This is a splendid
album for young people or newcomers
to classical music who want an introduction
to the sublime music of Samuel Barber.
They should be warned however that this
sampler has no notes … only a meagre
four page flyer advertising the Telarc
CDs from which these selections were
sourced.
The first thing to
say is that the sound quality throughout
is first rate – just what you would
expect from Telarc.
What a shame the recordings
of the two concertos in their entirety
could not have been accommodated on
two CD set rather than the single movements,
included on this rather meagre, little
over 60-minute, compilation. Both concerti
originally appeared on TELARC CD-80441
which was applauded by the critics and
is included as a notable recommendation
in The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs.
Both McDuffie and Kimura Parker deliver
outstanding performances displaying
accomplished technique allied to finely
shaded and tenderly poetic expression.
Each is radiantly accompanied by Levi’s
Atlanta players.
It is also very useful
to be able to compare Barber’s ever-popular
Adagio for Strings with
his adaptation for voices Agnus Dei.
Both receive fine well-balanced and
clear performances with the Robert Shaw
Singers (soprano vocalist, Arietha Lockhart).
The School for Scandal
Overture comes over very well in Levi’s
hands: sparkling, witty and beautifully
tender.
But it is Levi’s wonderfully
atmospheric and sympathetic performance
of Barber’s masterpiece, Knoxville,
his setting of James Agee’s prose
poem that makes this compilation so
attractive. Here is a glorious nostalgic
view of small-town, middle-America,
in the first decades of the 20th century,
caught in the imaginings of a small
boy relaxing with his parents on a summer
evening. Levi captures the languid heat
and then the jarring note of the street
car with its ‘bleak spark cracking and
cursing above it like a small malignant
spirit set to dog its tracks’ as well
as the mystical elements as the boy
prays for his family and contemplates
the heavens and wonders why he is here.
Sylvia McNair is excellent, her attractively
timbred voice nicely controlled and
beautifully expressive (you can hear
her savouring vanilla and strawberry,
for instance). She has a fine sense
of the line of the poem, and is uplifting
in those wondrous final lines.
A compilation of short
works and concerto excerpts recommended
to those beginning to appreciate the
music of Samuel Barber. Completed by
a moving performance, in full, of his
masterpiece Knoxville.
Ian Lace