Walter BERGMANN (1902-1988)
Pastorale for counter-tenor and recorder (1946) [3:21]
Three Songs for counter-tenor and guitar (1973 rev. 1983) [4:53]
Michael TIPPETT (1905-1998)
Four Inventions for two recorders (1954) [3:40]
Alan RIDOUT (1934-1996)
Soliloquy for counter-tenor, recorder and continuo (1985) [5:10]
William WILLIAMS (d.1701)
Sonata in A minor for two recorders (c.1696) [6:01]
George Frideric HANDEL (1685-1759)
Sonata in F major for two recorders, and continuo (c.1707) [5:51]
John BLOW (1649-1708)
Ode on the Death of Mr Henry Purcell (1696) [32:20]
Peter Racine FRICKER (1920-1988)
Elegy: The tomb of St. Eulalia, Op. 25 (1955) [7:35]
James Bowman and Robin Blaze (counter-tenors)
John Turner and Laura Robinson (recorders)
Tim Smedley (cello): Dave Bainbridge (guitar): Ian Thompson (harpsichord)
rec. May-June 2013, St Thomas’s Church, Stockport
Texts included
DIVINE ART DDA25114 [59:36]
Alfred Deller is the focal point in this intriguing selection of music.
The other twin figures to provide columnar support are Michael Tippett
– who first ‘discovered’ Deller at Canterbury Cathedral
– and Walter Bergmann, the émigré German composer
and performer who did so much to further the revival of early music in
Britain. Almost inevitably Morley College looms large, as that’s
where Tippett invited Deller to perform at his early concerts, where Tippett
was a central figure and Bergmann the accompanist for Tippett’s
Morley Choir.
Musically the focus is on the counter-tenor voice and the recorder. Bergmann’s
brief 1946 Pastorale features both. First performed in Canterbury
by Deller to whom it was dedicated, and Delia Ruhm, on the flute, it effectively
amplifies the text by poet Norman Cameron. It’s sung here with considerable
artistry by Robin Blaze. Bergmann’s Three Songs for counter-tenor
and guitar is a short cycle originally dating from 1973 when
there was a fourth song. Revision a decade later saw the omission of the
Easter Hymn and substantial revision of the remaining three songs.
Quite spare in the main, the very brief last song is the most athletic
and is sung by James Bowman.
Tippett’s Four Inventions were premièred by Bergmann
and fellow recorder player Freda Dinn in 1954. Brief though they are they
do require some dexterity and fine breath control. Tippett’s clever
use of entwining figures and – in particular – fanfare-like
moments is especially ingenious. Peter Racine Fricker’s Elegy:
The Tomb of St. Eulalia is almost contemporaneous with the Tippett.
It was first performed by Deller, viola da gamba player Desmond Dupré
and harpsichordist George Malcolm. Bowman, husbanding his vocal reserves
well, sings with accustomed musicality and insight. Alan Ridout’s
Soliloquy dates from much later, 1985, and was written in
memoriam for David Munrow (1942-76). Two of the performers in its
first performance appear, happily, in this recording: James Bowman and
John Turner, who are also central players in this disc. It deliberately
invokes the music of Campion and has a particularly expressive cello line,
played here by Tim Smedley. At the first performance the cellist was Christopher
van Kampen, and Robert Spencer the lutenist. After this performance Ridout
omitted the lute, redistributing its writing amongst the other instruments.
William Williams is a little-known contemporary of Purcell and his tuneful
sonata for two recorders and harpsichord, played by Ian Thompson –
well balanced in St Thomas’s, Stockport – makes an immediate
appeal not least because of the bird imitations and the rapport between
Turner and Laura Robinson. Handel’s Sonata in F major, for the same
instrumentation, was given its first performance in modern times by Turner
and David Pugsley. It’s good that the former has recorded it here,
with Robinson and Thompson.
Deller left behind a wonderful recording of John Blow’s Ode
on the Death of Mr Henry Purcell – with Bergmann, incidentally,
on Vanguard. Bowman too has recorded it before, with René Jacobs,
Max von Egmond, Anner Bylsma and Gustav Leonhardt. Bowman and Blaze make
a good team, though one would have difficulty preferring Bowman’s
older self to his younger, inevitably.
This interestingly programmed and thoughtfully prepared disc comes with
good notes and texts. It salutes Deller’s memory and continuing
influence. It also restores works associated with him, written by his
contemporaries that may have become eclipsed in the years since his death.
Jonathan Woolf
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