Britten

[ardcarp]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08c2r13

[EdgeleyRob]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08c2r13

[BBMmk2]

One composer I have been neglecting of late. Will have to change that!

[ardcarp]

Try listening to today's edition in which the Serenade for Tenor Horn and Strings was featured. It was magnificent! Not Pears, however but Robert Tear. Quite early on in his career, I recall, he began to cultivate the Pears vocal technique which involves a somewhat 'closed throat' style of delivery, but which allows terrific control over a wide range of expression and dynamics. This was demonstrated in spades today. RT died a few years ago, sadly, but I don't think any other tenor has interpreted Britten/Pears roles so successfully. (All IMVHO of course.)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08c2w58

...about 32mins 30 from start.

[Mary Chambers]

I found myself being much more critical of Tear than I was in the 1980s when I was first aware of him. I suppose I know more now. I used to think he sounded very like Pears, but now I feel there is all the difference. It's probably only a problem for people my age, but although I do enjoy hearing other singers in Britten works, somehow only Pears sounds quite right in the music written for him.

One of the singers I admire is Ian Bostridge, but I really didn't like his Michelangelo Sonnets. The emotion sounded forced and self-conscious. There is much less fuss in general about James Gilchrist, but of all the performances I heard on this week's programmes, I thought his very beautiful "Since she whom I loved" with Anna Tlibrook was the most rewarding. I also liked Felicity Lott's Quatre Chansons Françaises.

[Pulcinella]

I haven't (knowingly) heard the Tear/Giulini version of Serenade, but I do have his 1971 EMI recording of it with Alan Civil and the Northern Sinfonia Orchestra, conducted by Marriner.
How do the two interpretations compare?
(I suppose I could LA and hear for myself!)

Also, Mary, I seem to recall a previous comment from you about the Quatre chansons: was it Jill Gomez' version you had not been that taken with?

[Serial_Apologist]

Try listening to today's edition in which the Serenade for Tenor Horn and Strings was featured. It was magnificent! Not Pears, however but Robert Tear. Quite early on in his career, I recall, he began to cultivate the Pears vocal technique which involves a somewhat 'closed throat' style of delivery, but which allows terrific control over a wide range of expression and dynamics. This was demonstrated in spades today. RT died a few years ago, sadly, but I don't think any other tenor has interpreted Britten/Pears roles so successfully. (All IMVHO of course.)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08c2w58

...about 32mins 30 from start.

I agree about Tear - for me he almost manages to rescue the Serenade from the ruination wrought by Pears's embarrassing "Dying" falls (literal dying falls), and upward portamenti elsewhere (e.g "aaaaand Christ receive my soul", later so brilliantly sent up by Dudley Moore in "Little Miss Muffett" from "Beyond the Fringe"). I guess Pears is either to one's taste or not, rather like artichokes, particularly appropriately named in this instance for the physical effect of some of Brittens devices; they are certainly and inseparably part and parcel of the many problematics I find in Britten's work, its clumsy over-wroughtness, idiomatic ungainliness in matters other than orchestration (the other almost saving grace), this being the work in the chronology of the output where they are first presented. I'm a fan of almost everything up to that point, transparently derivative though it is in places, (but never so obviously as in The War Requiem) and occasionally of passages in the later works.

I can see I'm just going to have to go on trying.

[Mary Chambers]

Also, Mary, I seem to recall a previous comment from you about the Quatre chansons: was it Jill Gomez' version you had not been that taken with?

Yes. Her French is awful and in general it just doesn't work for me. Conducted, I think, by Rattle, but I don't think it's his fault.

[visualnickmos]

...I guess Pears is either to one's taste or not, rather like artichokes...

Love the comparison! Priceless! Pure Gold!



PS One can almost hear the man himself singing the word "aaaaaaaart-y-chorks"

[Sir Velo]

I found myself being much more critical of Tear than I was in the 1980s when I was first aware of him. I suppose I know more now. I used to think he sounded very like Pears, but now I feel there is all the difference. It's probably only a problem for people my age, but although I do enjoy hearing other singers in Britten works, somehow only Pears sounds quite right in the music written for him.

One of the singers I admire is Ian Bostridge, but I really didn't like his Michelangelo Sonnets. The emotion sounded forced and self-conscious. There is much less fuss in general about James Gilchrist, but of all the performances I heard on this week's programmes, I thought his very beautiful "Since she whom I loved" with Anna Tlibrook was the most rewarding. I also liked Felicity Lott's Quatre Chansons Françaises.

Philip Langridge in the Nocturne on Naxos gives a spellbinding, ringing performance as does Rolfe Johnson with Bryden Thomson in the Serenade. I would also recommend ARJ in the Michelangelo sonnets in a Hyperion recording.

[Sir Velo]

I guess Pears is either to one's taste or not, rather like artichokes

or pears, presumably?

clumsy over-wroughtness, idiomatic ungainliness in matters other than orchestration

Funny, it doesn't strike me that way at all.

[Mary Chambers]

Funny, it doesn't strike me that way at all.

Nor me. I am constantly fascinated by how differently people hear things. We can never know exactly what someone else hears.

I agree about Langridge and ARJ, both superb Britten singers, and both, incidentally, taught by Pears. I heard them both in Death in Venice, Langridge in a concert performance, ARJ onstage

[ardcarp]

later so brilliantly sent up by Dudley Moore in "Little Miss Muffett" from "Beyond the Fringe"

I found myself being much more critical of Tear than I was in the 1980s when I was first aware of him. I suppose I know more now. I used to think he sounded very like Pears, but now I feel there is all the difference. It's probably only a problem for people my age, but although I do enjoy hearing other singers in Britten works, somehow only Pears sounds quite right in the music written for him.

One of the singers I admire is Ian Bostridge, but I really didn't like his Michelangelo Sonnets

Bostridge was definitely over-pressed on a few high notes in the M-angelo sonnets.
However, as I think I've said before, it's very hard for a tenor who knows the Pears legacy to find the 'right' voice for his Britten roles. Either you do something completely different (Bostridge?) or try to emulate (Tear?)

[gurnemanz]

I don't know the Michelangelo Sonnets that well but we are off to see Jonas Kaufmann do them at the Barbican on Saturday so this was useful preparation. I liked Bostridge, preferring him to the Pears which comes on the large EMI Britten Box.

[EdgeleyRob]

Try listening to today's edition in which the Serenade for Tenor Horn and Strings was featured. It was magnificent! Not Pears, however but Robert Tear. Quite early on in his career, I recall, he began to cultivate the Pears vocal technique which involves a somewhat 'closed throat' style of delivery, but which allows terrific control over a wide range of expression and dynamics. This was demonstrated in spades today. RT died a few years ago, sadly, but I don't think any other tenor has interpreted Britten/Pears roles so successfully. (All IMVHO of course.)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08c2w58

...about 32mins 30 from start.

My favourite version of this work.
Every sung note and word so clear,chilling dirge,gorgeous CSO strings and fabulous horn playing by Dale Clevenger