|
|
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sadly, too late, 16 Aug 2005
When Vishnevaskaya was denied permission to leave the USSR, it was Heather Harper who stepped in at just 10 days notice to learn the part and sing at the premiere of War Requiem (like Messiah, it has no definite article) in Coventry Cathedral. That was the best part of 30 years before this recording was made. And therein lies the tragedy. No-one who heard that premiere or many of the early subsequent performances in which she sang could every forget the glory of her Rex Tremendae or the heartbreak of the Lacrymosa or indeed any of her part then. Sadly, by the time of this recording, the voice was no longer what it was - some of the brilliance at the top had gone, some of the richness and warmth in its middle-register, too. So this performance is a wonderful reminder of those glory days and is certainly invested with all the depth and understanding of her experience of the piece - but what a shame she wasn't recorded years before.Some of the same could be said of John Shirley-Quirk in the baritone part. In the days of those early performances it was usually Tom Hemsley (a sadly underrepresented singer on disc) who took the role. Nevertheless, Shirley-Quirk, too, must be said to be a little past his prime by the time of this Hickox recording. The voice, which never had quite the edge Hemsley brought to his singing of the more bitterly ironic Owen poems, was when in its prime more than a match for Fischer-Dieskau (who sang at the premiere and on the Britten recording) in smoothness and warmth. No question but that some of that had gone by the time of this performance. But there is much to admire in Shirley-Quirk's singing here, especially in his familiar sensitivity and responsiveness to the text. Again...if only it had been a few years earlier in his career. Langridge, as always, presents a very real alternative to the Peter Pears point of view in Britten. This is a voice still very much in its prime and a very different voice to Pears, for whom the part was written. No, he can't quite match the original tenor's ineffably and uniquely smooth way of singing through 'the break' in passages such as the Dona nobis pacem at the end of the Agnus Dei. But the irony of a piece like 'Out There' or the bitter heartbreak of 'Move Him into the Sun' are both absolutely masterful in Langridge's performance. And the final pages as the two dead enemies sing each other to sleep are as moving as ever. Hickox conducts a fine performance - he knows his Britten well and all his experience as a chorus master is put to outstanding effect in the singing of the London Symphony Chorus. Inevitably, there are not quite the insights given us by the composer himself in his still unequalled first recording, but this is still a substantial performance - if tinged with sadness that Harper and Shirley-Quirk weren't caught in their prime.
|