Italia
Giuseppe VERDI (1813-1901)
Ave Maria [5:37]
Laudi alla Vergine Maria [5:52]
Giacinto SCELSI (1905-1988)
Yliam [6:50]
Giuseppe VERDI
Pater noster [6:55]
Luigi NONO (1924-1990)
Sarà dolce tacere [7:26]
Ildebrando PIZZETTI (1880-1968)
Tre composizioni corali [19:45]
Cade la sera [3:31]
Ululate [6:10]
Recordare, Domine [10:04]
Giacinto SCELSI
T K R D G [11:23]
I [4:39]
II [2:44]
III [4:00]
Goffredo PETRASSI (1904-2003)
Nonsense [7:37]: C’era una signorina [1:06] C’era un vecchio
musicale [1:07]
C’era un vecchio di Rovigo [2:46] C’era una signorina di
Pozzillo [1:41]
C’era una vecchia di Polla [0:57]
SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart/Marcus Creed
Soloists: Eva-Maria Schappé, Johanna Zimmer (soprano), Wiebke Wighardt,
Judith Hilger (contralto); Kerstin Steube-König, Eva-Maria Schappé (soprano)
Maria van Eldik, Ulrike Becker (contralto), Alexander Yudenkov, Julius
Pfeifer (tenor), Torsten Müller, Mikhail Nikiforov (bass); Hubert Steiner
(E-guitar), Boris Müller, Martin Homann, Adam Weisman (percussion)
rec. 2004-13, SWR Funkstudio Stuttgart; Villa Berg, Stuttgart;
Christuskirche
Sung texts with German and English translation enclosed
HÄNSSLER CLASSIC CD93.329 [71:54]
We are indeed lucky to have such plethora of great choirs in the UK, in
Scandinavia and in central Europe. I have reviewed quite a few CDs the last
couple of years and only recently I had reason to hail first the Salzburger
Bachchor in a collection entitled
Pater noster, then Kammerchor Hannover juxtaposing Johann Sebastian Bach and Sven-David Sandström. Here now is
SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart with an Italian programme of primarily
20th century composers. The exception is Giuseppe Verdi, and his
works are just a few years on the ‘wrong’ side of the previous turn of the
century. These three compositions were also on the Salzburger Bachchor’s
disc which invited comparison but not even at gunpoint would I be able to
decide which of them is the better. Having been a Verdi-lover for all my
grown-up life I came to his sacred choral music relatively late. Now it
belongs among my desert island music. Both these choirs rub shoulders with a
select company of other choral ensembles always available at arm’s length
from my CD player.
I am not sure I will return that often to some of the other works on the
disc. Professionally performed they certainly are but some are rather hard
nuts to crack. Scelsi’s Yliam is one of those. Designed-I prefer
that word to ‘composed’, since Scelsi didn’t regard himself as a
composer-for women’s voices it is a heavily dissonant piece, wordless and
with long screaming clusters. Verdi’s Pater noster came as balm to
my injured eardrums and repeated attempts to digest the Scelsi piece were
just as fruitless. To describe it as neutrally as possible it is like a
carpet of clusters from which intense, aggressive cascades of other
higher-lying clusters rise, fall down, rise again, fall down. I can’t deny
that it is fascinating but ... horrible. The fault is no doubt mine rather
than Scelsi’s but I can only report my reactions.
Luigi Nono’s Sarà dolce tacere is more structured and less
aggressive. Here the voices sail more comfortably in a more harmonious sea
but with frequent outbreaks of dissonant chords. This is no easy listen
either but I have come to terms with it-reluctantly.
Ildebrando Pizzetti’s music is another matter. He was primarily an opera
composer with more than twenty operas to his credit, best known probably for
Assassinio nella cattedrale from 1958. He was also an avid
choral composer. His Requiem from 1922-23 may be his masterpiece in
that genre, it is also an a cappella composition, but the five-part
compositions on this disc are also attractive. They are basically tonal and
very beautiful. I have long had a Chandos recording (CHAN8964) of them with
the Danish National Radio Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Stefan Parkman,
coupled with the aforementioned Requiem. I brought out that disc
for comparison and found a slightly more homogenous sound and at slightly
faster tempos the Danish choir achieve greater urgency. The difference is
marginal but the Chandos is also worth acquiring for the
Requiem.
The other Scelsi composition, TKRDG, for male choir, electric
guitar and percussion, is a rhythmic work, in particular the second
movement. It makes fascinating sounds. There is no explanation as to what
TKRDG stands for.
Petrassi’s Nonsense consists of five charming ditties in a
modernized recreation of the old madrigal technique. The texts are
Limerick-like and the last of them:
There was an old maid of Polla,
Who was horribly jammed in a crowd.
Some she slew with a kick,
Others she scrunched with a stick,
That impulsive old maid of Polla
is a true tour de force, bringing the disc to a jubilant end.
This a thrilling disc, covering Italian choral music from roughly the
twentieth century. It is magnificently sung and should be an ideal
ear-opener-but maybe also an ear-shutter for some-for those curious about
this part of the repertoire.
Göran Forsling
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