Ledger treads unfamiliar paths

Press, 9 May 1983, Page 18

Ledger treads unfamiliar paths

BYRD. Mass in 5 parts. TYE. Mass in 6 parts. Choir of King’s College Cambridge conducted by Philip Ledger. WORLD RECORDS WI 4710.

A welcome addition to the recordings of the Byrd Mass and an even more auspicious return to the catalogue of Tye’s most famous work, the Mass in five parts, beautifully balanced by the King’s College Choir, is this time under the guidance of Philip Ledger. After David Willcocks’s fine version for Argo in the mid-70s, this work is one of the milestones of sixteenthcentury England and certainly warrants inclusion in the serious repertoire of top secular works.

Strikingly different from the Tye Mass is the muchrecorded Byrd, which has attracted the attention of Deller, Preston and David Willcocks in the past and is perhaps the work which has attracted the most attention of record companies as well as live performances. The contrast is not so noticeable here due to the conductor’s reading of both works, almost treating them as being in the same category and ignoring the harmonic differences.

As always, the reverbera-

Classical records . ‘ ' review . ALLAN FRANCIS •

tion of the King’s College Chapel may annoy many who are impatient of those chords which take an age to die away. It does, however, assist the atmospheric nature of both these masses and the Choir is magnificent.

SONGS TO THE JUDGES. Song Play by William Dart and Mervyn Thompson. KIWI PACIFIC SLD 69.

Uncomfortably close to the present dissention over Maori land ownership, this 19-part minor revolution just fails to make the necessary impact to be a convincing plea on behalf of a cause that needs the most serious consideration before placing before the ultimate judges, the public.

More of a Gilbert and Sullivan humour, though lacking their slickness, the words are off-putting in their gauchness and the music is simply a vehicle for the “message.” It is ingenuous in concept, and I wish I could enthuse over the whole idea but I feel it

could be done much better.

An example of the simplistic nature of the Maori sceptical belief in the white man’s world (“Till You Came Along”) is the inheritance of all his diseases (consumption), as well as all his benefits. Moreover, in an unintended way, “Land March” is funnier than “We Got it all Together Just for You” as the old saw of being misunderstood is one of the most basic comedy situations in the book.

The work never gets far away from “Trial by Jury,” which is all right if you have never been much involved with G. and S.. because they do it all much better.

This gets back to the main intention, which is hard to fathom as a serious plea, or simply a skit on the whole idea. Any seriousness is lost in the welter of college humour, not of a very high standard at that. On past performance, I think Dart and Thompson could have done much better.

FAURE. Requiem. Arleen Auger, Paul Smy and Benjamin Luxon, soloists with the King’s College Choir, the E.C.0., conducted by Philip

Ledger. EMI ASD Z 4234. This must rank among the top contenders of the Requiem, taking into account all the detailed pros and cons of the several highly-rated versions dating as far back as 1963.

It is richly opulent in all departments. Philip Ledger gets a beautifully balanced and glorious sound from the Choir and E.C.O. which would compare more than favourably with the early Cluytens and later Barenboim accounts.

It is pleasing to find a bass voice which harked back to the great Wagnerian singer, Walter Berry, with all the guttiness and power that bass possessed. Paul Smy certainly made his mark here.

Also superior to Victoria de los Angeles in the Cluytens is Arleen Auger, who is far more at home in the difficult “Pie Jesu” than the former. Luxon, too, is quite superb in the “Offertoire.”

There are no problems with reverberation in this recording, so perhaps , the digital process has overcome most of the problems which beset analogue recording. Of its kind, I find this version irresistible.