It was appropriate that in their fortieth year the King’s Singers
should have been invited to give a celebratory concert as part
of the 2008 Proms. It is also understandable that Signum, their
current recording company, should make this CD available as a
permanent souvenir of the occasion. I understand that it can also
be had as a DVD but my comments are based solely on this CD. Obviously
for those who were there and for confirmed fans of the group this
is an essential purchase in one of its forms. Others may regret
that the presentation of the disc is very much concentrated on
being a souvenir rather than as a concert to be listened to at
home.
I
have no objection to live concert recordings as such; indeed
my collection has a very high proportion of them. There is
nonetheless a particular problem when much of the concert
consists of short and very short items. When they are separated
by both loud and long applause and brief spoken introductions,
as most are here, these interruptions can cause fatal harm
to the music itself. This is especially the case with the
Poulenc songs, where the actual music seems almost subservient.
I am sure that in the Hall the introductions will have been
positively welcome, but surely most listeners will not want
to hear the same summary of the text of the songs on repeated
listenings. It would have been much better to have included
the texts and translations in the booklet, whose notes repeat
much of the spoken information but say nothing about “The
Long Day Closes”. Presumably this is because the notes are
based on those in the concert programme, and as this item
was an encore it was not mentioned there. Admittedly the introductions
are included at the end of the preceding item on the CD, so
that you could simply go to the next track and thus omit at
least part of the both applause and introduction, but the
effort of quickly using the remote control at the end of each
piece of music does tend to spoil the listener’s enjoyment.
You
may be thinking by now that I should pay more attention to
the substance of the music-making, and less to its presentation.
This is true, although I do find it difficult to separate
them when listening to a CD such as this. There is at least
one real winner here – John McCabe’s “Scenes in America Deserta”.
It was written for the King’s Singers in 1986 and is a setting
of words and phrases from a book by the architectural historian
Peter Reyner Banham. Each of its clearly defined sections
evokes a distinct scene, and as a whole the work makes formidable
demands on the singers which they meet with virtuosity and
sensitivity. Enjoyment would have been substantially increased
if the texts had been included. I cannot believe that the
composer took such obvious trouble in choosing and setting
such unlikely texts only to expect the listener to make do
with a mere brief and generalised summary of them. This is
still however a piece that is very well worth hearing, and,
for me at least, would be the main reason for acquiring the
disc.
The
Poulenc folksongs are sung with similar care, but here and
in the Renaissance chansons I find the performances fussy
and overdone. The King’s Singers are above all interventionist
performers, seldom content to let the music speak for itself.
Excessive speed, funny voices and exaggerated phrasing – all
in evidence here - may be appropriate on occasion but tend
to draw attention to the performers and to the moment rather
than its context. The set of Victorian part-songs and “The
Long Day Closes” at the end of the disc, are less affected
by these tendencies and gain greatly as a result even if the
humour of “The goslings” seems less and less funny on each
hearing. Humour and taste are indeed very personal things,
and I must confess that I find the various British folksong
arrangements unbearably cosy and cute, although they certainly
do suit the Singers’ performance style very well.
Confirmed
fans of the performers will want this in any event, although
the DVD may well be even more to their taste. Others may be
more wary, especially given the unhelpful presentation, but
I would urge you that you might find it worth buying for the
John McCabe item alone.
John
Sheppard
see
also Review
by Simon Thompson
The King’s Singers (David Hurley and Robin Tyson (counter-tenors);
Paul Phoenix (tenor); Philip Lawson and Christopher Gabbitas (baritones);
Stephen Connolly (bass)); rec. live, Royal Albert Hall, 5 August
2008
