Notes and Editorial Reviews
The title-song, and obviously no one could resist the idea, comes from Leonard Bernstein’s I Hate Music. This quirky song-cycle, with words by the composer, was first sung by Jennie Tourel, who gave it as an encore at the end of a recital with Bernstein accompanying. Tourel’s voice, a plush mezzo, was far away from Barbara Bonney’s gleaming soprano. Wisely, Bonney and Malcolm Martineau keep this jokey little sequence for late in their recital.
This is an eclectic, thoughtful collection. The most substantial item is Britten’s On This Island. Through several recordings by tenors (Pears, of course, Langridge, Tear) it may be forgotten that it was composed for a soprano and was first sung by Sophie Wyss in 1937.
The
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poems by WH Auden are heavy with symbolism and mystery, from the urgent, opening ‘Let the florid music praise’ through the swirling ‘Seascape’ and then the longest song, ‘Nocturne’, which is almost like a trial run for Britten’s later night-time evocations. The jazzy ‘As it is, plenty’ wraps up the cycle. This is a lovely performance, with Martineau bringing out all the little details in the accompaniment.
The three Griffes songs and the early Copland group are in similar mood: slow with images of restrained passion. In these, as well as the Quilter group with which she opens, Bonney relishes the high-lying phrases but at the same time is too often challenged by the difficulty of getting many words across. The four early Barber songs include his settings of Gerard Manley Hopkins’s ‘A nun takes the veil’ and Yeats’s ‘The secrets of the old’.
The recording inevitably favours the voice; the sequence ends up seeming like a soliloquy on life and love.
-- Patrick O'Connor, Gramophone [8/2005]
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Works on This Recording
1.
Elizabethan Lyrics (7), Op. 12 by Roger Quilter
Performer:
Barbara Bonney (Soprano),
Malcolm Martineau (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1908; England
Venue: St. Martin's, East Woodhay, England
Length: 12 Minutes 35 Secs.
Language: English
Notes: St. Martin's, East Woodhay, England (02/21/2005 - 02/24/2005)
2.
Poems (3), Op. 11: The Lament of Ian the Proud by Charles Tomlinson Griffes
Performer:
Malcolm Martineau (Piano),
Barbara Bonney (Soprano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1918; USA
Venue: St. Martin's, East Woodhay, England
Length: 9 Minutes 59 Secs.
Language: English
Notes: St. Martin's, East Woodhay, England (02/21/2005 - 02/24/2005)
3.
Night by Aaron Copland
Performer:
Malcolm Martineau (Piano),
Barbara Bonney (Soprano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: USA
Venue: St. Martin's, East Woodhay, England
Length: 3 Minutes 23 Secs.
Language: English
Notes: St. Martin's, East Woodhay, England (02/21/2005 - 02/24/2005)
Composition written: USA (1918 - 1922).
4.
A Summer Vacation by Aaron Copland
Performer:
Barbara Bonney (Soprano),
Malcolm Martineau (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: USA
Venue: St. Martin's, East Woodhay, England
Length: 2 Minutes 8 Secs.
Language: English
Notes: St. Martin's, East Woodhay, England (02/21/2005 - 02/24/2005)
Composition written: USA (1918 - 1922).
5.
My heart is in the east by Aaron Copland
Performer:
Barbara Bonney (Soprano),
Malcolm Martineau (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: USA
Venue: St. Martin's, East Woodhay, England
Length: 2 Minutes 16 Secs.
Language: English
Notes: St. Martin's, East Woodhay, England (02/21/2005 - 02/24/2005)
Composition written: USA (1918 - 1922).
6.
Alone by Aaron Copland
Performer:
Barbara Bonney (Soprano),
Malcolm Martineau (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1922; USA
Venue: St. Martin's, East Woodhay, England
Length: 1 Minutes 47 Secs.
Language: English
Notes: St. Martin's, East Woodhay, England (02/21/2005 - 02/24/2005)
7.
On this Island, Op. 11 by Benjamin Britten
Performer:
Barbara Bonney (Soprano),
Malcolm Martineau (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1937; England
Venue: St. Martin's, East Woodhay, England
Length: 13 Minutes 30 Secs.
Language: English
Notes: St. Martin's, East Woodhay, England (02/21/2005 - 02/24/2005)
8.
I Hate Music by Leonard Bernstein
Performer:
Malcolm Martineau (Piano),
Barbara Bonney (Soprano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1943; USA
Venue: St. Martin's, East Woodhay, England
Length: 6 Minutes 45 Secs.
Language: English
Notes: St. Martin's, East Woodhay, England (02/21/2005 - 02/24/2005)
9.
Songs (4), Op. 13 by Samuel Barber
Performer:
Barbara Bonney (Soprano),
Malcolm Martineau (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1937-1940; USA
Venue: St. Martin's, East Woodhay, England
Length: 8 Minutes 33 Secs.
Language: English
Notes: St. Martin's, East Woodhay, England (02/21/2005 - 02/24/2005)
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