This is the strangest compilation in the Decca British
Music Collection I’ve yet encountered. Rubbra is represented by the
three Psalm settings, Ireland by three songs, a two-boy-trebles-and-orchestra
Holy Boy and the brass band Comedy Overture, whilst the Quilter selection
includes the two innocuous (or anodyne if you feel bloody minded) cello
morceaux, songs and arrangements of folksongs. I’ve searched for a decisive
and intellectually satisfying thread that binds these disparate creatures
together and apart from the ignoble thought of barrel scraping I can
only conclude that it’s Kathleen Ferrier. It’s Ferrier who sings the
Rubbra Psalms and eight of the Quilter settings and no issue of Ferrier’s
can ever be accused of barrel-scraping superfluity and it’s her contributions
that lift this otherwise irrelevant issue to the level of significance.
In fact the whole CD is something of a discographic
mess with recording details limited to dates only, which is exceptionally
unhelpful, especially in the case of Ferrier. The Rubbra settings are
in fact from her last radio recital in January 1953 from Maida Vale
Studio 5. Also included in that recital were songs by Howard Ferguson
and William Wordsworth and the whole recital was recorded and is intact
at the National Sound Archive. A previous recording of the Psalms also
exists there, in much poorer sound, but dating from the year of the
settings’ first performance by Ferrier, 1947, where she is accompanied
by Frederick Stone. The bulk of the Quilter settings were made for Decca
in December 1951 and are the last sessions she was to make with her
accompanist Phyllis Spurr and are famous mementos of her art.
As for the performances themselves, again it’s something
of a mixed bag. I don’t much like Terfel’s over-interpreted way with
Ireland. In Sea Fever he makes dramatic and exaggerated winnowing
of the line to near inaudibility in the interests of theatricality;
his dynamics in The vagabond are wildly exaggerated and his crooned
half voice in The Bells of San Marie disappears into the ether
in a vacuous attempt at significance. By contrast I did enjoy Howarth
and the Grimethorpe Colliery Band’s A Comedy Overture – really
splendidly generous music making. The Rubbra Psalms have been issued
before of course but they are amongst the lesser known of Ferrier’s
live material. Some acetate scratch is audible but it’s not at all problematic
in these strongly delineated and moving settings, which range from austerity
to ecstasy and joy, an ascent made more involving still through the
medium of Ferrier’s burnished contralto. Benjamin Luxon gives Terfel
a lesson in sensitivity in his only outing on Now sleeps the crimson
petal (also sung by Ferrier in her groups of songs). Luxon’s scaled
and proportionate singing is assertive and imaginative and never sinks
to the level of the merely gestural or generic. Elly Ameling is very
occasionally unidiomatic in Weep you no more though this is beautiful
singing per se and a worthy addition.
As I said this is a rather bewildering issue ranging
in recording time from 1951-95. I can’t imagine British Music specialists
needing it or Ferrier enthusiasts not already having her contributions
elsewhere. Sorry to sound sour but it could and should have been much
better than this.
Jonathan Woolf
See also review
by Christopher Howell
