Oh Fair to See - Songs by English Composers
Gerald FINZI (1901-1956)
Till Earth Outwears - seven Hardy settings
Oh Fair to See - seven Hardy settings
Ralph VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
(1872-1958)
The House of Life - a cycle of six sonnets by D G Rossetti
Benjamin BRITTEN (1913-1976)
On The Island
Donald Kaasch(tenor)/Peter
Lockwood (piano)
rec Utrecht, June 2000
GLOBE GLO 5202
[70.10]
Crotchet
AmazonUK
AmazonUS
This is Finzi's centenary year. Going by Boosey's newsletters his music is
going to do very well. Let us hope that this is not a flash in 'the centenary
pan.' Experience of centenary exposure for other composers suggests that,
in many cases, that composer's works are then doomed to an even deeper chasm
than the one their works had occupied before the centenary. I doubt that
this will happen with Finzi as his work have enjoyed a steady upward
gradient since the early 1970s.
I have held on to this CD for far too long. First reactions were not favourable.
It is not that Kaasch or Lockwood are unsympathetic. Lockwood shapes
Finzi's Only the Wanderer (track 11) with rare insight and
he provides the literate and approachable booklet notes. Their interpretations
show sensitivity and freshness. They have thought through both the notes
and their interaction with the words. Kaasch enunciates clearly and, for
a native of Denver, has not a trace of an American accent. He imbues the
words with feeling reflective of their meaning. Pauses between songs and
cycles are long - not too long. The 'problem' is in Kaasch's vibrato. This
ripples and undulates through every sustained note. This is a matter of taste
and I know that many listeners are oblivious to this as a 'problem' or relish
it for the colour it brings to the singing. For me however the injected 'beat'
in the sung word 'delight' in Oh Fair to See is a stark intrusion
and it is worse still in Till Earth Outwears. Similar problems obtrude
in the Hyperion set of the songs so it is by no means peculiar to Kaasch.
Neil Jenkins is much to be preferred in Till Earth Outwears on the
1968 Lyrita LP as is the matchless Ian Partridge on the Hyperion Oh Fair
to See.
The Vaughan Williams cycle is a very early work. It includes the famous
Silent Noon. Love Sight sounds very much as if Vaughan Williams might
well have attended one of the early performances of Bantock's Omar Khayyam
indeed there is more than a whiff of the operatic about this and the
other songs among the balladry, Rachmaninov (Death in Love), Schubert
and Grieg echoes (Love's Minstrels). The last song Love's Last
Gift is a rich setting. These are all substantial songs; none shorter
than 3.11; the longest at 4.03. It would have been interesting to hear these
orchestrated.
The Britten is the most 'modernistic' of the four cycles. This is
typical of Britten setting Auden and if you known the gorgeous choral Hymn
to Saint Cecilia then the twists and turns of this cycle will be familiar
to you.
If you are more tolerant of vibrato than I am then there is nothing else
to criticise on this album and much to praise. Not one for this listener.
Rob Barnett
