RECORDING OF THE MONTH
Alla BORZOVA (b. 1961)
Songs for Lada (1986-91)* [35.37]
To the New World (2001-02) [14.13]
Valentina Fleer (soprano)*; Valentina Kozak (folk contralto)*; Valery Yavor
(dudkas)*; Christopher Deane (cimbalom)*; Kasya Radzivilava (bagpipe)*; Michigan
State University Children’s Choir*; Detroit Symphony Orchestra/Leonard
Slatkin
rec. Orchestra Hall, Max M Fisher Music Centre, Detroit, 15-18
January 2009* and 24-27 September 2010
NAXOS AMERICAN CLASSICS 8.559706 [49.50]
Alla Borzova, born in Belarus but settled in America since 1993,
wrote Songs for Lada to celebrate the birth of her daughter
to whom the cantata is dedicated. She tells us in a long and
informative booklet note that she envisioned performances in
the mould of Carl Orff’s scenic cantatas such as Carmina
Burana as well as in traditional concerts. This is its second
recording - an earlier one was made in 1992 by the Belarusian
broadcasting authorities.That said, the composer’s website
implies that that performance was not complete. In any event
that earlier recording is no longer available.
Works performed by children or written for children tend to
fall broadly into two categories. Firstly there are works written
for children but intended to be performed by adults -
or at least trained singers and players. One of the earliest
works in this category would be Humperdinck’s Hansel
and Gretel but there have been many others since. J.R.R.
Tolkien in one of his letters observed that the best literary
works for children were those which stretched their imaginations
and were written in a manner which enlarged their vocabulary.
The same could be said of musical works in that category. Then
there are works written for children to perform either
to an audience of adults or to listeners of all ages. The archetypical
composer here is Benjamin Britten, whose The turn of the
screw is probably the most substantial and most spine-chilling
piece in this category designed for an adult audience. He also
employed groups of children in very many of his other works.
Here again, the touchstone is whether the music is written in
a manner that extends the range of the child performers. Noye’s
Fludde succeeds here, but the more designedly sophisticated
The little sweep by and large does not. The most embarrassing
combination comes in music that misses the mark completely,
usually because either the words or music are unbearably twee.
Hansel and Gretel does not avoid this, but the worst
example probably again comes with Britten, where the riddle
scene in The burning fiery furnace is a squirmingly awful
excrescence on what is otherwise the most dramatic of his church
parables. Such passages make one long, together with Anthony
Hope who had sat through the first performance of Peter Pan,
for “an hour of Herod”.
Having laid down some ground rules, into what category does
Songs for Lada fit? At first it seems that the twee-ness
factor is going to be overwhelming. The title of the first movement,
Ladu-Ladu-Ladki, leads one to fear the worst. The music
is reminiscent of the opening of Orff’s Catulli Carmina
but without the bitterness. In the middle there is a beautiful
pastoral episode with birdsong that suddenly works a magic spell.
Borzova tells us that the soprano solo part was written for
a “girl soprano” but the more mature and experienced
Russian-American Valentina Fleer gives a convincing imitation
of a child without any obvious signs of coyness. The second
movement, A game with ‘Poppy’, returns us
to Carl Orff territory, this time to the more lyrical sections
of Carmina Burana. Fleer’s almost shrieked interjections
of “Has the poppy ripened?” are here too dramatically
full-voiced to be convincingly child-like. This movement introduces
a dudka into the orchestral mix, and other Belarusian folk instruments
become part of the dramatic texture in the third movement, Once
a father had three sons. Here the words of the folk-tale
really cannot avoid a strong element of the ridiculous: “Go,
little goat, go, white one, one side is tattered, worth three
pennies”. Even with the words, it is impossible
to tell what the folk-tale is meant actually to be about.
The further explanation by the composer in the booklet notes
does not help either.
The fourth movement, a lullaby, moves into different territory
altogether. This conjures a hypnotic meditation, where various
strands of melody drift across the landscape like a pattern
of shadows. After about five minutes there comes a beautiful
wordless soprano solo. Here the use of a mature voice rather
than a “girl soprano” is a positive gain. A cat
interrupts the sleeping child - cue for some delightful animal
imitations. Then the wordless soprano restores calm and peace
together with drifting string counterpoints. This is heavenly
music, with some overtones of Arvo Pärt but really like
nothing else in the repertory.
The final movement, a hymn to the sun, returns us to the Orff-like
motoric rhythms of the opening. The chorus of Lyu-li, lyu-li
almost recalls Rimsky-Korsakov’s nature-painting in Sadko
and The snow maiden - both based on Russian folk-tales.
Borzova rejoices in these links with the past. Her homages to
the nineteenth century romantics reflect her period of study
with David del Tredici without using the post-Wagnerian orchestral
textures of the latter. The music builds to a climax as the
warmth of the sun penetrates the atmosphere. At the end the
‘folk contralto’ declaims spoken words over the
background of the chorus. It’s almost like a reminiscence
of the end of Schoenberg’s Gürrelieder. After
this the avian references of the opening movement returns: first
on the orchestra, and then with real recorded birdsong which
fades into the distance.
The two soloists are native Belarus speakers. The children’s
choir seem to have no difficulties either with the Belarusian
words, which are available together with translations on the
Naxos website. The booklet instead gives us three full pages
of session photographs and nearly five pages of artists’
biographies. One would willingly have sacrificed all those for
the texts in printed format - they would have run to nine pages
in all. That said, the texts are hardly great literature at
least to judging on the basis of the translations by the composer
and her daughter.
After the cantata we are given a purely orchestral work, To
the New World. It’s a programmatic piece describing
the feelings of immigrants coming to America. There is a rather
beautiful theme, first heard on alto flute, which the composer
rightly describes as “poignant yet hopeful”. This
enfolds a number of episodes depicting the various nationalities
of the immigrants. These include some pastoral folk episodes
as well as a full-scale swing jazz section. After this the music
returns to the opening “immigrant theme” and fades
away with some rapping cowbells which, again according to the
composer, represent “the passage of time”. Although
To the New World was written in 2001-02, it was not performed
until 2007 in Minsk. The composer’s website states that
this Naxos recording was to have been issued in 2010. It is
not clear why the release was delayed, perhaps because it was
hoped to add another work to the CD to increase the running
time. It is a readily approachable piece with some lovely passages.
One is left with a wish to hear more of Borzova’s non-programmatic
music. However an Albany release from 2007 which contains several
chamber pieces written between 1980 and 2006 is much less approachable
than any of the music here, being rather stridently performed
and recorded. One is left wondering in which direction the composer
is going.
Fortunately, as it happens, we may have the opportunity to find
out, because Leonard Slatkin has apparently taken a great liking
to the composer and has described his pleasure in recording
these works. This pleasure is reflected in the excellent performances,
well recorded here. The recordings are described as ‘live’
but there is no evidence of an audience, and the spread of recording
dates would lead one to conclude that these have been assembled
from several separate sessions including rehearsals.
Paul Corfield Godfrey
Heavenly music … really like nothing else in the repertory.