RECORDING OF THE MONTH
Ned ROREM (b. 1923)
On An Echoing Road
Early in the morning (1955) [1:66]
Are you the new person drawn toward me? (1989 [2:16]
Rain in Spring (1949) [1:18]
For Susan (1953) [1:15]
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (1947) [1:56]
Jeanie with the light brown hair (1982) [2:45]
To a young girl (1951) [1:19]
Catullus: On the burial of His Brother (1947) [2:07]
Requiescat (1997) [2:29]
I will always love you (1957) [2:19]
That shadow, my likeness (1982) [1:47]
On an echoing road (1997) [3:04]
I strolled across an open field (1959) [1:16]
Alleluia (1946) [2:43]
Little Elegy (1948) [1:17]
Sometimes with one I love (1957) [1:25]
Hymn for Evening (1997) [2:46]
Orchids (1959) [2:16]
On a singing girl (1946) [1:26]
Now sleeps the crimson petal [3:53]
What if some little pain (1949) [1:38]
Look down, fair moon (1957)[1:20]
The Rainbow (1997) [1:22]
Do I love you more than a day? [1:33]
Their lonely betters [2:45]
Do not love too long (1963)[1:17]
Comment on War (1997) [1:23]
The Serpent (1972) [1:52]
Full of life now (1989) [1:50]
The Prince Consort: Anna Leese (soprano); Jennifer Johnston (mezzo); Andrew
Staples (tenor); Tim Mead (counter-tenor); Jacques Imbrailo (baritone); Alisdair
Hogarth (piano)
rec. 10-13 February 2009, Potton Hall, United Kingdom DSD
English texts included
LINN RECORDS CKD342 
[56:38]
I first became really aware of the music of Ned Rorem when I bought the marvellous
1999 disc of his songs by Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau (see review).
Since then I’ve added several more discs of his songs to my collection
and several discs of his orchestral and choral music. And the more I’ve
got to know his output the more impressed I am by it. He is a fastidious craftsman
with a genuine melodic gift and an often-intriguing harmonic palette. He’s
composed over 600 songs, I believe, and perhaps his particular success in that
genre is down to his ability to unite the attributes I’ve just mentioned
with an evident fine feeling for words - not for nothing have his published
diaries been widely acclaimed. In a very brief but gracious preface to a recent
printed collection of his songs he writes thus: “Whatever the music may
now be worth, I flatter myself that their choice of poetry is quite high class”.
(Ned Rorem. 50 Collected Songs. Boosey & Hawkes 2006). In
my opinion he’s unnecessarily self-deprecating about his music, which
is consistently fine, and right on the money about the discriminating choice
of texts.
I may be wrong but I fancy that this disc may mark the debut on record of The
Prince Consort. The Consort is a group of five young singers, brought together
by pianist Alisdair Hogarth, their artistic director. All the members of the
Consort were students together at London’s Royal College of Music. The
fact that a group of talented singers are working together opens up significant
recital possibilities for them, I should imagine, in the same way that Graham
Johnson and the Songmakers’ Almanac collaborated some years ago. The
Prince Consort appears to have developed something of an affinity for the music
of Ned Rorem and in October 2009, as part of the Oxford Lieder Festival, they
gave the European première of Rorem’s 1997 collection of thirty-six
songs for four singers and piano, Evidence of Things Not Seen. To my
great regret I wasn’t able to attend that important event. I’m
pleased to find that they’ve included five of the songs from Evidence
of Things Not Seen here. I hope that what I trust will be the success of
this present CD will give them and Linn Records the encouragement to make a
complete recording of that collection for, on the evidence of this disc, a
recording of it by The Prince Consort would provide strong competition for
the excellent 1998 recording by The New York Festival of Song (New
World Records 80575-2).
The present programme offers an excellent introduction for anyone coming new
to Rorem’s songs. A good number are fairly early pieces but there’s
a judicious leavening of later pieces also. I don’t think that the solo
recitals by Susan Graham, especially, or by Carole Farley (see review)
are necessarily displaced. Rather this new disc complements them, but it enjoys
an important advantage in that the opportunity to hear several different voices
adds to our appreciation of the songs. In that respect it’s rather like
the extra dimension when one hears Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été sung
by several singers rather than by just one.
Collectors may be slightly surprised to see that a counter-tenor features in
the programme since that voice is still a comparative rarity in recitals of
modern art songs. However, I know of at least one other recording of Rorem
songs by a counter-tenor - Brian Asawa’s recording of
the cycle More Than A Day - and in any event Tim Mead makes a fine contribution
and his voice seems to me to be well suited to the songs allotted to him. Indeed,
throughout the disc solo songs seem to have been well chosen for the singers
to whom they are assigned. If I have a regret it’s that we don’t
get more opportunities to hear baritone Jacques Imbrailo. I don’t mean
any disrespect to his colleagues but Imbrailo impresses in each of his three
solo numbers and I would have welcomed an even greater contribution from him.
He opens the programme auspiciously with a suave rendition of Early in the
morning, which Armin Zanner says, in his excellent notes, was composed
in 1958, though the music bears the date 1955. It’s a wonderful, easeful
song, conjuring up mental images of 1950s Parisian café society. Imbrailo’s
warm, round tone is ideally suited to this song and he delivers its lovely
melodic line quite splendidly while Alisdair Hogarth brings out the Ravelian
grace in the accompaniment. Later in the recital Imbrailo is equally successful
in Rorem’s affectionate and inventive arrangement of Stephen Foster’s Jeanie with
the light brown hair and he’s just as impressive in his exuberant
account of I strolled across an open field. Incidentally, that’s
one of the relatively few pieces on the disc that’s in a tempo other
than moderate or slow.
Tenor Andrew Staples also makes a most effective contribution. His singing
in For Susan is clear and poised and shortly afterwards he has a very
different song allocated to him in the shape of Catullus: On the burial
of His Brother. This is an eloquent elegy by Catullus, the Roman poet of
the first century BC, here set in English translation. It’s an eloquent
song and Staples does it very well, his voice rising to some fine, ringing
top notes. I also like his performance of Alleluia. Like Randall Thompson’s
choral anthem, Rorem sets just the one word. But there similarities end. Where
Thompson’s piece is broad and prayerful Rorem’s bristles with energy
- the music is marked ‘Fast and somewhat hysterical’. I wouldn’t
describe Andrew Staples’ singing as hysterical - in fact it’s excellently
controlled - but he brings out all the vitality in the outer sections of the
song and is just as effective in the more reflective, slower central section.
Near the end of the recital he gives a virtuoso performance of The Serpent.
I’m not entirely sure I like this song. The music has a significant dissonance
quotient and the melodic line is spikier than I care for but it’s a witty
creation and Staples gives a super and very characterful performance of it.
Counter-tenor Tim Mead has several solos. I enjoyed That shadow, my likeness,
taken from Rorem’s Whitman Cantata, in which the 12/8 metre suits
the words brilliantly. Sometimes with one I love, another setting of
Whitman but from twenty-five years earlier, is a fine song, encompassing significant
mood swings in a mere two pages of music. Mead is very convincing. He’s
also good in the Yeats setting Do not love too long, where the
word “he” in the printed text is changed to “she”,
altering the piece, quite reasonably, into a man’s song.
Soprano Anna Leese has several fine songs allotted to her. Her account of the
brief but touching Little Elegy is shrewdly positioned in the programme
to provide an effective contrast after the exuberance of Alleluia. Rorem’s
setting of Now sleeps the crimson petal is a world away from
some English settings, such as the one by Roger Quilter. Rorem’s response
to Tennyson’s poem is tense and dramatic and Miss Leese communicates
the song very effectively. She and Alisdair Hogarth convey the strong atmosphere
of this music very well indeed. To Miss Leese falls the very last item in the
programme, Full of life now. This is another Whitman setting, dating
from 1989. Though written over twenty years ago I did wonder if its inclusion
was a little statement on the composer’s behalf for even now in his eighty-seventh
year he seems to be very active and he has written a new work for The Prince
Consort; they will give the première at London’s Wigmore Hall
later this year.
The one singer I’ve not yet discussed is mezzo Jennifer Johnston and
whilst it’s invidious to single out one singer among such an excellent
team her singing impressed me most of all. She has a beautifully rounded mezzo
voice; the middle and bottom registers are warm and pleasing while the top
of her voice is completely secure. Production is even throughout the compass
of the voice and overall her singing makes a most positive impression. I admired
very much her account of Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, a song
dedicated to Rorem’s father. This is the only piece for which the text
is not supplied - presumably for copyright reasons. It’s the poem by
Robert Frost that contains the famous lines ‘But I have promises to keep/And
miles to go before I sleep’. Further on in the programme Miss Johnston
gives a very fine performance of I will always love you. In sinuous
melodic line of this song her warm tone is a distinct advantage and her top
notes are impressive; she brings off the lovely ending most poetically.
In addition to the solo items there are five pieces that require between two
and four singers. These are all taken from Evidence of Things Not Seen and
in each instance the singers involved blend their voices most effectively and
with evident understanding. This is where one feels the benefit of singers
who are used to working as a team rather than just coming together for an occasional
performance. For me the stand-out item among the ensemble pieces is the quartet Hymn
for Evening, the number that closes the second of the three parts of Evidence
of Things Not Seen. Though only four voices are used it offers us a reminder
of Rorem’s excellence as a writer of choral music. In this performance
I loved the quiet fervour of the singing, much of which is unaccompanied, and
the ‘Amen’ with which the quartet ends is exquisite.
This is an exceptionally fine recital. All six performers are evidently fully
engaged with Rorem’s style and idiom. The standard of the singing is
consistently high and the diction is excellent throughout. Rorem’s crucially
important and often-difficult piano parts are expertly played by Alisdair Hogarth.
As we have come to expect from Linn, the sound is clear, truthful and well
balanced, providing a very pleasant listening experience.
As I said earlier, some previous Rorem recitals on disc retain their importance,
but if you want a single-disc introduction to this very fine and important
composer of songs you can’t do better than this disc by this fine ensemble.
And seasoned Rorem collectors should take note of one further important point.
Most of the recordings of Rorem’s songs to date have been by American
artists. This new disc offers a chance, which should be seized upon, to hear
an expert and evidently committed young British team in his music I hope the
Linn and The Prince Consort will give us a follow-up to this splendid disc
very soon.
John Quinn