddess of Fame is a bass. It also dates from 1733 and was written to celebrate the 34th birthday of the Prince-Elector’s wife. Much of the music in both cantatas was adapted by Bach later and became part of the Christmas Oratorio.

These are fine performances. In the first of the two cantatas I regretted that Hercules made his decision so soon as it deprived us of Lunn’s lovely soprano voice. I also liked Wörner the bass, a singer whom I had not previously heard. Among the orchestral musicians, two stand out: Masamitsu San’nomiya, who plays first oboe as well as the oboe d’amore, and Jean-François Madeuf, who plays both trumpet and French horn.

Stravinsky Choral Works – Mass; Cantata
Choir of St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh; Duncan Ferguson
Delphian DCD34164
(delphianrecords.co.uk)

This CD comprises works Stravinsky wrote after he was Orthodoxically reborn in 1926. The discretely composed parts of the Mass run from celebratory to sparse, and even the two Credos are contradictory: one is stalwart and modern, the other urgent and sounding slightly more like traditional English church music. The Choir of St. Mary’s Cathedral is joined by youngsters from the dedicated choir school, as the composer had intended the Mass to be sung. The blend is wholesome.

The Cantata is based on Middle English songs on Christian themes but likely with secular origins. Soloists Ruby Hughes’ and Nicholas Mulroy’s voices complement each other and so in turn do the choral Versus refrains of A Lyke-Wake Dirge, which recount the voyage of the dead from Earth to purgatory. The setting of Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day was new to me, as was the controversy of the inclusion by Stravinsky of the anti-Semitic middle verse, which is outlined in the liner notes.

The a cappella Tres Sacrae Cantiones, some of the partially lost pieces of late-Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo, were “finished off” by Stravinsky, at a safe remove of 300 years!

Duncan Ferguson deftly conducts Scottish Chamber Orchestra soloists so that the two larger pieces are accompanied in the truest sense of that word; they go alongside their singing companions rather than merely support them. This would be a lovely addition for collectors of Stravinsky, jack-of-all-eras.

Stabat Mater – Sacred Choral Music by Lennox & Michael Berkeley
Marian Consort; Berkeley Ensemble; David Wordsworth
Delphian DCD34180
(delphianrecords.co.uk)

It is indeed a pleasure to witness the resurrection of a worthy, yet neglected English vocal work, particularly when performed so eloquently as by the Marian Consort. They deliver this 20th-century musical setting of the 13th-century text with all the precision, depth of feeling and intimacy required. Lennox Berkeley’s Stabat Mater was originally commissioned by Benjamin Britten who premiered the work in 1947 with his English Opera Group tour. The next known performance took place at the Aldeburgh Festival in 1953 and the BBC presented a broadcast performance in 1965. The intricate scoring calls for four-part chorus and 12 exceptional instrumentalists (flute, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, harp, percussion and string quartet) and conductor David Wordsworth, who serves as chairman of the Berkeley Society, leads the ensemble with great sensitivity and meticulous execution.

Berkeley’s exquisite Mass for Five Voices was composed for the choir of Westminster Cathedral in 1964. In this and another a capella work Judica me, the Marian Consort fully exploits their experience performing early music with perfect intonation and diction. The recording ends with Touch Light by Lennox’s son Michael Berkeley; a rapturous nod to Monteverdi with its sensuous dissonances and highly ornamented phrasing.