This is a miscellaneous vocal Stanford collection,
all briny tang and cloister, ethereal visions and powder keg - it can
only be Songs of the Sea and The Bluebird. There is much
else besides, of course, and in common with other discs in this strangely
uneven British Music Collection, Decca have trawled Kathleen Ferrier’s
BBC Archives and come up with her 1952 The Fairy Lough and A
Soft Day to close the disc. Between The Bluebird and Ferrier
are a series of church compositions. David Hill and his combined forces,
who have a particular affinity in this repertoire, contribute three
items with as much sensitivity and finesse as they do on the Parry CD
in this series; the two psalm settings are the province of George Guest
whilst other Oxbridge contributions come from Edward Higginbotham and
Boris Ord.
The Stanford ethereality is movingly conveyed by the
Choir of New College, Oxford whilst they are equally convincing in a
splendid performance of Beata quorum via. But this is not necessarily
the ideal introduction to Songs of the Sea, a work that has suffered
some critical ridicule over the years – I read a particularly contemptuous
notice recently – but which seems to me as bracing, vivacious and alive
as ever. Allen and Norrington bring a panoply of skills to the work;
maybe they lack the salty gumption of Luxon or the surety and confidence
of Peter Dawson but they have other qualities of their own. Allen is
firm and stout in Drake’s Drum without recourse to a stentorian
bark and floats a nuanced half voice for the phrase Captain art thou…The
choir and orchestra are on good, lashing form in Devon whilst
Norrington gives full vent to the Brahmsian unfolding of Homeward
Bound with a particularly well shaped ending. The Old Superb
is good but not really full-bloodedly exultant enough. A good reading
then, never over polite but equally not quite powerful enough. Apart
from some rather unblended male voices in the Te Deum Laudamus this
is an impressively cohesive reading whilst the Magnificat is
notable for its firmness and lyricism. I admit that the Nunc Dimittis
from the Service in B flat, Op 10, threatens for much of its three-minute
length to turn Parsifalian on the congregation but that’s not
necessarily an entirely bad thing. Treble Richard White is sensitive
in the Magnificat from the Service in G and the Nunc Dimittis
from the same work is quite lovely – pliant, sensitive, withdrawn, untheatrical,
responsive. There is freshness, nobility and conviction in the Guest
performance of Psalm 150 – with a wide tonal range from the choir.
The final items are Lionel Dakers’ Agnus Dei
and the two Ferrier songs. Once or twice I felt Ferrier over studied,
a minority opinion I’m sure but one I feel about her singing of some
of the English repertoire, but her hushed sensitivity at the end of
A Soft Day is simply ravishing. Sound quality is excellent and
the notes by Raymond McGill concise (a compliment). This is a modestly
persuasive disc.
Jonathan Woolf
See also review by Raymond
Walker
DECCA British
Music Collection 470 384-2 [52’07]