This disc couples a masterpiece from Britten’s maturity
and songs written in his youth. The latter were revived and
gathered together as a set in his later years. Britten wrote
very little for baritone, but I do think it a pity that rather
than seek an interesting work by another composer to complement
these two works, it was decided to complete the disc with folk-songs.
Beautiful though these arrangements are, many collectors will
have quite enough Oliver Cromwells and Little Sir
Williams on the shelves, thank you. They are, however, beautifully
sung here. There is a very brisk Plough Boy, and Roderick
Williams tones in his voice beautifully for the gentler numbers.
Ca’ the yowes, a minor masterpiece, is magnificently
grand. Overall, the delivery is simple, neither folk-song nor
art-song, and refreshingly avoiding the coy or arch in the likes
of The foggy, foggy dew. No, Williams presents them unadorned,
and with a beautiful legato line, as a series of lovely tunes
with inventive and striking accompaniments. Others, some of
whom set them up as quasi-operatic scenes, do inject more life
into some of the songs, not always to their advantage.
Tit for Tat, a set of five short songs to poems by Walter
de la Mare, was first performed in 1969 by John Shirley-Quirk
with the composer at the piano. I have in my head the sound
of Shirley-Quirk singing these songs, but can’t for the
life of me remember where or when it comes from. The songs were
written when Britten was in his teens, and he had only recently
gathered them together and, with minimal editing, prepared them
for publication. They are accomplished works that can, on the
whole, be enjoyed without making allowances for the composer’s
age. There is not the psychological insight - neither into the
poems nor into the mind of the listener - that you find in the
mature composer’s vocal music. Nor is the piano part so
developed. Listen however to the second song, “Autumn”:
everything that was to come is there in embryonic form. It would
be easy to exaggerate the claims of these songs, but presented
so cleanly and with such understanding as do Williams and his
superb pianist, Iain Burnside, they make just the effect the
mature composer surely intended.
Philip Lancaster’s booklet essay casts plenty of light
on the programme. Walter de la Mare’s poems are sadly
not given, but the folk-song texts do appear, as do the texts
of the masterly Songs and Proverbs of William Blake.
This work was composed for Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and is dedicated
to him. The dedication reads “For Dieter: the past and
the future. It is a proper, integrated song-cycle, but which
is sung without a break. Poems and proverbs alternate, creating
a continuous text which was chosen and arranged in order by
Peter Pears, no doubt with input from the composer. Words and
music combine to create a cycle that maintains a single mood
throughout its length, one of melancholy observation. In his
book Britten, Voice and Piano, Stephen Johnson recounts
how the relationship between Fischer-Dieskau and Britten, though
nourished by mutual admiration, was not an easy one. The sessions
for their Decca recording of December 1965 were by all accounts
particularly fraught, but this is hardly audible in the finished
result, which is a performance of extraordinary mastery. Fischer-Dieskau
is magnificent, and the composer’s piano playing is miraculous.
Listen, for example, in the ppp quavers that introduce
A Poison Tree, how he manages to conceal the inconvenient
fact that a piano works by hammers striking on keys. This is
the kind of piano playing that prompted Gerald Moore, in his
book Am I Too Loud?, to proclaim Britten as “the
world’s greatest living accompanist”. Britten’s
recorded legacy is essential for any admirer of his work, but
happily the era is now long gone when attempts by other performers
to stamp their own personality on the music seemed like an affront
to the composer’s memory. Iain Burnside is outstandingly
fine on this disc. It seems almost insulting to state that his
playing is technically impeccable, but I do state it, whilst
adding that he is profoundly in tune with the music and with
the singer’s needs. Roderick Williams gives a performance
of great vision, beautifully sung, that will satisfy any listener
who discovers the work from this performance. In general, Fischer-Dieskau
employs a wider range of vocal colour that allows him, in The
ChimneySweeper, for example, to play the part of the oppressed
child with remarkable vividness. Another example would be at
the line “And blights with plagues the marriage hearse”
in London, where Williams doesn’t really match
Fischer-Dieskau’s disillusioned bitterness. Williams is
slower, too, the song hardly reflecting the composer’s
marking of “Very agitated”. If this gives the impression
that the reading is a pale one, the opposite is the case. There
is a suggestion of whimsy in Fischer-Dieskau’s performance
of The Fly that is absent in Williams’ reading,
and Williams launches Ah! Sun-flower with a superb crescendo
barely observed by Fischer-Dieskau. The end of the work, too,
is very fine indeed from both artists, not quite resigned, not
quite hopeless.
William Hedley
Reviews
of Britten recordings on Naxos
Britten discography
& review index
Roderick Williams (baritone); Iain Burnside (piano) 