Customer Reviews

Ian Bostridge Sings Britten

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What can I say about this amazing album? Britten was a brilliant composer, and his music always takes my breath away, but this has been my first thorough exposure to song cycles. The two cycles in this album contain such variety! There's something about the prologue and final song of "Our Hunting Fathers" that gives me such a chill, perhaps knowing that it was a pacifist comment on WWII. But in the middle is the weepy, perhaps mocking "Messaline," bracketed by my favorites, "Rats Away" and "Dance of Death", both of which have elements of chaos, terror and humor, particularly because of Bostridge's excellent singing style, fully comprehending the depth of meaning behind every syllable and note he sings (and sounding like he must thoroughly enjoy the fun of singing them!) The Serenade's "Elegy" and "Nocturne" are also rather ominous, frightening, gripping, and thrilling! The horn solos, (prologue and epilogue) are melancholy and beautiful. (How does Britten know how to bring out the best in every voice and instrument?) In the middle of the album, "Waly, waly" (The Water is Wide) is performed touchingly, with such sympathy in Bostridge's singing and in Britten's setting of the accompaniment. And "Oliver Cromwell" at the end cannot fail to bring a smile of laughter to your face! Overall, the album is full of everything you could ask from Britten and Bostridge, a perfect combination. Essential!

HEAVENLY HORN PLAYERS; HYPNOTIC BRITTEN; VIBRANT VOICE! CAN'T GO WRONG!

This is a wonderful disc in its composition as well as in the performance of all concerned. This is Britten at his most creative best!

The Serenade for Tenor,horn and strings with its 8 sections is all very descriptive and lovely. Britten was inspired to write this after meeting Dennis Brain, the talented British French horn player,in l942. His long time companion Peter Pears, was the tenor voice for this work. Britten took considerable care over his selection of the poetic texts and the "Serenade" marks his renewed commitment to making use of his native language for his music. It is the first work in which the composer explores the musical and rhythmic possibilities of English diction in a manner directly inspired by the example of Henry Purcell.

During the 1940's, he further celebrated his native musical and literary heritage by embarking on a series of folksong settings, two of which are included on this disc: 'O Waly,Waly' and 'Oliver Cromwell'.

Britten described his precocious "Our Hunting Fathers" as "rather wild, but I think interesting",and that it is. The vocal technique required to sing this is phenominal and Ian Bostridge is the man for the job. Just listen to him as he sings from this work :"Rats Away" and "Dance of Death". Is there anything he can't sing? This is a TEN star disc!

This is an almost impossibly perfect recording! Ian Bostridge remains one of the finest lieder singers of the day and especially his interpretations of the works of Sir Benjamin Britten. Couple that with the elected conductor on this recording of Daniel Harding (now one of the most in-demand of the young conductors today) with the Britten Sinfonia as well as the highly regarded Ingo Metzmacher and the Bamberger Symphoniker and we can be assured that this recording will be as authentic as possible.

The recital opens with the incandescent 'Serenade for tenor, horn and strings' Opus 31 and here Bostridge shares the stage with the fine horn player Marie-Luise Neunecker. The various poems are all projected with the mystery of the olde English poems in tact. Bostridge soars with perfect intonation and nearly whispers where the texts call for it. For this work the conducting is in the hands of Ingo Metzmacher with the Bamberger Symphoniker. The other major work on the recording is the early Opus 8 'Our Hunting Fathers' (text by WH Auden) described by Britten as 'my real opus 1, Britten's first mature song-cycle is also his first work to deal with a recurring theme in his output: man's inhumanity to man. A tour-de-force of vocal bravura (for either soprano or tenor soloist) and of orchestral virtuosity, Our Hunting Fathers is becoming increasingly recognized as one of Britten's most original and brilliantly daring early works.' That about summarizes the impact of this piece and Bostridge and Harding deliver a powerful performance.

The recording also includes two of Britten's orchestral arrangement of English folksongs and both sparkle. This is one of those desert island recordings and despite the age of this release it is a CD that sbelongs in everyone's library. Grady Harp, February 11