Customer Reviews

Cabaret Songs

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I was looking for a swinging version of Britten's four Cabaret Songs, and here I've found it in an unlikely corner. Swedish mezzo Malena Ernman, born in 1970, attempts a crossever album that more than a little resembles similar projects by fellow Swedish mezzo Anne Sophie Von Otter. Their voices are similar -- quite a compliment -- and Ernman has a good command of English (perhaps not the equal of Von Otter's) and both are credible in the cabaret idiom (again, Von Otter seems somewhat more at home). But however much other reviewers carp, Ernman does justice to the quasi-Kurt Weill style that Britten was after.

These are tricky songs, varying from slinky jazz-age Lorelei ballads (Johnny, Calypso) to plaintive love-sickness (Tell Me the Truth About Love) with an abrupt turn into genuine pathos (Funeral Blues -- set to Auden's mock-eulogy for a dead politician but later revised as a genuine lament for lost love). I've heard the standard British renditions by Della Jones, Sarah Walker, Ann Murray, and most recently an American, Christine Brewer, but they are guilty of retaining the mannerisms of opera and/or the concert platform. Ernman isn't totally free of that, but her approach has the air of real cabaret.

As for the bitter complaints lodged here about her interpretation of William Bolcom's twelve cabaret songs, I sympathize -- these are very American ditties that call for a native speaker. But one star? I'd say three, since Ernman has her moments. We also get eight classic Weill songs in German, French and English, directly competing with Von Otter and Teresa Stratas, if we are confining ourselves to opera singers. By that standard, Ernman is very successful. She has a light touch, she knows how to be knowing, nad her pianist could hold his own in a bar on a back steet of Berlin.

As an advocate of 20th century music - especially song - I was extremely eager to hear this recording, especially after reading a very complimentary review of it. Unfortunately, I was destined to be utterly disappointed. Malena Ernman's performances of Weill and Britten are acceptable, but her Bolcom Cabaret Songs are abysmal. They are performed without an ounce of emotion or expression, and a distinct lack of musicality. Worst of all for this kind of music, Ernman performs these songs as she would a Wagnerian opera. Her voice would be too dark and too heavy for art song, let alone these cabaret jewels. Her goal seems to be to completely destroy every song she sings.

For a much more musical, sensitive, and generally enjoyable performance of the Bolcom, take a listen to Michelle and David Murray, on the CD Blue: The Complete Cabaret Songs of William Bolcom and Arnold Weinstein. They not only give the songs a much more idiomatic treatment, but their CD contains all 24 of the Bolcom songs - not just the first 12.

Malena Ernman has absolutely no understanding of the American idiom; her performances of the Bolcom sound have fussy early music singer written all over them. In addition, the voice is thin, out of tune and poorly produced. Seldom have I been so disappointed in a recording. I mean, look at this rep! With the right performers, it could have been a total winner. Bizarre would be the word for this.