Having
heard Juliette Pochin in concert I know that she can sing
more than averagely well. Without such prior experience
anyone reading her booklet biography might assume much
the same given that it lists collaborations with many well
known orchestras and conductors. Why mention this? Surely
her singing on this disc would confirm the fact? Yes and
no. She can hold a tune and produce tone with evenness,
it’s true. But going by this disc alone one does not learn
too much about either her vocal range or her ability to
exploit dynamic extremes. Two factors are responsible for
this: the recording and the arrangements of the music that
are used.
The
recording itself, also produced by Pochin, largely results
from several separate sessions that have been mixed together
to achieve the end result. Even moderately close listening
reveals performances recorded in different acoustics that
do not sit too comfortably with each other. Pochin for
her part is closely microphoned, thus negating the need
for much vocal projection or body behind the tone she produces.
The West Kazakhstan Philharmonic play competently but without
much individuality. The same could be said for the solo
instrumentalists who ‘feature’ on this disc; but the generality
of Lloyd-Webber’s might have been avoided somewhat with
a recording that conveys nuances more readily. Piece after
piece is played at a consistent mezzo-forte that after
a few minutes becomes all but unbearable. Has nobody connected
with this disc heard of dynamic gradation? What is so wrong
with playing pianissimo occasionally, or fortissimo or
anything else in between for that matter? Then there’s
the tempi – so middle-of-the-road as to be frankly rather
dull and quickly very boring.
Morgan
Pochin, the husband and wife team of James Morgan and Juliette
Pochin, are responsible for the musical arrangements. One
can tell from them that the pair have had a hand in producing
film soundtracks and whilst there is nothing wrong with
this per se the stock-in-trade predictable syrupy
flavour so often found there is out of place in the purely
classical context. However this is not a pure classical
context, this is crossover: Vivaldi, Bach, Albinoni, Handel,
Marcello and Cimarosa are all present but take second place
to Morgan Pochin reworkings of their music. Handel, for
example, contributes a mere four bars from his cantata
Lucrezia which becomes a complete aria following the Morgan
Pochin treatment. And not only is the material by these
composers negligible at times, but the relationship of
some composers to Venice, the theme around which the disc
is based, can be tenuous to say the least. Bach is included
because he arranged Vivaldi’s works on occasion and Handel
finds a place because his opera Agrippina was first
performed in Venice. As far as I know he never ventured
there personally.
The
major novelty here is the Four Seasons suite. In
the Morgan Pochin arrangement of Vivaldi’s evergreen quartet
of concertos the sonnets attributed to Vivaldi that accompany
each season are sung in the place of the violin line. Given
that the sonnets are of varying lengths incomplete versions
of each season are performed. It might be vocally challenging
to do this but it adds little if anything to the music.
Good excuse for a gimmick, however the result should not
detain you long.
It’s
an instantly forgettable disc. One thing is for sure though,
since this is the first of five discs to come from Juliette
Pochin in fulfilment of her £1 million contract we have
not heard the last of her. It can only be hoped that future
releases might pay more than occasional lip service to
serious music and music-making, but I fear this hope may
be a forlorn one.
Evan Dickerson
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Juliette
Pochin (mezzo) 
