Britten: The Canticles; Ian Bostridge, David Daniels

Britten: The Canticles; Ian Bostridge, David Daniels

Britten: The Canticles; Ian Bostridge, David Daniels
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CD Details

Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2002-11-05
Music Label: EMI Classics
Soundtracks:
  1. Canticle I: My Beloved is Mine
  2. Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac
  3. Canticle III: Still Falls the Rain
  4. Canticle IV: Journey of the Magi
  5. Canticle V: The Death of Saint Narcissus
  6. The Plough Boy
  7. The Salley Gardens
  8. The foggy, foggy dew
  9. There's none to soothe
  10. O Waly, Waly
  11. The Ash Grove
  12. Greensleeves

Music reviews of Britten: The Canticles; Ian Bostridge, David Daniels

Music Review: Benjamin Britten and English as a Musical Language
Rating: 5 Stars

Benjamin Britten was a prolific composer who managed to conquer every range of musical writing - chamber works, symphonies, operas, big choral works, song cycles for both soloist and orchestra and soloist and piano, children's works, ballets, works for amateur performers (such as the Church Parables), concerti, and works for solo instruments. There are few composers even today who understood the complexities of the English language as a source of lyrics as did Britten and though all of his works are penultimate examples of this talent, surely the Five Canticles are the zenith of this gift.

The Canticles were composed over a thirty-year period (1947 - 1974) and are a microcosm of Britten's development as a composer and philosopher. The five works are all inspired by religious themes and yet they also can be seen as occult references to Britten's own homage to his sexual proclivity. Here the canticles are sung impeccably by Ian Bostridge, tenor, David Daniels, countertenor, and Christopher Maltman, baritone and the series is beautifully united by the pianism of Julius Drake (with collaboration of harpist Aline Brewer and horn player Timothy Brown). To review each canticle would take far too much space, but at least some mention must be paid to the opening of the second canticle (Abraham and Isaac) in which the voice of God telling Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son is intoned by close harmony duet by Bostridge and Daniels: the effect is ethereal and wholly spiritual. Each of the five canticles is successful on every level.

Accompanying the Canticles are seven of Britten's Folksong arrangements and each of the three singers is given time and interpretive flair for each one. It would be difficult to imagine three better matched singers than Bostridge, Daniels, and Maltman - three artists who continue to grow in stature (these recordings were made in 2001). This CD contains some of Britten's more difficult works - but also some of his most sublime. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, January 07

Description of Britten: The Canticles; Ian Bostridge, David Daniels

If you were assembling a latter-day dream team for a package program of all five Britten Canticles, this would probably be it. With one or two exceptions, it delivers everything you'd want. Ian Bostridge--the most literate tenor on God's earth--was born to sing this repertory, observing subtleties of text and niceties of diction without compromise to the beauty of fine-spun legato lines. David Daniels, an accomplished actor, sings the boy in Abraham and Isaac with exactly the right mix of pathos and restraint. Christopher Maltman provides the vocal equivalent of lithe, young, gym-toned muscularity in "Journey of the Magi" and the group of folk-song settings that pad out the disc. And Julius Drake homes in as if by instinct on what really tells in the accompaniments: a figure here that signals something to the voice, a chord there that transforms the color of a phrase. The two supporting instrumentalists (Timothy Brown, horn, and Aline Brewer, harp) add to the pleasure of it all. Just one reservation: Bostridge doesn't quite have the climactic roar of joy required for "My Beloved Is Mine" or the authoritative weight for Abraham, and Daniels can sound womanly, as well as overartful in the folk songs (although not everyone feels comfortable with countertenors singing folksongs). And in any case, it's not enough to counter the outstanding virtues of the disc. --Michael White

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