Those redoubtable Naxos talent-scouts have done it again; here is a fine
young choir appearing for the first time on a commercial disc. Their
repertoire is far from standard fare, though one or two of the Warlock items
here may be familiar in various contexts -
Bethlehem Down and
Adam lay ybounden, for example, as Christmas choral numbers,
Ha'nacker Mill and
My Own Country as solo songs.
It is fascinating music, coming as it does from this strange, bipolar but
brilliant man, the exact manner of whose death has never been fully
explained, but was probably suicide. That many-sided personality is fully
demonstrated on this CD. At one extreme, you have sturdy, rousing songs such
as
The Sycamore Tree (track 18) or
Where Riches is
Everlastingly (track 22); at the other, the haunting introversion of
The Night, or the Delian harmonies taken to the point of atonality
in
The full heart, which sets a poem by his life-long friend Robert
Nichols.
Those last two are, for me, the outstanding experiences of this enjoyable
programme.
The Night begins with a memorable musical image, the
altos chanting on a single note, while the other parts float wordlessly
around them. A silvery moon seen against shifting clouds? Maybe that seems
fanciful to you, but, at its best, Warlock's music has a powerfully
evocative imagery. I was also intrigued to hear his setting of
Corpus
Christi, in which he projects alto and tenor solos against a quietly
rocking yet slightly uneasy background. Masterly, and very interesting to
compare this with the version by the young Britten, which appears in his
A Boy Was Born, textually coupled with
In the Bleak
Mid-winter.
The Carice Singers is a choir of young singers brought together in 2011 by
conductor George Parris, a graduate of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.
Their name is taken from that of Edward Elgar's daughter - the legitimate
one, that is - whose name was in turn a contraction of her mother's names,
Caroline Alice. Thus one can fairly deduce a special commitment to English
music - and perhaps also to that of the 19
th and 20
th
century repertoire? Their quality is easily perceived from the number of
soloists they are able to provide for this recording, all of whom sing with
great accomplishment - with special mention for Lottie Bowden in
Balulalow, and tenor Thomas Drew in
Corpus Christi.
The organist is Rachel Haworth, who provides sensitive accompaniments to
eight of the tracks. The balance places the organ quite far back; I would
have liked more presence in the sound, but the instrument itself in St.
Peter's may have its limits, who knows. The issue is also notable for
containing one of Warlock's settings of songs in the Cornish language - in
the original tongue, which looks at first glance like misspelt Welsh, but
proves to be nothing of the sort.
All in all, a successful and enjoyable CD, and I am looking forward to
hearing more from this excellent choir.
Gwyn Parry-Jones
Track listing
The full heart (1921) [4:47]
Ha'nacker Mill (1927) [2:12]
The night
(1927) [2:05]
My own country (1927) [1:54]
The spring of the year
(1925) [2:26]
Three dirges of John Webster [12:32] (All the flowers of
the spring (1923) [5:32]
Call for the robin redbreast and the wren (1925)
[2:09]
The shrouding of the Duchess of Malfi (1925) [4:51]); As dew in
Aprylle (1918) [1:37]
The five lesser joys of Mary (1929) [3:13]
The
rich cavalcade (1929) [2:34]
The birds (1926) [1:36]
Corpus Christi
(1919) [4:28]
Benedicamus Domino (1918) [1:16]
Adam lay ybounden
(1922) [1:16]
Three carols [5:46] (Tyrley tyrlow (1922)
[1:58]
Balulalow (1919) [2:11]
The sycamore tree (1923) [1:37]); I saw
a fair maiden (1927) [4:56]
Carillon carilla (1929) [4:35]
Benneth
Nadelik ha'n Bledhan Nowedh (1918) [1:12]
Where riches is everlastingly
(1927) [2:44]
Bethlehem Down (1927) [4:50]
What cheer? Good cheer!
(1927) [2:06]
A Cornish Christmas Carol (1918) [4:17]
