Die Singphoniker is
a six-man vocal group which has been
in existence for twenty-five years and
has made nearly thirty CDs. Although
the ensemble claims that its original
inspiration, to which it remains true,
was the Comedy Harmonists (or the Comedian
Harmonists, as the group seems to have
become known in recent times), Die Singphoniker
shows every sign of being much closer
in spirit to the King's Singers; a comparison
that will doubtless be far from novel.
Nevertheless, the comparison
is apt not just because both the King's
Singers and Die Singphoniker are all-male
ensembles comprising six singers, but
rather because of the repertoire of
both groups. The King's Singers established
its reputation originally for its versatility
and the wide-ranging repertoire that
it performed, and went on to commission
and perform new works from contemporary
composers on a regular basis, while
continuing to perform a huge variety
of works from early music to modern-day
popular songs. Die Singphoniker, although
younger than the King's Singers, as
a group, by a dozen years, has taken
a similar path, with a similarly wide-ranging
repertoire from Gregorian chant to modern-day
pop music, and also with an interest
in performing new music.
That is not to say
that the German group is a clone of
a British original, of course. Die Singphoniker
has its own style and repertoire, and
to look at the catalogue of 28 CDs currently
listed on the group's Web site, it's
clear that a high percentage of them
present worthy musical projects, such
as a five-CD set of the complete Schubert
part-songs, and similar surveys of the
part-songs of Grieg, Richard Strauss,
Reger, Michael Haydn, Mendelssohn and
others; though a few CDs represent lighter
entertainment, such as a Comedian Harmonists
tribute disc. The group's composition
is different, too: whereas the King's
Singers have two altos at the top, Die
Singphoniker is more bottom-heavy, with
two tenors at the top, the remaining
singers being baritones or basses. Having
said that, at least one of the two tenors
can also sing counter-tenor, and performs
in the alto range for most of the tracks
on this Christmas CD. I have also never
known the King's Singers to expand their
ranks with guest singers (as opposed
to guest performers of other types)
for any of their recordings, whereas
this Singphonic Christmas CD features
two guest basses, singing alongside
the regular group members, as well as
a harpist.
All this comparison
with the King's Singers merely serves
to underline the fact that this CD is
something that could easily have been
done by the British group, and King's
Singers fans are likely to enjoy this
CD, whether their preference is for
the lighter or the more serious side
of the close-harmony repertoire. Comparisons
with the King's Singers are hard to
avoid while listening to this disc,
which is partly why I've spent time
discussing both groups here, but of
course the sound is quite different
even though the format is similar.
Happily, the German
ensemble lives up to the kind of performance
standards expected of the British group.
The performances are virtually flawless
and the ensemble is unerringly perfect,
with not a hint of a ragged entry at
any point; the voices sing as one. The
balance of the recording is also excellent,
allowing every voice to come to the
fore whenever it needs to do so. Having
said that, I did feel that the melody
was occasionally swamped slightly when
it was carried by an inner part, and
there was an occasion example of slightly
imperfect tuning in one voice or another.
However, these were very rare and minor
problems, only happening for a handful
of brief moments. Overall, there's very
little to complain about here, in terms
of either the recording or the performance;
every singer is excellent, the recording
quality is good and the final result
extremely polished.
The
Singphonic Christmas CD presents a wide
range of carols and other Christmas
music from around Europe, though with
a slight emphasis on the Germanic. Twenty-one
tracks, including three for harp solo,
include a fine mixture of the well-known
with the unfamiliar. Most items are
for four to six voices, and, aside from
the three harp solos (including the
Interlude from Britten's A
Ceremony of Carols),
the harp accompanies the singers in
a number of items.
Even
the familiar items are presented in
new arrangements, many of them written
by members of Die Singphoniker. This
ought to be a good idea, in that there
can be no-one more familiar with the
possibilities of the group than its
own members, and in many cases the arrangements
do indeed work well; I particularly
liked Alfons Brandl's straightforward
arrangement of Grieg's Du
grønne, glitrende tre,
for instance.
Unfortunately, the
majority of the Singphoniker-originated
arrangements are by Ludwig Thomas, one
of the group's baritones, and I'm sorry
to have to say that I didn't take to
them at all. Whilst I regret having
to single out one individual for criticism,
the fact is that eight of the tracks
on the CD have been arranged by Thomas,
and I could spot them all immediately
because of their quirks. Even on the
very first occasion that I listened
to the CD, I noticed an obvious pattern
and was able to detect which pieces
Thomas had arranged, before confirming
my suspicions by checking in the CD
booklet.
It's not that Ludwig
Thomas' arrangements are poor quality
or badly done; they're not, and I have
no doubt that he used to score highly
in his harmony exercises when he was
studying music. Technically, they're
interesting and harmonically clever,
and practically they work well enough,
showing off the capabilities of Die
Singphoniker. The problem with them
is that they sound far too contrived
and gimmicky for my taste. They modulate
between keys at the drop of a hat, and
sometimes do so in the middle of a familiar
melody, for which I think there's no
excuse. There's even less excuse for
altering notes within a familiar melody
to bend it into the shape of your peculiar
harmonic ideas, but that happens frequently,
too. At other times, familiar melodies
are sung over an unexpected, and therefore
apparently wrong, tonal centre, and
at yet other times, the expected melody
is lost entirely, to be replaced by
something new that follows the expected
melodic shape but isn't actually what
you expect to hear.
It's not that I'm a
fuddy-duddy; it's not that I want to
hear only boring arrangements with simple,
traditional harmony. I have nothing
against clever and inventive new arrangements
as long as I feel that they actually
work. Unfortunately, I don't feel that
Ludwig Thomas' arrangements are very
successful; they're not awful, but they
do seem far too gimmicky for my taste,
and unfortunately they comprise more
than a third of the tracks on the CD.
However, that's only
my personal opinion, of course. While
working on this review, I took a look
at Die Singphoniker's Web site and found
a link to Classics Today's recent review
of this CD, in which the reviewer highlighted
the Ludwig Thomas items as being first-class
arrangements, worthy of being singled
out for particular praise. Each to his
own; what that reviewer liked best,
I found to be the most disappointing
aspect of the disc. That other reviewer
also complained about the harp being
an unwanted and extraneous accompaniment
to several of the tracks. Again, I couldn't
disagree more; for me, the beautifully-played
harp really added some attractive and
valuable colour to an otherwise slightly
monochrome CD, and the tracks with harp
were some of my favourites on the disc.
I
did agree with one of the other reviewer's
points, however: that the disc is let
down by one particular track, Mary's
Boychild.
This is listed as being English, and
a credit for its original composer is
not given. The briefest research on
the Web, however, reveals not only that
it is American, and a spiritual rather
than a song or carol (all of which I
knew), but that both words and music
were written by Jester Hairston. It's
certainly not English, anyway, and it
is certainly misplaced in a collection
of European music. More important, though,
is the fact that the words have been
altered such that the song no longer
makes sense. The line of the chorus
which should be: "...that man will live
forever more because of Christmas day"
has been changed in the Singphoniker
version to: "...that man will live forever
more because it's Christmas day."
Whilst a single word-change
may not sound too drastic, in this instance
it totally alters the meaning of the
song. The message is supposed to be
that Christmas day (that is, the birth
of Jesus Christ) is the reason why mankind
will survive. Die Singphoniker, however,
appears to be telling us that we're
safe in our beds only because today
is 25th December - regardless of the
date on which we're actually listening
to the CD! Non-Christians may not see
the need for the hair-splitting, but
to those who do believe in Christmas,
the distinction is far from trivial.
That little word, 'of', is key to the
meaning of the sentence, and indeed
of the entire song.
As
a final amusement, a couple of the singers
whistle rather than sing during one
of the tracks, Quanno
nascete nino,
and I was amazed by the extremely high
pitch of one of the whistlers' tootlings!
As it happens, I'm a pretty good whistler
myself, and I have an unusually wide
whistling range of two-and-a-half octaves,
so I was surprised to hear the whistling
in this track, as it's a good half-octave
higher than anything I can manage myself!
Unfortunately, the highest note in the
phrase is conspicuously flat, which
does take the shine off the performance
for those of us with a sensitive ear.
Nevertheless, whoever's doing the whistling
has a nice tone. Given that this track
is also accompanied by harp, the whistling
really adds something, especially when
two people whistle together; it sounds
rather like a pair of recorders accompanied
by harp, and I was sorry that it didn't
last longer than its few seconds' duration.
Overall, then, this
is an interesting CD, well performed,
nicely recorded and with an intriguing
programme. The CD insert is quite interesting,
and includes lots of photos and the
words of all the songs on the CD, but
the booklet notes have suffered slightly
in the translation from German to English,
and unfortunately don't come across
as coherently as one might wish.
Listeners who like
their Christmas carols to be performed
straightforwardly and simply are less
likely to be as enamoured of the disc
as fans of the King's Singers' more
chromatic style of arrangements, as
I do feel that a fairly substantial
proportion of the arrangements at least
verge on the gimmicky. As should be
clear from what I said earlier, I wasn't
terribly impressed by Ludwig Thomas's
arrangements, and some of the other
arrangements on the CD that aren't by
him (such as Mary's Boy Child) aren't
particularly good either. But it's all
a matter of personal taste, after all,
and on balance I enjoyed the CD very
much, notwithstanding the occasional
moment that sounded slightly forced
to my ears. There were a good many new
Christmas items from around Europe that
I hadn't heard before, and which I enjoyed
greatly. The singers are all very good;
I was particularly impressed by the
alto/tenor singer (Hubert Nettinger,
I assume), who was able to move freely
between chest-voice and falsetto, mid-phrase,
without a hint of a gear-change, and
with an equally pleasant tone on either
side of the vocal divide.
Overall,
then, this is a good CD which I would
recommend quite strongly; not entirely
without reservation, perhaps, but any
quibbles I might have are matters of
personal taste rather than actual problems
with the performance or recording. I
hope that this review has not given
too strong a negative impression, as
this is actually a very good CD, and
Die Singphoniker is clearly an ensemble
to be reckoned with. Certainly, the
quality of this CD is sufficient to
have inspired me to investigate the
same forces' Schubert part-song edition.
Richard
Hallas
CPO 777 067-2 [60:17]
