The
main interest in this album has to be
the acclaimed Polish-born, contralto
Ewa Podleś’ rendition of Respighi’s
Il tramonto, a lyric poem
for mezzo-soprano and string quartet;
or, as in this case, string orchestra
with additional double-bass. A number
of eminent artists have realised the
beauty in Respighi’s setting of Shelley’s
poem, The Sunset, including Janet
Baker (Collins 13492 [1992], alas no
longer available), Linda Finnie (Chandos
CHAN 8913 [1991]) and Renata Scotto
(Vox Classics 7201 [1997]). In notes
to the latter recording, Renata Scotto
eloquently comments, "The Sunset
is a song of the dusk of love, which
must follow love’s fulfilment, and the
dusk of the sun itself. Respighi’s love
and his love of nature are both in this
work, with nature as the perfect frame
for his portrait of love." The
story is slight: a young couple walk
in the country as the sun sets, they
make love in the twilight, the moon
rises, the stars appear; but in the
morning the girl awakes to find her
lover dead at her side and begins her
perpetual mourning. Ms Scotto continued:
"It might have seemed banal in
the musical retelling today with Shelley’s
little story perhaps a bit old fashioned
– but not at all, really. And the strings
are as eloquent as the voice in retelling
the story, as, for example, in the beautiful
cello solo as ‘the Lady found her lover
dead and cold’ or in the final ensemble
that accompanies the peaceful epitaph
at the close."
Not surprisingly, Respighi
responds to Shelley’s nature writing
with some of his most beautiful music
in the vocal and instrumental lines
but there is no lack of surging passion
in the opening string scene-setting
and at emotional climaxes. Podleś
has beauty and power, a most engaging
timbre, she colours her voice most eloquently
throughout: warm and tender in the love
sequence, deep and darkly dramatic
in her shocked, grief-stricken central
outburst and compassionate during the
Lady’s withdrawal and plea for peace
of mind in the closing stanzas,
Trittico boticelliano
is an example of Respighi’s love of
the music of the past. Three famous
Botticelli paintings are musically illustrated
in the style of earlier composers from
the Middle Ages to the Baroque, but
presented in modern orchestral dress.
All three paintings hang in Florence’s
Uffizi gallery. The first is ‘La Primavera’
(The Spring). It is full of joy, (echoes
of the Fountains of Rome are
evident in the opening); there are ecstatic
Vivaldian trills, suggestive of birdsong
and the rustling of leaves, and lusty
horn calls. Nesterowicz’s reading dances
brightly along in brilliant Spring sunshine,
yet Jesús López-Cobos
on Telarc CD-80309 (1992) is that bit
more vital. The second picture, ‘L’adorazione
dei Magi’ (The Adoration of the Magi),
echoes the composer’s Church Windows,
and alludes to the famous Epiphany hymn
tune ‘O Come, O Come Emanuel’. But here
López-Cobos’s reading is more
polished, smoother; he more subtly paints
his pastoral scene, his Epiphany hymn
is more moving and his evocation, one
imagines, of camels and desert caravans
making up the flight into Egypt less
shrill, more colourful and real. The
final picture is ‘La nascita di Venere’
(The Birth of Venus). Respighi sound-paints
with an Impressionist brush to evoke
waves and gentle sea breezes. Nesterowicz’s
vision of Venus rising from the sea
in her shell is rapt enough but the
sound staging and the greater refinements
and radiant ecstasies of the Telarc
recording impress even more.
The five movements
of Gli ucelli (The Birds) composed
in the same year as the Three Boticelli
Pictures, are arrangements for small
orchestra of harpsichord and lute pieces
composed by various 17th
and 18th century composers.
The ‘Preludio’, based on an aria by
Bernardo Pasquini (1637-1710), contains
the tune made famous by the British
TV antiques series Going for a Song,
and is something of an operatic
overture, presaging material of the
following movements. Tamas Vasary’s
(1991) reading of this introduction
is full of fun and little characterful
felicities (Chandos CHAN 8913). Vasary
has more bounce and sheer joie de
vivre than Nesterowicz’s rather
heavy opening although things improve
markedly after about 0:42. Nesterowicz’s
‘La Colomba’ (The Dove), adopted from
music by the French composer, Jacques
de Gallot, is stately, serene dignity
with delightful, nicely balanced trills,
and gorgeous string playing. Vasary
is no less affecting and he accentuates
the music’s sweet plaintiveness. ‘La
Gallina’ (The Hen), inspired by Rameau
harpsichord music, is a comic evocation
of the hen’s raucous call and odd, jerky
stance and movements. Both the Telarc
and Dux recordings’ artists revel in
this delightful movement. ‘L’Usignuolo’
(The Nightingale) is based on an anonymous
17th century English source.
Nesterowicz creates a dreamy nocturnal
picture with the higher woodwinds singing
the nightingale’s song most prettily
but the horn solo would have been more
poetic if it had been recessed more.
Although Vasary’s bird song might not
be quite so sweet, he scores with a
more subtly detailed, more poetic interpretation,
the bass dynamics more shaded, more
convincing of a nocturnal evocation.
Finally, ‘Il cucu’ (The Cuckoo), inspired
by a harpsichord toccata by Pasquini,
is another little gem. Vasary suggests
a winsome welcome to Spring and a sometimes
flattering, sometimes witty evocation
of this often troublesome little bird
while Nesterowicz’s portrait is somewhat
harsher.
It goes without saying
that there is merit in Nesterowicz’s
readings of Gli uccelli
and Trittico botticelliano but, in a
competitive field, I prefer the alternatives
as above. Readers might care to note
that many of my fellow Respighi enthusiasts
admire the bargain Artemis Vanguard
Double ATM-CD 1227 that not only includes
both works performed by the Australian
CO conducted by Christopher Lyndon-Gee
but Respighi’s Ancient Airs and Dances
Suites 1 & 3 on one disc and the
Feste Romane and The
Pines of Rome by the Baltimore SO
conducted by Commissiona on the other.
Ewa
Podleś must be added to the list
of illustrious singers – including Janet
Baker, Linda Finnie and Renata Scotto
who have illuminated Respighi’s beautiful
setting of Shelley’s poem. The other
works are well played but there are
better versions.
Ian Lace