One of the most successful and congenial song recital
albums of recent years was Dame Felicity Lott’s delightful ‘s’amuse…’
(Forlane UCD16760) , a collection of charming and often witty, sometimes
naughty, French chansons. Here, she follows up with more of the same
in s’amuse…auf Deutsch.
Once again we have a number of spicy, witty songs,
this time from the German repertoire, all of which are sung with great
élan and abundant, colourful expression. From Oscar Straus there
is a clutch of impish cabaret songs: I am a woman who knows
what she wants is a street-wise celebrity unashamedly craving the
good life; Ninon was a lady of easy virtue whose ‘appetite was
enormous’; Every woman has a secret longing for… ‘ a sweet and
forbidden kiss’; and indeed Why shouldn’t a woman have an affair
, when everybody seems to think she is! Lehár’s Come to me
for tea is just as cheeky for the young man implies something stronger
than this beverage when he promises ‘We’ll have tea all night long!’
Then in Kiss me, my darling, Lehár relates how Claire
meets her lover around the corner for passionate embraces while her
unsuspecting mother is away at the Chastity Club! Arnold Schoenberg
holidaying away from his usual astringent atonality is represented by
his cabaret song, Warning in which a flighty young girl, represented
by frivolous piano figures is advised to find the ‘man who’ll make a
perfect match…’ and to ‘shut the lid on him!’ And, surprise, surprise,
even Johannes Brahms is not above such shenanigans. In ‘O mother, I
want a thingy’ the mother is nonplussed wondering what it is her daughter
wants – is it a doll ? a dress? --- no, its what a husband has!!
The other Brahms song is more serious, it is one of
unrequited love, the lovely sadly lilting Down there in the valley.
There has a beguiling folk-like simplicity that is also evident
in the two Mahler songs. From Des Knaben Wunderhorn, comes the
delightful and ironic In Praise of high intellect about the song
contest between the nightingale and the cuckoo with the stupid donkey
as the judge that favours the cuckoo because he sings ‘beautifully in
time’. Who made up this little song?, again from Wunderhorn,
finds Mahler in droll mood. Two sublime Hugo Wolf songs with scintillating
accompaniments are included: A girl’s first love-song, quicksilver
and effervescent about a young girl’s anxiety and churned emotions as
she feels the first pangs of love; and the lovely gentle A summer
cradle song. There are two early Richard Strauss songs: An encounter
is a breezy melody about a beau who literally sweeps his maiden off
her feet; and In the Forest, a merry celebration of the countryside.
Of the remaining songs, I would particularly mention
Peter Cornelius’s beautifully melodic song of unrequited love, A
sound with its last tolling bell-like chord; Adolf Jensen’s equally
lovely Murmuring breeze with its captivating accompaniment, and
Humperdinck's When at night I go to sleep, well-known from his
opera, Hansel und Gretel sung here by Dame Felicity in
duet with herself.
The recital begins and ends with Franz Lehár’s
romantic I’ll sing you my song, so redolent of all his well-loved
operetta arias.
A total delight. Dame Felicity Lott clearly enjoys
these wonderful songs, songs that are often very cheeky and sometimes
romantic and sentimental – all with splendid unobtrusive but illuminating
accompaniments by Graham Johnson. Heartily recommended
Ian Lace
Felicity Lott (soprano)
with Graham Johnson (piano)