Cheltenham Music Festival (3) : Schumann, Mahler, Francis George Scott and Finzi. Roderick Williams (baritone) & Iain Burnside (piano). Pittville Pump Room, Cheltenham. 08.07.2006 (JQ)

Before the start of this Sunday morning recital I overheard some snippets of conversation among the audience that indicated that some previous events at this year’s Cheltenham Festival have been poorly attended. There was no danger of that happening on this occasion: a full house greeted Roderick Williams and Iain Burnside. The setting of the Pittville Pump Room is absolutely ideal for chamber music as it has good acoustics; it is sufficiently large to accommodate an audience in comfort and yet has just the right degree of intimacy.

I’ve seen Roderick Williams in concert several times and, of course, his fine voice is very familiar through broadcasts and recordings. But I’d not previously had an opportunity to catch him in recital so this was an event keenly anticipated.

He began with Schumann’s Liederkreis, Op. 24. Right from the start it was evident that he was in fine voice. As well as his vocal prowess I admired very much his body language and effective but far from excessive use of physical gestures and facial expressions to enhance and discreetly underline points in the text. The physical aspect of his delivery was beneficially in evidence as early as the second song, ‘Es triebt mich hin’. He brought a splendid line and tone to such songs as ‘Ich wandelte unter der Bäumen’ and his gift for vivid communication was nowhere better illustrated than in the sixth song, ‘Warte, warte, wilder Schiffmann.’ Right at the heart of the cycle in several respects is the fifth song, ‘Schöne Wiege meiner Leiden’. I thought Williams was quite splendid here. He deployed a wide range of vocal colouring, exhibited splendid dynamic control and was keenly in sympathy with the text. The seventh song, ‘Berg’ und Burgen schau’n herunter’ was beautifully sustained and here again, he deployed small but telling physical gestures in a wholly natural way but most effectively. In all this was an excellent realisation of Schumann’s cycle, which was appreciated by an evidently discriminating audience.

More lieder followed in the shape of a selection of five songs from Mahler’s early Lieder und Gesange. The chosen songs formed a well-chosen and satisfying group. First came one of Mahler’s soldier songs, ‘Aus! Aus!’, in which Williams conveyed splendidly the bravado of the young soldier and the pathos of his sweetheart who bids him farewell. In this song we glimpsed, for the first time, Williams’s sense of humour. His aptly cheeky delivery of the last line of the song brought a laugh of genuine enjoyment from the audience. The third song in the group, ‘Um schlimme Kinder artig zu Machen’ clearly appealed to the singer’s sense of fun for Mr Williams gave a broad beam even before the song commenced. After this humorous song, which he delivered with relish, much to the delight of the audience, ‘Erinnerung’ made a splendid and effective contrast. This emotional song was sung with a marvellous command of legato. It was back to broad humour for the final item in the group, ‘Selbstgefühl’. This gave Mr Williams ample opportunity to display to the full his talent for light heartedness and storytelling and rounded off a most successful and enjoyable group.

The Festival this year has a Scottish theme and this, presumably, warranted the inclusion of a group of songs by the Scottish composer, Francis George Scott (1880-1958). I freely confess I’d never heard of this composer but Iain Burnside, who contributed a short and delightfully witty spoken introduction, declared him to be an “unsung hero” of twentieth-century British music. According to Burnside, Scott was writing “European” music in Scotland in the 1920s and 1930s and was thus quite seriously out of step with much of the British musical establishment. I read in the programme note that Scott was a committed Scottish nationalist and that in his music a number of elements of Scottish culture were “blended into a musical language which also showed a keen awareness of Bartok and Schoenberg.” Scott’s main compositional interest lay in song writing and he composed some 300 songs. Of these, Burnside told us, the most experimental tended to be settings of poems by his friend, Hugh MacDiarmid. Four of those settings, in the Scots language, were included in the group chosen by Williams and Burnside.

At a first hearing I found it hard to come to terms with the MacDiarmid settings. The first, ‘The Eemis Stane’ – which Iain Burnside helpfully translated for us as ‘The loose tombstone’ is a cold and eerie piece in a slow tempo. The singer has a strong melodic line but the piano part is more fractured and rather spooky. The second song, ‘Crowdieknowe’, is a description of the dead awakening from their graves in Crowdieknowe cemetery at the Last Judgement. It’s a graphic, uncomfortable piece in which both poet and composer sound to be shaking a fist. The third MacDiarmid setting, ‘An Apprentice Angel’ struck me as a dark, even bitter piece and, if I understood the words correctly, something of a contemptuous sneer at the Presbyterian church.

 

We were not told who were the authors of the poems that furnished the texts for the fourth and fifth songs but here we were on more conventional and accessible musical ground. ‘The Old Fisherman’, another slow song, was a touching piece in which the old fisherman of the title contemplates his life’s work fishing in the sure knowledge that age and infirmity will prevent him from ever setting sail again. I thought this was a really lovely and most eloquent song. ‘First Love’, which followed it, began relatively innocently with two stanzas of gently lilting music. But in the third verse the singer’s reflections on his first love become more melancholy. Back to MacDiarmid for ‘Wheesht, wheesht’ – no, I don’t know what it means, either - in which, I think, the singer chides himself for his foolishness in ever falling in love. Iain Burnside told us that he and Roderick Williams shared an enthusiasm for Scott’s music and this, no doubt, inspired them to add an extra, unplanned song, a setting of Burns’ poem, ‘My Wife’s a Winsome Wee Thing’. This, as Burnside said, spoke for itself and gave Roderick Williams another opportunity to demonstrate his gift for humour and his ability to put a song across to his audience.

 

At just one hearing I don’t feel qualified to judge Scott’s qualities as a songwriter. However, the seven songs that were given here intrigued me and I’d be interested to hear them again.


And finally to much more familiar fare in the shape of Finzi’s cycle of Shakespeare setting, Let us Garlands Bring. These artists have made a fine recording of these songs, which I and others warmly welcomed only last year (see review.) The opportunity to hear them perform the songs in recital was something to which I’d been looking forward. I wasn’t disappointed. Williams conveyed admirably the restrained grief of Finzi’s treatment of ‘Come away, come away death’. He and Burnside brought a delightful  clarity and lightness to ‘Who is Sylvia.’ Then we reached ‘Fear no more the heat o’ the sun.’ As I commented in my review of the CD, I believe this to be one of the very greatest of English songs. Williams sang it quite wonderfully and as I listened I was grateful that such a voice and such intelligence were at the service of such a song. ‘O mistress mine’ was prefaced by another of the singer’s broad smiles. How nice to see a performer so evidently enjoying the prospect of what he’s about to sing! The enjoyment came out fully in his performance and then the programme ended with a relaxed  and wholly engaging rendition of the final song, ‘It was a lover and his lass’.

The audience’s response was deservedly enthusiastic and there was no way that the performers were going to be allowed to leave us without an encore. This took the form of an arrangement by Williams himself and we reverted to the Scottish theme and to Burns for ‘My love is like a red, red rose.’ Williams introduced this by relating that he’d sung this arrangement – not his only one of the same poem – at a friend’s wedding in Kent. Afterwards the Scots lady who was the verger at the church approached him and told him that Rabbie Burns would have turned in his grave to hear the arrangement! Well, unless Burns was a complete Philistine, which I doubt, I can’t believe that he would have “turned” other than in pure pleasure for this was a wholly beguiling arrangement featuring what Williams called a “Glenn Gould two-part invention” as the piano accompaniment. This Bachian adornment of the lovely vocal line was realised perfectly by Iain Burnside.

So ended a lovely and all-too short recital, which confirmed the splendid artistry and personality of one of the finest British baritones currently before the public. My apologies to Iain Burnside that I have concentrated on the singer so much. His piano playing was quite splendid throughout and he formed a real partnership with Roderick Williams. It’s evident that they enjoy making music together both from their respective demeanours and from the quality of their performances.

 

One final thought. I am 54 years old – just! I mean absolutely no disrespect to my fellow members of the audience but it struck me quite forcibly this morning that well over 75% of the audience must have been older than me. Where were the younger music lovers? I do hope this isn’t an indication that the song recital is the preserve of older aficionados. Any young musician would have learned a copious amount from Roderick Williams, not just about singing but about the difficult art of conducting a recital.


A most satisfying and stimulating recital.


John Quinn