On This Shining Night
Music for Voice and String Quartet
Roderick Williams (baritone); Sophie Bevan (soprano); James Gilchrist (tenor)
Coull Quartet
rec. 2021, The Menuhin Hall, Stoke d’Abernon, UK
Texts included
SOMM RECORDINGS SOMMCD0654 [66]
As Robert Matthew-Walker observes in his useful booklet essay, “music for solo voice and string quartet was essentially a 20th century creation”. This enterprising programme features some choice examples of this particular genre.
The collection opens with eleven songs composed or arranged for this medium by Peter Warlock. These songs feature all three singers and it seemed to me that the songs suited the singers concerned very well and also that in all cases the string quartet accompaniment was very effective. Elizabethan melancholy seems to have appealed to Warlock’s nature and never more so, perhaps, than in Sleep, his setting of words by John Fetcher (1579-1625). It’s a very fine song (even if, as a matter of personal preference, I think Ivor Gurney’s response to the same words is even finer). As I listened to Roderick Williams’ excellent delivery of the song it struck me that having the Coull Quartet to play the accompaniment created something of an illusion of a viol consort – and I hasten to add I mean that in an entirely complimentary sense; it’s highly appropriate to the poem.
Elsewhere in the Warlock group, I loved the eloquence and radiant tone with which Sophie Bevan sings A Sad Song. She’s also a wonderful partner for Williams in Corpus Christi. I’m not sure that I’ve ever heard this achingly melancholic song except in its original 1919 version for solo voice and piano. Heard in Warlock’s 1927 arrangement, as here, it takes on a wholly different complexion. For one thing, the use of two voices adds a wholly different dimension. Secondly, the string quartet (the viol consort illusion again?) emphasises the sadness of the music. And in a strange way, six musicians impart at least as much of a sense of intimacy, it seems, as do just two performers in the original.
Miss Bevan is also involved in another duet: she sings Sorrow’s Lullaby with James Gilchrist. This is an exquisite, melancholy song and both singers sound ravishing. The Coull Quartet’s playing really brings out the complex chromaticism of the accompaniment. Interestingly, I learned from the notes that Warlock designated the song as being for soprano and baritone. However, James Gilchrist’s contribution makes me feel that the song is ideally suited to a tenor as partner for the soprano. Gilchrist offers My Lady is a pretty one. As the notes point out, this song has an interesting history. Warlock wrote it in 1918 but later revised it extensively, including changing not only the time signature but also the title from the original As ever I saw. James Gilchrist gives an attractively fresh performance. He and the Coull Quartet make the most of Warlock’s quirky rhythms.
All eleven songs are good ones and they receive excellent performances. As I listened, I wondered if it might have been preferable to break up what is quite a substantial group of Warlock songs, placing some of them at the end of the programme. However, I came to realise that there is a clever construction to the programme: it’s appropriate to book-end the programme with Warlock and Delius given the friendship between them. And to compound that appropriateness, as Robert Matthew-Walker explains, it was Warlock who sent Delius I-Brasil, the poem by Flora Macleod, which he set in 1913.
That’s one of three Delius songs which we hear in new arrangements for voice and string quartet made by Roderick Williams. All of the arrangements work extremely well, I think. In I-Brasil the quartet sounds completely authentic and Williams sings the song beautifully. The other two items come from Delius’s 1890 collection Seven Songs from the Norwegian. ‘Twilight Fancies’ is one of the composer’s best-known songs. I love the accompaniment as delivered by the stringed instruments. Williams sings the song most expressively, really telling the story. In ‘Young Venevil’ a thoughtless young man trifles with the affections of the eponymous girl. The arrangement and performance nicely convey Venevil’s youthful innocence.
I wonder if the programme for this disc was built around a desire to record for the first time Sally Beamish’s set of five Tree Carols. These are settings of poems by Fiona Sampson (b 1963). I learned from the notes that it was Ms Sampson and the Coull Quartet who first approached Sally Beamish about this project. Having taken the idea on board, she conceived the songs with the voice of Roderick Williams in mind. I think I should come clean and say that, so far, I have found these songs difficult to take to my heart. That’s no reflection on poet, composer or performers. I’m afraid that all too often I find it very difficult to come to terms with and understand modern poetry and while I think I have grasped the meaning of one or two of Ms Sampson’s poems, much of the imagery as yet eludes me. The fault is mine and I hope that over time I’ll come to appreciate the words – and therefore the songs – better.
The first song ‘The Miracle Tree’ presents, if I understand it correctly, two facets of the same tree: the tree as it originally was, and the same wood after it had been fashioned into the cross on which Christ was put to death. Beamish’s music is eloquent and one detail that particularly catches the ear is the highly effective use of shimmering writing for the strings. It’s immediately obvious that Tree Carols will benefit from the great care with which, as usual, Roderick Williams cares for and enunciates the text. Jumping ahead, I think that ‘Vigil’ expresses the sentiments, after the Crucifixion, of the tree which was used to form Christ’s cross. If I’ve interpreted the text correctly then perhaps the vehement, angry tone of the music reflects guilt? ‘The trees are troubled’ is cast in 5/8 time which underlines the restlessness of both the words and the music to which Sally Beamish has set the poem. ‘The tree is a changing sky’ is a strange poem, which I don’t yet grasp. The setting exploits Roderick Williams’ upper register; he sings long, searching vocal lines against an incident-packed string accompaniment. Finally, the poem ‘Bushes and Briars’ is a 21st century take on the traditional folk song but, so far as I can tell, Sally Beamish has wisely refrained from giving the music a folk-tinted aspect. So far, I don’t feel qualified to pass a judgement on Tree Carols; I need much more time with words and music. However, I do feel I can give an opinion on the performance. The songs are in ideal hands for this, their first recording. Roderick Williams and the Coull Quartet deliver a skilled and highly committed performance.
Samuel Barber’s Dover Beach is, arguably, the finest example to date of a composition for solo voice and string quartet. Barber was an accomplished singer in his own right and, as is well known, it was he who, in 1935, made the first recording of this extended song (review). In this new performance Roderick Williams’ singing at the start is quietly rapt; he and his fellow performers establish a pregnant atmosphere right away. As is his wont, Williams delivers Mathew Arnold’s lines with great understanding and clarity while spinning a wonderfully smooth vocal line. The emotional outburst at the start of the last stanza (‘Ah, love, let us be true /To one another!…’) is all the more effective for the restraint and control with which Williams and the Coulls have delivered all the preceding music. This is a very fine account of Barber’s great song.
The other two Barber items are heard in new arrangements by Roderick Williams. ‘Sleep now’ is one of the Three Songs, op 10 (1939), which set words by James Joyce. At the start and close of the song I love the way that the strings provide a soft cushion of sound for the voice. The instruments also contribute most effectively to the more astringent central section. ‘Sure on this shining night’ is one of the Four Songs, op 13 (1937-40), which use texts by various poets; this one is by James Agee. When I received this disc, I put it straight into the player and selected this track because I believe ‘Sure on this shining night’ to be one of the great art songs and I was eager to hear it in this new arrangement. Williams has done his work tastefully and thoughtfully. The string accompaniment works beautifully but I especially like the way in which several times the first violin, in picking out the topmost notes in the piano right hand (in the original), offers what is effectively a discreet counter melody to the vocal line; the effect is slightly more pronounced than in the piano version and it’s a lovely touch. Williams’ singing is silky-smooth. I hope that other singers and quartets will take up this arrangement especially and, indeed, the other Roderick Williams arrangements on this disc.
This is a very fine CD and all the more welcome for presenting fine songs for the less frequently encountered combination of voice and string quartet. Roderick Williams has the lion’s share of the singing and he is on top form. But the contributions of Sophie Bevan and James Gilchrist
in the Warlock group are equally distinguished. The Coull Quartet plays splendidly throughout.
Engineer Oscar Torres and producer Siva Oke have recorded the performers expertly. In particular, the balance between the quartet and the singers has been expertly judged – as has the internal balance of the four instruments. Robert Matthew-Walker’s notes are excellent. I should also say that, as usual, SOMM lay out their booklet in a clear and well-sized font which makes reading the booklet really easy; that’s something one can’t take for granted these days but it’s greatly appreciated by those of us who have less than 20/20 vision.
John Quinn
Contents
Peter Warlock (1894-1930)
Chopcherry (1922)
Corpus Christi (1919/1927)
The Fairest May (1922/1930)
Mourn no moe (1919)
A Sad Song (1922)
My gostly fader (1918)
My Lady is a pretty one (1918/1930)
My little sweet darling (1919/1927)
Sleep (1922)
Sorrow’s Lullaby (1927)
Take, O take those lips away (1918)
Samuel Barber (1910-1981)
Dover Beach (1931)
Sleep now (1939) (arr. Roderick Williams)*
Sure on this shining night (1937-40) (arr. Roderick Williams)*
Sally Beamish (b. 1956)
Tree Carols (2009)*
The Miracle Tree
The trees are troubled
Vigil
The tree is a changing sky
Bushes and Briars
Frederick Delius (1862-1934)
I-Brasil (1913) (arr. Roderick Williams)*
Twilight Fancies (1890) (arr. Roderick Williams)*
Young Venevil (1890) (arr. Roderick Williams)*
*First recordings
