Ralph VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872-1958)
Come away, death (1909) [2:31]
Ring out your bells (1909) [3:52]
Love is a sickness (1918) [1:00]
Rest (1905) [3:29]
The unquiet grave (1950) [4:19]
Heart’s Music (1955) [2:46]
Linden Lea (1912) [2:20]
Fain would I change that note (1907) [2:01]
Alister McAlpine’s lament (1924) [3:08]
Silence and music (1953) [4:53]
Gerald FINZI (1901-1956)
Three short Elegies (1926) [4:15]
Seven poems of Robert Bridges (1934) [18:41]
Quink Vocal Ensemble
rec. 1987, NH Church, Vreeland, Netherlands
English texts included
CHALLENGE CLASSICS CC72501 [54:24]
Quink is a vocal ensemble consisting of just five singers. Though the individual
voices aren’t specified in the booklet I’m guessing that there
are two sopranos, an alto, a tenor and a bass. They make a light, clean sound
and, technically, their singing is flawless. However, in that very technical
perfection lies also a weakness, at least as far as this programme is concerned.
However, before we get to the weakness let’s salute the enterprise of
this programme, especially in the selection of the items by Vaughan Williams.
With the exception of the very familiar Linden Lea most of these part
songs are rarities; indeed, many of them are not listed in Michael Kennedy’s
authoritative book The Works of Ralph Vaughan Williams. As will be
seen from the track listing, Quink offer a mix of pieces, some from the early
years of the twentieth century and some from the composer’s last years.
All are worth hearing. I was intrigued by The unquiet grave, a spare
folk song setting for SSA which seemed to evoke the ambience of the earlier
Riders to the Sea (1936). Silence and music is a setting of
a poem by Ursula Vaughan Williams, composed in the year of their marriage.
Slightly later is Heart’s Music, a rarefied setting of
words by Thomas Campion.
Though I admire the enterprise behind the selection of the programme I’m
much less enamoured of its execution. As I said, Quink’s singing is
technically flawless but one looks for something more in music like this -
or at least I do. Sample Linden Lea. The singing is very precise but
where’s the life? It’s all too perfect and sounds soulless
and studied. In particular I dislike very much the way a break is made after
the word “down” in the line ‘do lean down low in Linden
Lea.’ It sounds affected and suggests that the singers don’t feel
either the words or the music instinctively. To be fair, the group’s
refinement is better suited to a song like Rest, a beautiful setting.
However, if you listen to Silence and music you may admire, as I do,
the way the group deliver the hushed, somewhat strange music that forms the
majority of the setting but you may agree with me that the singers could and
should have let go more at the song’s brief climax.
I’m afraid that by the time I got to the Finzi settings I’d rather
wearied of Quink’s approach. They sing Finzi in the same way. In the
Bridges settings the gentle ‘I praise the tender flower’ benefits
from their refinement but when we get to the exhilarating ‘My spirit
sang all day’ the singing is clean and lithe but I sense no ecstasy,
no willingness to let go. Frankly, by comparison with the recording by The
Finzi Singers (CHAN 8936) this is a damp squib. Again, ‘Nightingales’
is beautifully balanced but I felt the technical perfection was too calculating.
The Finzi Singers, who also include Three short Elegies in their programme,
are infinitely more reliable and idiomatic guides to these songs.
I don’t know if this 1987 recording is a reissue; the disc has only
recently arrived for review. There are one or two irritating slips in the
booklet, which ought to have been corrected at the proof-reading stage. The
recorded sound is clear and clean - rather like the performances, really.
I’m afraid I shan’t be returning to this disc, even to hear rare
RVW. In terms of the approach to the music and its execution this is a fundamentally
misconceived project. I simply don’t feel the singers, for all their
technical prowess, have any real feeling for the music; it’s not in
their blood. One has the impression that the music is being presented in a
laboratory by people in white coats.
John Quinn
A fundamentally misconceived project.
Vaughan Williams review index ~~ Finzi discography & review index