Britten: Songs Volume 2 [CD]

All of the comments I made in my review of Volume 1 of these complete collections of Britten's solo songs with piano hold equally true in Volume 2. Here again are a half dozen fine young British voices, graduates of the Pears-Britten Programme. And the whole enterprise is held together - brilliantly, I might add - by Malcolm Martineau. In Volume 2 we have the balance of the songs - juvenilia, chippings from the composer's workshop as well as the major song-cycles of which Britten was such a master.

Tenor Allan Clayton sings Essex's 2nd Lute song (the one piece which seems to stand outside the strictly applied criteria of these 2 volumes, having been arranged for piano by Imo Holst), the fascinatingly precocious setting of Joyce's Chamber Music (Britten was just 16 when he wrote it!) and the Michelangelo cycle. His voice is quite similar to Pears but lacks some of the ease and fluidity - particularly through the passagio - that made Pears' earliest perfomance of these dramatic sonnet-settings so memorable.

Jennifer Johnston sings the sadly underperformed cycle of Lullabies quite beautifully, especially the gently rocking setting of the John Phillip poem. And then she adds the delightfully and charmingly simple setting of The Birds.

Nicky Spence struggles a bit too much with the dialect to get to the heart of the late Soutar settings, Who are these Children?, though completeness adds three settings that weren't included in the actual cycle.

The change of gear to a baritone voice in Benedict Nelson's performance of the William Blake Songs and Proverbs comes as something of a relief after all the high voice settings. However, he comes up against the fierce competition of Gerald Finley's recent CD as well as that of the original singer for whom they were written, Dietrich Fischer Dieskau. He acquits himself extremely well, if not quite in their rarefied class.

The recital ends with the earliest of all the cycles, On this Island. Maggie Teyte winner Elizabeth Atherton scores high marks for adumbrating the full range of Auden's poetry and Britten's settings of it from the showy (Let the florid music praise) to the Romantic (Look, Stranger and the Nocturne) to the precursor of the cabaret songs (As it is plenty)

All in all, then, a worthy partner to Volume 1. And not just for its completeness.

Benjamin Britten wrote many many songs for voice and piano and we know to few of them. This is Volume Two of a two volume set with a very fine description of the techniques and the history of Britten's gift for defining poetry in music as written in the introductory remarks by Philip Reed. The Songs contained in this album of 2 CDs, over two hours o hauntingly beautiful music, include the following:
Allan Clayton, tenor
Seven Sonnets of Michaelangelo
The Second Lute Song of the Earl of Essex
Chamber Music V

Jennifer Johnston, mezzo-soprano
A Charm of Lullabies
The Birds

Robin Tritschler, tenor
Two songs by Thomas Hardy
Song
From 'Fish in unruffled lakes'

Nicky Spence, tenor
Three Soutar Settings
Of a' the airts the wind can blaw
Who are these Children?

Benjamin Hulett, tenor
The Red Cockatoo and other songs
From 'Fish in the unruffled lakes'

Benedict Nelson, baritone
O why did e'er my thoughts aspire
Songs and Proverbs of William Blake

Elizabeth Atherton, soprano
Dans les bois
On this Island

The powerful glue that binds these cycles together is the extraordinary pianism of Malcolm Martineau who appears to be the curator behind this two volume set. He provides not only definitive support for his singers but also shows us the brilliance of his phrasing in the exposed parts for piano alone. The singers are all better known in Europe - until this recording begins to make its rounds: Allan Clayton has a mesmerizingly similar sound to that of Peter Pears, Robin Tritschler is an Irish tenor with a bracingly beautiful voice and intensely intelligent technique, Nicky Spence has been called 'Scotland's Top Tenor' and the reasons are obvious, Benjamin Hulett has been hailed by the British press as one of the most promising young tenors of the day singing many of the Britten Opera roles, Benedict Nelson as the only baritone on the recording justifies his prominence as the leading 'Billy Budd' of England's opera houses, mezzo Jennifer Johnston is both a lawyer and a recitalist who is blossoming into the opera domain, and soprano Elizabeth Atherton has won many prizes for her gifts (although of all the singers on these CDs she has the least control of her rather wide vibrato and her enunciation is not clear.

The accompanying booklet discusses each of the cycles and individual songs with great depth and serves as a fine reference document. The recording was made following the Britten-Pears Young Artist performances of the Britten song cycles at the 2009 Aldeburgh Festival. it is a brilliant set of recordings and one that serves as world premiere for some of the songs of Britten's early years. Highly Recommended on every level and released just in time for holiday giving! Grady Harp, December 11