Composer: Benjamin Britten
Performers: David Daniels (counter tenor), Ian Bostridge (tenor), Christopher Maltman (baritone), Julius Drake (piano), Aline Brewer (harp), Timothy Brown (horn)
Label: Virgin Classics (EMI)
Recorded: 5 August 2002
ASIN: B00005UV9G
Tracklisting
01 Canticle 1: My beloved is mine op. 40 7:46
02 Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac Op. 51 16:58
03 Canticle III: Still falls the rain Op. 55 11:35
04 Canticle IV: Journey of the Magi Op. 86 12:90
05 Canticle V: The Death of Saint Narcissus Op. 89 7:42
06 Folk Song Arrangements: The plough boy 1:48
07 Folksong Arrangements: The Salley Gardens 2:38
08 Folk Song Arrangements: The foggy, foggy dew 2:34
09 Folk Song Arrangements: There’s none to soothe 1:46
10 Folk Song Arrangements: O waly, waly 3:48
11 Folk Song Arrangements: The ash grove 2:58
12 Folk Song Arrangements: Greensleves 2:17
What the critics say
Gramophone 2002
Moving performances from the finest Britten tenor of the current generation
Britten’s five Canticles give a fair summary of his changes in style over the years, each distilling the manner of a particular period in his career. All were conceived with his partner, Peter Pears, as protagonist: indeed the first, a setting of a poem of religious ecstasy by Quarks, is now seen and heard as a metaphor for the love between the two men. Succeeding tenors, among them Anthony Rolfe Johnson and Philip Langridge (Collins, 9/96 – nia), have challenged Pears’ hegemony in this music with considerable success. Now Bostridge, who is gradually assuming the mantle of a Britten tenor par excellence, has recorded the whole set in the company of Julius Drake, himself attempting, with a deal of success, to rival Britten’s pre-eminence in his own music. As ever, Bostridge sings with a refined, silvery tone and with extreme care in the articulation of the various texts. In comparison with Pears and Rolfe Johnson he wants a little in declamatory power but in every other respect he is fully their equal, especially moving in the solo pieces, the early My beloved is mine, where his tone is suitably seductive, the mid-period Still falls the rain (Timothy Brown’s horn-playing here is faultless) and the late The Death of St Narcissus (with Mine Brewer, the fine harpist, equalling Osian Ellis, the creator, on Decca). In all three, words and their setting are carefully weighed and weighted for meaning, and the subtlety and singular imagination of the writing admirably conveyed.
In Abraham and Isaac, arguably the most moving of the set, Bostridge is again exemplary but David Daniels sounds far too sophisticated, almost feminine, as Isaac, no match for the alto in the Decca version or for the wonderfully simple accents of Michael Chance in the Hyperion. Daniels seems equally ill-suited in two of the folksongs. IVlaltman is admirable in The Journey of the Magi, even better in the settings of ‘The Plough Boy’, ‘The Salley Gardens’ and ‘The foggy, foggy dew’, where his warm tone and natural diction are their most potent. Bostridge himself ends the generous programme with a suitably artless account, lovingly sung, of ‘The ash grove’ and ‘Greensleeves’. Drake is in splendid form throughout.
The first recordings with Pears and Britten, now at mid-price, are still, and may always be, the benchmark. The Hyperion, with Rolfe Johnson on top form, and a more idiomatic countertenor participating, held its head high in my comparisons. In the end, choice will probably be made on a preference for one tenor or another, and Bostridge’s many followers will certainly want to add this CD to their collection.