I doubt if many
people have ever thought of part-songs as being revelatory,
but this generously filled disc could well prove exactly that
for several listeners. Romantic symphonies, opera, lieder,
absolute or programme music – these are all well known and
much loved musical disciplines covered by the composers included
here, yet the part-song remains unjustly neglected.
Many of the composers
here are noted for their settings of religious texts or for
personal strength of faith (Brahms, Bruckner, Mendelssohn),
others less so (Reger, Wagner, Wolf and Strauss), yet each
brings to their setting a deep sense of personal commitment,
whether the words be religious or poetic. Each work here takes
its place in a firmly established tradition that is particular
to German and Austrian composers. A concern with the specific
qualities of evening time as expressed through music can only
be something that the Romantic sensibility could have responded
to. In the twentieth century the a capella partsong tradition
continued through composers as diverse as Pfitzner and Schoenberg,
though shaded by an entirely different feeling and response.
Josef Rheinberger,
a fine if almost forgotten composer today and one much revered
by von Bülow, sets the mood with ample feeling. In both Brahms
works one can feel the hand that set Ein Deutsches Requiem
at work, and particularly in Warum ist das Licht gegeben
which sets words from Job, Lamentations and James alongside
those of Martin Luther, though elsewhere his love of Palestrina-inspired
counterpoint flows freely.
Mendelssohn and
Wolf form an effective balance for each other in many ways,
not just in their setting of six texts each. Mendelssohn’s
are overtly religious, Wolf’s more worldly and reflective
of his deep instability that remains never far from the surface
of his music. Wagner, the source some might say of Wolf’s
condition, penned the work for Weber’s graveside, where he
himself conducted it. It is a mixture of reverence, feeling,
through a slightly veiled emotion. I am again left thinking
whether Wagner had Weber’s memory entirely in mind or was
it his own personal reputation. Only the words set by a youthful
Strauss (Schiller) seem at a slight discord with the other
poets present (Plinke, Falke, Lenau and Eichendorff). Schiller
strains to be a truly German poet when heard against the natural
flow of the others. Strauss’s setting though is assured for
a young man, as indeed are Bruckner’s, benefiting as they
do from considered wisdom deployed with skilful feeling.
The singing is
of distinctive refinement being well paced and blended with
evenness throughout all the parts. The basses are supple,
tenors not over-bright, altos rich-toned, and sopranos float
their lines with melting ease. The recording too is beautifully
atmospheric, try – just one example I could point to – Schweigen
from Reger’s Drei sechsstimme Chöre, Op 39,
where a hushed calm is caught in the slightly reverberant
though appropriately church-like acoustic of Eton College
Chapel. And some people think Reger a dry and impersonal composer
– here he comes across as anything but.
Lydia Smallwood’s
accompanying notes succinctly and informatively link the composers
and their respective interests in choral writing. Full texts
and translations are downloadable as a PDF file from Herald’s
website.
Most strongly
recommended.
Evan Dickerson
see also Review
by John Quinn
The Rodolfus Choir/Ralph
Allwood and Ben Parry **
