A late carol for the end of this Christmas season. It is by the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge conducted by Stephen Cleobury. The music is by John Rutter, a composer much loved by choirs throughout Britain, though rather looked down upon by other professional composers - largely, I suspect, because his music is approachable and popular. Listened to without modernist prejudice his music is straight, direct, sometimes complex, sometimes simple, but without ideology or side. Just music. And this is delightful - a late carol - perfect for the season. The recording is not the best - an old cassette tape - but the music shines through lovingly.
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Posted in Classical, Lieder on Dec 27th, 2008 No Comments »
Now Christmas is over, and it’s officially midwinter, here’s something to warm the spirit. It is Richard Strauss’s song Winterweihe - Winter Dedication.
‘In these winter days, when light is veiled, let us carry in our hearts, and dedicate to each other, the flame of that other light which fills our being………that tenderly entwines our souls…….let us dedicate our days and nights to the blessings of love.’
It’s a bit of a soppy poem, but Strauss makes magic of it, particularly in his orchestral version of it, as here. The singer is the incomparable Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, in a famous recording from 1969, with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by George Szell.
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‘In sweet joy’ is announced the arrival of the Christ child in this rendition by the Taverner Consort of Praetorius’s famous carol. For me, after two days of attendance at English Carol Services, with all the reticent and inhibited singing that inevitably represents, this is a splash of true exhilaration.
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The three wise men, on their journey from the East, stop at each village and ask the way to Bethlehem. No-one knows. So they follow the golden star, that shines so sweetly in the sky.
‘The star came to rest above Joseph’s house; they went inside. The ox lowed, the child cried, and the three holy kings sang.’
In his orchestral accompaniment Richard Strauss has the orchestra mimic the sound of the cock crowing, the cattle lowing and the child crying. At least a third of the song is taken up with an orchestral postlude, after the singing has ceased. Here in a long lovely melody Strauss captures the joy of the three kings as they kneel before the sleeping Christ child. It is one of his finest and most joyful songs.
The singer, her voice perfect for the song, is Gundula Janovitz, with the Academy of London conducted by Richard Stamp.
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The most famous Christmas song of all, Franz Gruber’s Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht. It was sung by German soldiers in the trenches of the First World War to signal the Christmas Truce in 1914. In its naive simplicity it has become, since then and at this time of year, the song eternal for everlasting peace - Christ the Saviour is here.
Here it is sung, most beautifully, by the RIAS Chamber Choir conducted by Uwe Gronostay.
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I’ve always thought that if he hadn’t decided to go down the musical cul-de-sac of 12 tone music and atonality, Arnold Schoenberg would have made a good composer. As it is listening to much of his music now is more a duty than a pleasure - which I force myself to do occasionally, as I do to John Coltrane, in the hope of ‘getting the point’ of it and start to enjoy it. Sadly in neither case has this come to pass. Within the first few minutes of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire or Coltrane’s A Love Supreme I’ve picked up a book. Which I suppose is an advance on Miles Davis - in the first few minutes of any recording by him, I’ve dozed off.
Yet when he first started out Schoenberg did compose some music I still want to listen to - Verklarte Nacht and, when I’m in the mood, Gurrelieder - and some of his arrangements. His version of Carl Loewe’s Der Nock for soprano and orchestra enraptures - where can I get a recording of it? Here’s one that never fails to charm - it’s a slight piece, for piano, harmonium and string quartet, but delightful. It is his Christmas Night Music. You can almost see the family around the tree, the Austrian snow falling outside, smell the fire and the Christmas log, Grandad full of warm brandy and beer, the children carried sleepily, and reluctantly, to bed.
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This is an example of ‘West Gallery Music’, the choral music sung in country churches up to the middle of the 19th century. It is ‘west gallery’ because that was where it was sung, at the west end of the church accompanied by a local band of mixed instruments - in the place later occupied by an organ, whose introduction, and new Anglican Liturgy, pushed it out for good. It was also much looked down upon by the more sophisticated and conventionally ‘musical’ as common, peasant music. But it had a liveliness of its own, and I am glad to say, has been revived in England by amateur choirs over the last twenty years.
Here’s a west gallery version of ‘While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night’. If you think you know the tune, you do - it later became the famous Yorkshire song, ‘On Ilkley Moor baht’ at’. It is perhaps rendered with rather more sophistication here than it would have been by a rural choir of farmers, labourers and village women, but it has great vigour.
Of course, in whatever version this is sung, no schoolboy worth his salt would sing the first line straight, as written. So join in with me and schoolboys everywhere and sing ‘While shepherds washed their socks by night’.
It is sung by the English Choir, Psalmody.
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This is one for younger listeners who didn’t hear this version of this simple American hymn first time round. Judy Collins sings it straight with choir. No instruments. It is wonderful.
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Max Bruch’s hymn, a greeting on Christmas Night, the saviour is here. It is a soupy, romantic setting of a rather syrupy poem by Robert Prutz, for alto, chorus and orchestra. It sings of bells, and shepherds and stars, of gold and myrrh, and love. It is utterly irresistible. Here’s the last verse (my rough translation).
‘Holy night, aloft a fiery light of a thousand candles, the star of life bringing light into our hearts. Behold, in heaven and on earth, love shines out like a rose. Peace has returned. The king of love is here.’
The Choir and Orchestra of West German Radio, Cologne, is conducted by Helmut Froschauer.
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A hymn sung at the beginning of Mass in the Russian Orthodox Church, as the priests enter. It was composed at the end of the 18th century by Dmitry Bortnayansky (1751 - 1825). I don’t think any other kind of choral singing has the same quality of mystical rapture as this. Just as you think it’s all over, great Allelluias sing out fortissimo.
The choir is the USSR Russian Choir conducted by Alexander Yurlov. It is from a vinyl LP, which accounts for some slight crackling here and there.
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