I love Finzi’s
music, and his songs in particular. Have been greatly impressed
with Roderick Williams every time I have heard him this disc
was a tantalising prospect. I first listened to it back at
the beginning of June but felt compelled to stop for what
was to me a very important reason, which I shall explain shortly.
However, that proved to be a blessing in disguise for I’ve
now had time to let the performances settle, as it were, in
my mind.
I began my listening
with the Shakespeare collection, Let Us Garlands Bring.
Like many other listeners, I suspect, these songs are more
familiar to me than the Hardy settings that comprise the remainder
of the programme. From the outset I was impressed with Williams’s
easy, clear delivery. His diction is immaculate and the voice
is projected evenly and naturally. These comments apply to
all the contents of the CD. He displays a delightful lightness
in ‘Who is Sylvia’ and there’s grace and wit in ‘O mistress
mine’. However I missed a twinkle in the eye in the concluding
‘It was a lover and his lass’, though the singing qua
singing is very good.
This collection
– it’s not really a cycle - contains what is for me one of
the very greatest of all English songs, Finzi’s setting of
‘Fear no more the heat o’ the sun’. Williams’s dignified style
in the opening stanzas gives the song a proper sense of timelessness
and here, as elsewhere, Iain Burnside is an attentive and
understanding partner. Williams lacks the sheer vocal amplitude
of Bryn Terfel but perhaps that’s no bad thing for I believe
that Terfel overdoes the dynamic range in his recording of
these songs (DG 445 946-2). When Williams reaches the quasi-recitative
passage at ‘No exorciser harm thee’ he is suitably withdrawn,
though for me at this point no one has ever equalled John
Carol Case in a long-unavailable Lyrita recording of the orchestral
version of these songs; the way he sings the single word “witchcraft”
is absolutely unforgettable. Overall, though, Williams gives
a performance of this song and, indeed, of its companions
that is extremely enjoyable.
The remainder
of the disc is devoted to two of Finzi’s five collections
of settings of poetry by Thomas Hardy. All of the sets are
collected on a splendid 1984 two-disc set from Hyperion (CDA66161/2),
through which I first got to know these songs. On that set
the low voice songs are sung by Stephen Varcoe while Martyn
Hill is the tenor. Hardy’s verse is not an obvious choice
for a composer of songs. As the Finzi expert, Diana McVeagh,
has justly observed, “The poems Finzi chose cover a wide range
of verse-forms and metres, few of them easy running, many
with intricate rhyme-schemes. The language is by no means
always mellifluous. There are few spare words or bland descriptions,
but keen precise observations. Lines are often hard-packed
with crusty sounds and sometimes teasing inversions.” Yet,
as she says “Finzi loved words”. As he had a life-long love
of Hardy I suppose the poems represented a particular and
very welcome challenge to him. Finzi sets the words in such
a way that, despite Hardy’s metrical complexities, the music
generally follows natural speech rhythms. That’s quite an
impressive achievement in itself. However, I find that, perhaps
because they are yoked to Hardy’s verse patterns, the melodic
lines don’t lodge in the listener’s brain in the same way
that they do in the case of Let Us Garlands Bring. It
may be for this reason that the Shakespeare collection is
better known.
I have quoted
Diana McVeagh at some length quite deliberately. I mentioned
at the start that I’d felt obliged to suspend listening to
this CD. The reason was simple but vital. Hitherto Naxos have
usually provided the texts of vocal works but on this occasion
they don’t. Instead the texts are available on their website
and reading between the lines of the message about this in
the booklet I suspect this presages a new policy. I’m well
aware that the provision of texts is a costly item for record
companies. However, I regret the omission very much on this
occasion. At the time I began listening to this disc I was
away on holiday. I found that though I could appreciate the
more familiar Shakespeare songs I simply couldn’t cope with
the Hardy songs, which I know less well, without the texts
to follow since the words are often complex and Finzi’s response
to them is subtle. So I had to put the disc to one side until
I got home and could access the texts from other recordings
in my collection.
With access to
the texts one can appreciate much fine singing by Williams.
The shorter collection, containing six songs, is I Said
to Love, which was assembled after his death by his friend,
the composer, Howard Ferguson in collaboration with Finzi’s
widow, Joy and son, Christopher. Williams does the opening
song, ‘I need not go’, with a winning ease and simplicity.
He’s also nicely relaxed in the fifth song, ‘For Life
I had never cared greatly’ and he brings admirable strength
to the concluding song, from which the collection takes its
title.
Before and
After Summer is a more substantial collection, containing
ten songs. These were brought together by Finzi himself. Like
I Said to Love the songs were not all composed at the
same time and, indeed, it’s not certain when some of them
were written. The chosen poems cover a wide range of subjects
and moods. The set includes one of Finzi’s most ambitious
songs, ‘Channel Firing’. Williams does it very well, aided
and abetted by an atmospheric contribution from Iain Burnside.
Comparing Williams with Stephen Varcoe, though Varcoe has
the lighter voice I find he evidences a bit more expressive
variety in this big and important song.
The second stanza
of the second song, ‘Before and after summer’, contains a
lovely vocal melody against a stalking piano accompaniment.
This is excellently done by Williams and Burnside. Williams
sings with poise and seems wholly at ease with the music,
as does Varcoe. I love the grave beauty that Williams brings
to the opening stanza of following song, ‘The Self-unseeing’
and then the lightness of touch for most of the next two stanzas.
Best of all, however, is way in which he darkens his voice
for the last line, where Hardy – and Finzi - changes the mood
completely. The penultimate song, ‘Amabel’, is done with a
winning charm and grace although perhaps Varcoe conveys a
bit more sense of lightness and lift. On the other hand, Williams
has more vocal weight at his command and he uses it to telling
effect in the final, louder verse. Certainly Williams, with
his stronger vocal resources, puts across the final song,
‘He abjures Love’ with a touch more fervour than Varcoe.
So there’s much
fine singing to admire and enjoy here. And yet ... I’m left
with a feeling that there’s something missing. For all their
considerable merits these performances just seem to be a little
too restrained, too careful. It’s interesting to compare Williams,
and indeed Varcoe too, with David Wilson-Johnson’s 1999 performances
of six of the songs from Before and After Summer (on
Global Music Network GMNC0116, a disc which I suspect is no
longer available.) Wilson-Johnson’s readings are more
robust, helped in part by the fact that he’s a bass-baritone.
However, more than that, he displays a fire in the belly that
his two colleagues don’t match – or, more likely, don’t seek
to match, having a different conception of the music. This
is particularly true of his performance of ‘Channel Firing’,
which is dramatic almost to the point of being operatic, but
he’s also very compelling in more relaxed songs such as ‘Amabel’.
Wilson-Johnson’s way with these songs won’t be to all tastes
– and will be anathema to some – and indeed I wouldn’t always
want to hear Finzi sung this way. However, I’ve long thought
that it’s a mistake to regard Finzi, as some do, as a gentle,
understated composer. Beneath the surface beauty of his music
darker, more passionate currents often flow and that’s true
of several of his songs as well as of bigger pieces, such
as the Cello Concerto. Wilson-Johnson’s performances give
us a welcome glimpse of a more red-blooded Finzi.
But to return
to the present disc, there’s a great deal to enjoy here. Roderick
Williams is a splendid artist and he consistently displays
sensitivity in these performances while the sheer beauty of
his voice gives great pleasure. He produces his voice evenly
throughout its compass. He’s free and easy at the top of his
range while there’s ample potency and depth in the lower register.
At all times his diction is crystal clear. He receives splendid
support from Iain Burnside and the recorded sound shows both
performers to good advantage.
This CD can be
confidently recommended on two counts. For the newcomer to
Finzi’s songs it offers an excellent and inexpensive introduction.
The Finzi enthusiast will want to hear this exciting singer
in some of the composer’s finest songs. So I’m happy to commend
this disc. However, do try to hear Wilson-Johnson, who dares
to be different and in so doing offers valuable insights to
complement the more “conventional” approach encountered in
the fine accounts by either Stephen Varcoe or Roderick Williams.
John Quinn
See
also Reviews by Christopher Howell, Em
Marshall, Jonathan
Woolf and Anne
Ozorio
Roderick Williams
(baritone); Iain Burnside (piano)
