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BRITISH SONG.
Michael Tippett
, The Heart's Assurance;
Francis Routh
, A Woman Young and Old;
David Matthews
, The Golden Kingdom;
John Rushby-Smith
, Love's Legacy.

Margaret Field (soprano) Andrew Ball (piano).
Redcliffe Recordings RR009 [72' 22"].

I wish I could recommend this disc.

There is no doubt that Margaret Field and Andrew Ball are excellent performers but, apart from the song cycle by Francis Routh, the music is very disappointing. The Tippett, Matthews and Rushby-Smith all suffer from tonal insecurity and piano parts which are independent of the vocal line so that they do not belong. Often the piano parts are so busy and convoluted that they confuse the ear and detract from the text and the vocal line.

In the Tippett a clearer voice and recording balance would have helped. But the virtuosic piano part makes the first song a combat ... the accompaniment is too busy and intrusive. Balance is a problem in the third song Compassion but it later improves into a convincing performance. The Dancer suffers from an interfering piano part which is very distracting. I hasten to add that this is the composer's fault. The final song Remember Your Lovers is both curious and confusing.

No such problems with the Francis Routh where the vocal line and piano part do belong. They do integrate. The unfussy vocal lines bring out Yeats' text with clarity. Some of the piano writing in the first song Father and Child reappears at the end of the final song From the 'Antigone' which is so effectively simple and may suggest a blues. There is a wonderful coherence in both parts and the vocal lines are memorable. Before the World Was Made captures a mood that is perfect to the text. There is shape in these songs ... a clear direction and purpose. One can sense the reserved and subtle humour in For Anne Gregory. This is an excellent song cycle and, by far, the best work on the disc.

The tonal insecurity and complications of the Tippett are also found in David Matthews' work. To have eight songs out of nine which are very slow needs a Herculean attention span. Some are very short ... one lasts half a minute. The piano is very intrusive and so one does not hear the text. There are other serious weaknesses such as a Britten-like vocal line which is at odds with the words and a ghastly Schubertian piano vamping as in the song Spell of Sheep. If you know Schubert's Who is Sylvia? you will know what I mean. Blake's Lament of Ahania seems to be a slow boogie-woogie and quite at odds with the text. The portrayal of Kathleen Raine's butterflies does not work. Yet the song The Purple Butterfly in Gerard Victory's magnificent song cycle Sailing to Byzantium shows us how it can be done.

The final song in The Golden Kingdom raises other questions. It begins and ends with a piano solo allegro moderato and the vocal part is marked slowly and gently. I must confess that bars 39 - 45 are quite beautiful, sensitive but mannered. John Rushby-Smith had originally intended to call his work Four Shelley Songs. I found his work a curious mixture of styles and, again, some of the piano writing is very uncomfortable. The vocal line is often at odds with the piano part and the ear does not know where to go. Three out of four songs are slow and uneventful. The final Lament is clearly the best and, after the Routh, his work is the most rewarding.

Reviewer

David Wright

Performances

Recording


Reviewer

David Wright

Performances

Recording


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