This is a straight reissue of an American EMI/Angel disc originally
recorded in 1990. EMI seem to be content to rehash their back-catalogue
repackaging discs
with minimal (though informative) liner-notes and information and selling them
at mid to low price. All too often I feel this pile-it-high-sell-it-cheap philosophy
does neither the performers nor the repertoire few favours. And so it is here
- of its type I think this is one of the finest discs I have heard but one that
might well slip under the radar of most collectors because of the anonymity of
its presentation.
This is what it is - a classically trained singer singing a programme of essentially
simple arrangements of Spirituals. Stop reading now if that does not push your
buttons because if you find any element of that cross-over genre unappealing
nothing here will change your mind. However, if you are open to this often-visited
concept you should try this disc. As part of the background for this review I
was checking Florence Quivar’s discography. I was surprised that there
is not more of it - for sure she has recorded the major oratorios and Mahler
symphonies as well as key Verdi but somehow I was expecting to see more - six
operas and sixteen choral/symphonic recordings in eighteen years is not a case
of being sung out in the studio! Most surprisingly, to the point I almost doubt
whether the source on the net I found is correct, this album is listed as her
only solo recital. My first encounter with her voice was as Serena on the justly
famous Decca/Maazel/Cleveland complete
Porgy and Bess. She sang there
with the same fiery intensity and degree of identification that she brings to
these Spirituals and for my money hers are interpretations that might have been
equalled on disc but have not been surpassed.
Arrangements such as these occupy an odd middle ground. At the time of their
making these arrangements were vehicles to bring the music of black America into
a more general public eye. Indeed several of those performed here are by Roland
Hayes - the first black male soloist to have an international reputation according
to the liner-notes. Hayes prepared them primarily for his own concertising use.
However, as with all folk-originated material arranged for the concert hall,
there is a smoothing of edges, a finessing of perceived weaknesses that I feel
ultimately detracts from the communicative power of the original. When that ‘softening’ is
allied to a performer - another aesthetic remove from the original - the distortion
is complete. So all credit then to Quivar that for all the evident training and
power of her considerable voice what you take first and foremost is her burning
conviction and engagement with the songs. This is instantly apparent from the
very opening of track 1
Ride on, King Jesus. Quivar’s superbly controlled,
vibrant and wide-ranging voice is the perfect instrument for this style of treatment.
All too often classical singers can impose an interpretation on essentially simple
material like a gooey icing on a cake. Phrasing can become mannered and vocal
effects spring from the head and not the heart. I see from an online biography
that Quivar’s mother was a vocal teacher in Philadelphia and ran a Gospel
choir called the ‘Harmonic Choraliers’. Clearly Quivar learnt these
songs quite literally at her mother’s knee - and it sounds like it. She
intuitively knows when to bend into a note, when to pare away the vibrato and
when to put the expressive pedal flat to the floor. It really is communicative
singing of the very highest order. There is a risk of a certain sameness implicit
in the repertoire. This disc minimises that by including the Boy’s Choir
of Harlem on six of the twenty-three tracks as well as including a pair of original
songs in the midst of the traditional spirituals. The choir’s function
is very much an accompanying one but once again they occupy the idiom so comfortably
and idiomatically that the result is profoundly touching.
I particularly like
Robert MacGimsey’s
Sweet Little Jesus boy (track 15). Although an
original song it is very much in the spiritual idiom and the simplicity of the
choir’s accompaniment in the second verse allied to a very basic chordal
piano part makes the impact of the message all the more. Given that EMI have
provided no texts it is fortunate that Quivar’s - and indeed the choir’s
- diction is so clear. The 1990 recording is beautifully balanced and has caught
Quivar’s voice in magnificent condition. No dates or venues are given -
it doesn’t sound like a church acoustic but there is a pleasing warmth
to the voices. Two pianists share the accompanist’s duty and both are as
effective as their limited parts permit. Again this style of arranging is not
about equal partners but instead providing a platform from which the voice can
perform. Curiously, not all of the absolute favourite spirituals are here but
I enjoy that mix of familiar and - to me at least - less well known. Everyone
coming to this disc will have personal favourites as well as tracks they like
less. Because I have never found this setting of
The Lord’s Prayer (track
11) or
He’s got the whole world in His hands (track 4) appealing
even Quivar cannot bring me back to the path of righteousness. Conversely
Witness (track
19) or the opening title track are absolute knock-outs. Mentioning
Witness -
for a broader, more diverse group of treatments of spirituals I would guide readers
to a long-deleted Collins Classics disc entitled
Witness: Volume 1 - Spirituals & Gospels performed
by Philip Brunelle and his Plymouth Music Series Ensemble and Moore by Four.
The latter are a closer harmony group who add a jazzier feel to some of the arrangements
including a stunning
Jesus Lover of my Soul. However, even they cannot
match Quivar for revivalist fervour or the utter ‘rightness’ of her
sound.
This is a superb disc both as a document of a magnificent singer at her considerable
peak and as a sincere expression of Christian faith.
Nick Barnard
Florence Quivar (mezzo) 
