A Mediterranean, partly sun-drenched, partly gloomy programme
- what could me more suitable for a lunchtime concert on a grey
Monday in December? Many potential listeners thought so and
the concert was a sell-out. The opening couldn’t be more
inviting: five delightful songs in Venetian dialect by that
most Gallic of charmers, Reynaldo Hahn. Anna Caterina Antonacci
caresses the phrases so seductively, lingers a while over a
particular line, lavishes vocal colours on the score, relishes
the words and her rhythmical freedom gives that extra sense
of weightlessness. They have superb rapport, the singer and
the pianist and someone like Donald Sulzen who is an expert
accompanist as well as a chamber musician must have flexibility
in his blood.
The Hahn songs are from early on. Francesco Paolo Tosti was
past sixty when he wrote these songs, was well established in
London, singing master to the Royal Family and had just become
a British citizen. The following year he was even knighted.
The Italian sun shines through the songs even so, though there
are clouds and darkness too. The texts are all by Gabriele d’Annunzio.
Only L’alba separadalla luce l’ombra is at
all well known but these are splendid songs, far removed from
some of his popular drawing-room products. In particular Che
dici, o parola del Saggio is inspired: its final stanza
and postlude stay long in the memory. Maybe Antonacci and Sulzen
regarded these two groups of songs as the first part of the
concert. In an evening programme this would have been the right
place for the interval.
What follows is in no way lightweight. Tosti for once becomes
the serious kernel of a song programme. Cilea as a song composer
is little known and in this group of three the first and the
last are works of his youth, light-hearted and easy on the ear.
Nel ridestarmi was written in middle-age by a composer
who had, somewhat belatedly, adopted the impressionist language.
Licinio Refice, if he is known at all, may be a name to some
opera freaks who remember his greatest triumph, Cecilie,
which in 1934 was a hit with Claudia Muzio in the title role.
The following year he wrote for her Ombra di nube - clouds
and shadow again! She recorded it the same year, shortly before
her untimely death. The song is simple but affecting.
With the next song we make an excursion to times long past.
Antonio Cesti wrote the opera Orontea in 1656 and Intorno
all’idol mio was written for the eponymous heroine,
the Queen of Egypt. Respighi also takes us back in time with
in Sopra un’aria antica (On an old aria). His songs
are heard now and then; they are well wrought but rarely catch
the ear through melodic invention. This song is among his best.
There the announced programme ends. The audience have been as
uncommonly well-behaved as the Wigmore audience usually are
but during the applause the enthusiasm gets its full due with
bravos and - do I even hear stamping feet? Well deserved?
Oh, yes! If one wants to be pernickety one could possibly say
that Antonacci’s vibrato is sometimes over-generous and
that she occasionally sounds slightly worn. Under some circumstances
this could be quite serious criticism but with so expressive
and life-enhancing a singer it hardly matters. This is a delightful
programme, delightfully executed and with delightful accompaniments.
I wish I had been there!
Göran Forsling
Anna Caterina Antonacci (mezzo), Donald Sulzen (piano) 