What looks on paper
to be a well-filled new disc of two
early Britten favourites has one fatal
drawback. The main bill of fare, his
48-minute cantata St. Nicolas,
is sung in German. All those inspired
words by Eric Crozier, so imaginatively
and idiomatically set by Britten, go
for nothing when set in a foreign language.
I’ve obviously nothing against the Germans,
but I can’t possibly imagine anyone
being remotely interested in this performance
apart from the German-speaking audience
it was recorded live in front of, and
presumably intended for afterwards.
It is musically very satisfying, with
a well-characterised tenor lead from
Mark Tucker and superbly lively and
subtle conducting from Howard Griffiths.
He has long been resident in Zürich,
and his rapport with his excellent band
is felt from the start. The Zürich
Boys’ Choir sound so right in many passages,
and are only out of their depth in a
few passages, such as the low Fs in
‘He journeys to Palestine’, where what
must be older boys are just not mature
enough. With so many excellent performances
available on disc (Bedford on Naxos,
Best on Hyperion, Pears and Britten
on Decca), the market for a German-language
version will be limited to German-speaking
areas, good as this is musically.
Which leaves the 25-minute
Bridge Variations. Again, we
get superb results musically, with a
beautifully balanced ‘studio’ sound
from the Tonhalle. Griffiths’ track
record in English music is impeccable
(think of his Finzi on Naxos). The way
he gets his strings to trenchantly dig
into the introductory figure immediately
grabs the listener’s attention. Every
variation is subtly shaded and characterised,
whether it be the famous Aria Italiana
(the one that used to introduce Saturday
morning’s ‘Record Review’ in the John
Lade days) or the quicksilver Moto
Perpetuo. Make no mistake, this
is playing and conducting of great virtuosity
and vitality, and can easily live with
the best of the competition. But unless
you really want to fork out full price
for this one performance (again there
are many alternatives) and be saddled
with such a quirky main item (without
even an English translation) then this
disc has a very limited market.
Tony Haywood
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Mark Tucker (tenor) 
