Just the right quality

Press, 27 June 1983, Page 16

Just the right quality

Classical records review

ALLAN FRANCIS

CANTELOUBE. Chants D’Auvergne. Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, soprano with the E.C.O. conducted by Jeffrey Tate. DECCA digital SXDL 7604. Not every soprano can cope successfully with these unique pieces, yet Kiri Te Kanawa has just that right quality which is a matter of instinct rather than training. After some disappointing recordings from her in the past few months it makes a welcome relief to hear her back in top form. Her immediate rival must be Frederica von Stade, but looking a long way further back one notes that Madeline Gray’s 1931 account is still in the catalogue and no doubt some of the older listeners will take some persuasion to readily accept Kiri. While I am not familiar with the Madeline Gray version, transferred from 78s in 1974,1 do have a sterling set by Netania Davrath and some easy-going extracts by Frederica von Stade. Both of these singers are highly competent, especially the Vanguard recording on VSD 713/14 by the former. Where Kiri differs is in the surprisingly robust quality she adopts as against von Stade’s almost limp approach, yet in the famous “Bailero” both Kiri and Davrath are nigh on equal terms, taking 6min 39sec as against von Stade’s racing 6min 25sec. There is a richness in Kiri’s singing and she gets the atmosphere in no uncertain terms. With 15 numbers in this package, headed volume 1, there is promise of the balance in a later disc. This one was highly rated overseas and should follow suit here. BALAKIREV. Symphony No. 1 in C major. BORODIN. Polovtsian Dances played by the R.P.O. conducted by Sir Thomas Bee cham with the Beecham Choral Society. WORLD RECORDS WE 3114. This is exactly the sort of thing Sir Thomas does best of all; it suited his testy temperament and the Russian extrovert quality gave him the ideal vehicle for his own vicarious pleasure. In the process it went without saying that they also provided some of the best examples of his superb phrasing and his most dashing fireworks. The Polovtsian Dances may wear a bit thin now; they belong to the early days of hi-fi. The Balakirev is still superb. There is certainly nothing wrong with the Borodin, and Sir Thomas does it as well

as I’ve heard anywhere before or since, with the possible exception of Ernest Ansermet from the same vintage (1962), on the Decca Eclipse label or the 1955 version on ECS 576. However, the main work is the Balakirev Symphony and Sir Thomas injects the work with a vitality that matches the imagination of the composer. The opening movement, for instance, is a masterly development of two themes and Sir Thomas unfolds them like a blossoming flower. As lovingly as the conductor treated Scheherazade, he draws out the oriental flavour of the third movement with the skill of the master craftsman in much the same fashion, and then it’s all stops out in the last. You have to hand it to him. MAHLER. Kindertotenlieder. Five Ruckert Songs. Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen. Dame Janet Baker with the Halle Orchestra conducted by Sir John Barbirolli. EMI ASD Z 4409. Many musicologists claim that Mahler was noted firstly for his genius as a song-writer and these three cycles lent much support to this argument. In the past, many conductors have been

inclined to take Mahler too cheaply as evidenced by both Karajan and Barbirolli, but by the time of this recording (1968), Barbirolli at least had got a firmer grasp of Mahler’s deployment of rhythm. His musical line was a good deal tougher and sharply contoured than before and this unquestionably was Mahler’s intention. The end result is made patently ' clear in this recording so that the true heart of Mahler’s inspiration is shown in a new light. By comparison, Kathleen Ferrier’s account with Bruno Walter sounds muddy, yet at the time it was something of a revelation. Even the renowned Kirsten Flagstad version pales by comparison with Dame Janet’s superb account, recorded at the peak ‘ of her career. The late Deryck Cooke ‘ had a hand in the original ' recording and his presence added considerable power to the occasion. I have the original in my collection and note that it contains one only of the five Ruckert Songs, now presented in their entirety on the new disc. Other advantages too, include a more spacious sound and better layout of the texts on the double cover. Only the liner notes fall short of Deryck Cooke’s intuitive comment, but for those seeking the definitive account of these magnificent cycles, this is it.