Some people believe
the voice of a treble is one of the
greatest beauties in music, and they
are right. It is just a shame that it
is so short-lived. When a boy is somewhere
between 12 and 15 his voice changes
for ever. As a consequence one has to
act quickly if one wants to immortalize
the voice of a particular treble. The
real art is to make a recording when
the voice is at its best and doesn't
yet display the first signs of its demise.
It is almost inevitable
that on a disc devoted to a singer the
music comes second. But that is no excuse
for the fact that the repertoire on
recordings of trebles is often very
unimaginative. Avid collectors of discs
with trebles must have at least 40 versions
of Mendelssohn’s ‘Hear my prayer’ or
the ‘Pie Jesu’ from Gabriel Fauré’s
Requiem on their shelves, not to mention
a respectable number of performances
of the famous or infamous setting of
‘Ave Maria’ by ‘Bach/Gounod’. These
pieces are sacred and not unsuitable
to be sung by a treble. But there are
also recordings with arias from oratorios
or even operas and secular songs by
Schubert which are totally inappropriate
for boys to sing. These pieces do these
trebles no good at all.
In this respect the
present recording with Jonathan Rendell
is a positive exception. Yes, there
is Fauré's 'Pie Jesu' again and
another 'treble favourite', César
Franck's 'Panis Angelicus'. Otherwise
the disc is dominated by music that
a member of a British cathedral or college
choir would be familiar with. And it
is in this kind of music that the indisputable
qualities of Jonathan Rendell's voice
are most impressively displayed.
A remarkable feature
of his voice is the strength of his
low register. I don't know whether that
is a sign of a change of his voice or
just a characteristic of his voice as
such. The single fact that the low register
is strong doesn't necessarily mean that
it should be used consistently. I am
not happy with the fact that Jonathan
Rendell sings some items in his low
register, where there is no need whatsoever
to do so. An example is the very first
piece: 'Bist du bei mir' (not by Bach,
as the tracklist says, but mostly attributed
to his contemporary Stölzel). Since
this isn't a sacred piece it is perhaps
less than suitable for a boy to sing
anyway, but here it is sung in alto
range, and Master Rendell doesn't sound
very comfortable. In particular the
intonation is less than perfect.
The same thing happens
in Parry's 'Long since in Egypt's plenteous
land', where the voice is rather unstable.
Otherwise the intonation is quite good,
for example in the aria 'I know that
my redeemer liveth' from Handel's Messiah.
In general baroque
music is difficult to sing for a British
treble who mostly sings church music
of the renaissance and the 19th and
20th centuries. This kind of music consists
of legato lines, whereas baroque music
requires a very precise articulation
and a clear differentiation between
notes and a strong expression of the
text.
From that perspective
the choice of Stölzel's piece as
the very first item on this disc is
unlucky. Handel's aria is done well,
but I am far less impressed by Purcell's
Evening Hymn. As much as I am in favour
of clear articulation, the way the phrases
are broken up here – in particular in
the concluding ‘Alleluia’ - is almost
ridiculous. In the recording of Purcell's
complete anthems and services by Robert
King (Hyperion) Eamonn O'Dwyer shows
how to treat this beautiful piece. And
in regard to expression there is no
real competition here.
Another point is the
pronunciation of pieces in another language
than English or Latin. The German pronunciation
is reasonable in ‘Bist du bei mir’,
but far from perfect in the two sacred
songs by Reger.
Fortunately most other
items are sung much better. For example,
Geoffrey Burgon's Nunc dimittis is given
a wonderfully strong and expressive
performance. There are fine dynamic
contrasts in Vaughan Williams' 'The
Call'. In general I would say that the
expression in the second half is much
stronger than in the first, where I
felt that there is a lack of real emotion.
The last piece starts
with an unaccompanied stanza, which
is dangerous but is mastered quite well
by Jonathan Rendell. The whole piece
is well done anyway, with a very lively
rhythm.
The instrumental accompaniment
is alright, although I am not very satisfied
with the violin playing in Handel's
aria. Franck's 'Panis angelicus' was
originally composed for a tenor voice.
In a performance by a treble the solo
cello is too dominant; it doesn’t blend
well with the voice.
A large part of the
music on this disc is written in a style
I am not particularly fond of. Thanks
to Master Rendell I enjoyed it nevertheless
– in particular the pieces by British
composers – which is no mean achievement.
It is a shame that
the booklet is very short on information
about the composers and doesn’t contain
the lyrics.
Johan van Veen
Jonathan Rendell, treble; Kathryn Greeley, violin;
William Conway, cello; Matthew Owens, organ