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English Song Series 22 - Britten: Songs & Proverbs Of William Blake
Naxos

English Song Series 22 - Britten: Songs & Proverbs Of William Blake

$19.99

Details

Composer
BRITTEN, BENJAMIN
Artist
Williams, Burnside
Format
CD
Label
Naxos
Released
May 29, 2012
Catalog #
8572600
UPC
747313260072

About



"This music has the power to connect the avant-garde with the lost paradise of tonality,’ said Robin Holloway once about Britten. He might have been talking about this Blake set, a standout in Britten’s still often underrated output of the 1960s, written for Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau after his contribution to the War Requiem.

Putting this new Roderick Williams recording immediately up against the composer and Fischer-Dieskau is like going from hymns ancient to hymns modern. Williams finds an ideal emotional stance—involved, totally word-conscious but never melodramatic…as a recorded recital, Williams—and Burnside, who is similarly colourful but keeps an interpretative distance from pumping up the text—have created an outstanding achievement, one to set alongside the Gerald Finley/Julius Drake disc. Their remaining items, including Tit for Tat—Britten’s ‘reissue’ of early 1929-31 Walter de la Mare settings—shine in a similar way. The Potton Hall recording is clean and clear with excellent instrument/voice balance."

-- Mike Ashman, Gramophone [6/2012]

This disc couples a masterpiece from Britten’s maturity and songs written in his youth. The latter were revived and gathered together as a set in his later years. Britten wrote very little for baritone, but I do think it a pity that rather than seek an interesting work by another composer to complement these two works, it was decided to complete the disc with folk-songs. Beautiful though these arrangements are, many collectors will have quite enough Oliver Cromwells and Little Sir Williams on the shelves, thank you. They are, however, beautifully sung here. There is a very brisk Plough Boy, and Roderick Williams tones in his voice beautifully for the gentler numbers. Ca’ the yowes, a minor masterpiece, is magnificently grand. Overall, the delivery is simple, neither folk-song nor art-song, and refreshingly avoiding the coy or arch in the likes of The foggy, foggy dew. No, Williams presents them unadorned, and with a beautiful legato line, as a series of lovely tunes with inventive and striking accompaniments. Others, some of whom set them up as quasi-operatic scenes, do inject more life into some of the songs, not always to their advantage.
 
Tit for Tat, a set of five short songs to poems by Walter de la Mare, was first performed in 1969 by John Shirley-Quirk with the composer at the piano. I have in my head the sound of Shirley-Quirk singing these songs, but can’t for the life of me remember where or when it comes from. The songs were written when Britten was in his teens, and he had only recently gathered them together and, with minimal editing, prepared them for publication. They are accomplished works that can, on the whole, be enjoyed without making allowances for the composer’s age. There is not the psychological insight - neither into the poems nor into the mind of the listener - that you find in the mature composer’s vocal music. Nor is the piano part so developed. Listen however to the second song, “Autumn”: everything that was to come is there in embryonic form. It would be easy to exaggerate the claims of these songs, but presented so cleanly and with such understanding as do Williams and his superb pianist, Iain Burnside, they make just the effect the mature composer surely intended.
 
Philip Lancaster’s booklet essay casts plenty of light on the programme. Walter de la Mare’s poems are sadly not given, but the folk-song texts do appear, as do the texts of the masterly Songs and Proverbs of William Blake. This work was composed for Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and is dedicated to him. The dedication reads “For Dieter: the past and the future. It is a proper, integrated song-cycle, but which is sung without a break. Poems and proverbs alternate, creating a continuous text which was chosen and arranged in order by Peter Pears, no doubt with input from the composer. Words and music combine to create a cycle that maintains a single mood throughout its length, one of melancholy observation. In his book Britten, Voice and Piano, Stephen Johnson recounts how the relationship between Fischer-Dieskau and Britten, though nourished by mutual admiration, was not an easy one. The sessions for their Decca recording of December 1965 were by all accounts particularly fraught, but this is hardly audible in the finished result, which is a performance of extraordinary mastery. Fischer-Dieskau is magnificent, and the composer’s piano playing is miraculous. Listen, for example, in the ppp quavers that introduce A Poison Tree, how he manages to conceal the inconvenient fact that a piano works by hammers striking on keys. This is the kind of piano playing that prompted Gerald Moore, in his book Am I Too Loud?, to proclaim Britten as “the world’s greatest living accompanist”. Britten’s recorded legacy is essential for any admirer of his work, but happily the era is now long gone when attempts by other performers to stamp their own personality on the music seemed like an affront to the composer’s memory. Iain Burnside is outstandingly fine on this disc. It seems almost insulting to state that his playing is technically impeccable, but I do state it, whilst adding that he is profoundly in tune with the music and with the singer’s needs. Roderick Williams gives a performance of great vision, beautifully sung, that will satisfy any listener who discovers the work from this performance. In general, Fischer-Dieskau employs a wider range of vocal colour that allows him, in The ChimneySweeper, for example, to play the part of the oppressed child with remarkable vividness. Another example would be at the line “And blights with plagues the marriage hearse” in London, where Williams doesn’t really match Fischer-Dieskau’s disillusioned bitterness. Williams is slower, too, the song hardly reflecting the composer’s marking of “Very agitated”. If this gives the impression that the reading is a pale one, the opposite is the case. There is a suggestion of whimsy in Fischer-Dieskau’s performance of The Fly that is absent in Williams’ reading, and Williams launches Ah! Sun-flower with a superb crescendo barely observed by Fischer-Dieskau. The end of the work, too, is very fine indeed from both artists, not quite resigned, not quite hopeless.
 
-- William Hedley , MusicWeb International

Tracklist 29 tracks

  1. 1 No. 1. Proverb I: The pride of the peacock 01:19
    Track
    1
    Title
    No. 1. Proverb I: The pride of the peacock
    Duration
    01:19
    Composer
    Benjamin Britten
    Performer
    Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
  2. 2 No. 2. London 02:22
    Track
    2
    Title
    No. 2. London
    Duration
    02:22
    Composer
    Benjamin Britten
    Performer
    Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
  3. 3 No. 3. Proverb II: Prisons are built 00:38
    Track
    3
    Title
    No. 3. Proverb II: Prisons are built
    Duration
    00:38
    Composer
    Benjamin Britten
    Performer
    Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
  4. 4 No. 4. The Chimney-Sweeper 02:18
    Track
    4
    Title
    No. 4. The Chimney-Sweeper
    Duration
    02:18
    Composer
    Benjamin Britten
    Performer
    Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
  5. 5 No. 5. Proverb III: The bird a nest 00:49
    Track
    5
    Title
    No. 5. Proverb III: The bird a nest
    Duration
    00:49
    Composer
    Benjamin Britten
    Performer
    Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
  6. 6 No. 6. A Poison Tree 04:34
    Track
    6
    Title
    No. 6. A Poison Tree
    Duration
    04:34
    Composer
    Benjamin Britten
    Performer
    Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
  7. 7 No. 7. Proverb IV: Think in the morning 00:45
    Track
    7
    Title
    No. 7. Proverb IV: Think in the morning
    Duration
    00:45
    Composer
    Benjamin Britten
    Performer
    Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
  8. 8 No. 8. The Tyger 01:55
    Track
    8
    Title
    No. 8. The Tyger
    Duration
    01:55
    Composer
    Benjamin Britten
    Performer
    Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
  9. 9 No. 9. Proverb V: The tygers of wrath 00:50
    Track
    9
    Title
    No. 9. Proverb V: The tygers of wrath
    Duration
    00:50
    Composer
    Benjamin Britten
    Performer
    Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
  10. 10 No. 10. The Fly 01:55
    Track
    10
    Title
    No. 10. The Fly
    Duration
    01:55
    Composer
    Benjamin Britten
    Performer
    Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
  11. 11 No. 11. Proverb VI: The hours of folly 01:40
    Track
    11
    Title
    No. 11. Proverb VI: The hours of folly
    Duration
    01:40
    Composer
    Benjamin Britten
    Performer
    Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
  12. 12 No. 12. Ah! Sun-flower! 03:11
    Track
    12
    Title
    No. 12. Ah! Sun-flower!
    Duration
    03:11
    Composer
    Benjamin Britten
    Performer
    Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
  13. 13 No. 13. Proverb VII: To see a World 00:48
    Track
    13
    Title
    No. 13. Proverb VII: To see a World
    Duration
    00:48
    Composer
    Benjamin Britten
    Performer
    Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
  14. 14 No. 14. Every Night and Every Morn 02:57
    Track
    14
    Title
    No. 14. Every Night and Every Morn
    Duration
    02:57
    Composer
    Benjamin Britten
    Performer
    Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
  15. 15 No. 1. A Song of enchantment 02:32
    Track
    15
    Title
    No. 1. A Song of enchantment
    Duration
    02:32
    Composer
    Benjamin Britten
    Performer
    Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
  16. 16 No. 2. Autumn 01:17
    Track
    16
    Title
    No. 2. Autumn
    Duration
    01:17
    Composer
    Benjamin Britten
    Performer
    Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
  17. 17 No. 3. Silver 01:32
    Track
    17
    Title
    No. 3. Silver
    Duration
    01:32
    Composer
    Benjamin Britten
    Performer
    Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
  18. 18 No. 4. Vigil 01:35
    Track
    18
    Title
    No. 4. Vigil
    Duration
    01:35
    Composer
    Benjamin Britten
    Performer
    Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
  19. 19 No. 5. Tit for Tat 01:39
    Track
    19
    Title
    No. 5. Tit for Tat
    Duration
    01:39
    Composer
    Benjamin Britten
    Performer
    Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
  20. 20 No. 1. The Plough Boy 01:43
    Track
    20
    Title
    No. 1. The Plough Boy
    Duration
    01:43
    Composer
    Benjamin Britten
    Performer
    Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
  21. 21 No. 5. The Foggy, Foggy Dew 02:02
    Track
    21
    Title
    No. 5. The Foggy, Foggy Dew
    Duration
    02:02
    Composer
    Benjamin Britten
    Performer
    Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
  22. 22 Tom Bowling and Other Song Arrangements: No. 1. Tom Bowling 04:27
    Track
    22
    Title
    Tom Bowling and Other Song Arrangements: No. 1. Tom Bowling
    Duration
    04:27
    Composer
    Benjamin Britten
    Performer
    Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
  23. 23 Folk Song Arrangements, Vol. 3, "British Isles": No. 6. O Waly, Waly 03:17
    Track
    23
    Title
    Folk Song Arrangements, Vol. 3, "British Isles": No. 6. O Waly, Waly
    Duration
    03:17
    Composer
    Benjamin Britten
    Performer
    Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
  24. 24 No. 7. Oliver Cromwell 00:43
    Track
    24
    Title
    No. 7. Oliver Cromwell
    Duration
    00:43
    Composer
    Benjamin Britten
    Performer
    Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
  25. 25 No. 6. The Ash Grove 02:23
    Track
    25
    Title
    No. 6. The Ash Grove
    Duration
    02:23
    Composer
    Benjamin Britten
    Performer
    Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
  26. 26 No. 1. The Salley Gardens 02:28
    Track
    26
    Title
    No. 1. The Salley Gardens
    Duration
    02:28
    Composer
    Benjamin Britten
    Performer
    Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
  27. 27 Folk Song Arrangements, Vol. 3, "British Isles": No. 2. There's none to soothe 01:39
    Track
    27
    Title
    Folk Song Arrangements, Vol. 3, "British Isles": No. 2. There's none to soothe
    Duration
    01:39
    Composer
    Benjamin Britten
    Performer
    Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
  28. 28 Folk Song Arrangements, Vol. 1, "British Isles": No. 2. Little Sir William 02:43
    Track
    28
    Title
    Folk Song Arrangements, Vol. 1, "British Isles": No. 2. Little Sir William
    Duration
    02:43
    Composer
    Benjamin Britten
    Performer
    Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside
  29. 29 Folk Song Arrangements, Vol. 5, "British Isles": No. 5. Ca' the yowes 04:10
    Track
    29
    Title
    Folk Song Arrangements, Vol. 5, "British Isles": No. 5. Ca' the yowes
    Duration
    04:10
    Composer
    Benjamin Britten
    Performer
    Roderick Williams, Iain Burnside