This Be Her Verse: Songs by C Schumann, E Mayer, R Clarke, N Boulanger & Tagg
£14.49
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Label: Alpha
Cat No: ALPHA799
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 1
Genre: Vocal/Choral
Release Date: 1st April 2022
Contents
Works
CantiqueElegie
La Mer est plus belle
Priere
Cradle Song
Down by the Salley Gardens
The Seal Man
Tiger, Tiger
Der Erlkonig
Lieder (3), op.7
Lieder (3), op.12
This be Her Verse
Artists
Golda Schultz (soprano)Jonathan Ware (piano)
Works
CantiqueElegie
La Mer est plus belle
Priere
Cradle Song
Down by the Salley Gardens
The Seal Man
Tiger, Tiger
Der Erlkonig
Lieder (3), op.7
Lieder (3), op.12
This be Her Verse
Artists
Golda Schultz (soprano)Jonathan Ware (piano)
About
Sound/Video
Paused
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1C Schumann - Lieder, Op. 12 Liebst du um Schönheit
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2C Schumann - Lieder, Op. 12 Warum willst du andre fragen
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3C Schumann - Am Strande
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4C Schumann - Lorelei
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5E Mayer - Erlkönig
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6E Mayer - 3 Lieder, Op. 7 Du bist wie eine Blume
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7E Mayer - 3 Lieder, Op. 7 Abendstern
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8R Clarke - Down by the Salley Gardens
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9R Clarke - The Tiger
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10R Clarke - Cradle Song
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11R Clarke - The Seal Man
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12N Boulanger - La mer est plus belle
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13N Boulanger - Priere
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14N Boulanger - Elegie
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15N Boulanger - Cantique
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16K Tagg - This be her verse After Philip Larkin
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17K Tagg - This be her verse Wedding
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18K Tagg - This be her verse Single Bed
Europadisc Review
Schultz’s introductory booklet note sets out her stall: ‘As a singer I always understood that my job and responsibility was to give voice to the female perspective within the songs I performed. To explore them fully from my own life experience and find a corner of the piece not yet completely illuminated; in a realm mostly dominated by male composers this idea was, and is central to how I approach songs.’ And her own voice, warm in timbre but focused and capable of a wide range of nuance, is fully equal to the task of articulating a broad spectrum of feelings, thoughts and emotions. ‘Each woman has a strong and present style that sets her apart; but all their styles line up so perfectly with one another and therefore, it feels like you find yourself in the middle of a conversation across generations.’
Several of the texts will be familiar to listeners in more famous settings by male composers. The disc opens with Friedrich Rückert’s ‘Liebst du um Schönheit’, best known from Gustav Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder. But Clara Schumann’s altogether more homely setting is always a joy to hear, and it serves as the perfect curtain raiser, with the warmth of Schultz’s voice matched by Ware’s relaxed yet attentive accompaniment. More dramatic in demeanour are Clara Schumann’s settings of Wilhelm Gerhard’s ‘Am Strande’ and Heinrich Heine’s ‘Lorelei’, the latter infused with a triplet-driven urgency strikingly reminiscent of Schubert’s ‘Erlkönig’.
It's a rather less familiar version of Goethe’s ‘Erlkönig’ poem that introduces the next composer: Schubert may cast a long shadow, but Emilie Mayer’s setting, with its swirling chromatic progressions in the accompaniment, has a special power of its own. Schultz inhabits the text and the contrasting personae of this poetic masterpiece without recourse to caricature, and the funereal piano postlude, so different from Schubert’s brutally simple closing cadence, really hits home. Mayer’s settings of Heine’s ‘Du bist wie eine Blume’ and Helmina von Chézy’s ‘Abendstern’ cast a different sort of spell, and both Schultz and Ware are fully in touch with their sensitive inflections and abundant charm.
Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979) is probably best known today for the works she wrote for her own instrument, the viola, but her songs – judging by these settings of Yeats’s ‘Down by the Salley Gardens’, William Blake’s ‘The Tiger’ and ‘Cradle Song’, and John Masefield’s ‘The Seal Man’ – are just as fascinating, full of modal colouring, quasi-impressionistic echoes and an intoxicating, febrile sense of mystery. ‘The Seal Man’ (1922), with its brief passages for unaccompanied voice and timbrally varied accompaniment, is surely one of the most powerful examples of the British song tradition from the last century, and Schultz and Ware turn in a performance of extraordinary potency.
What a contrast it is to jump from Clarke’s music to the radiant spirituality of her exact contemporary Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979), starting with the glorious expansiveness of Verlaine’s ‘La mer est plus belle’, before moving on to Henry Bataille’s ‘Prière’, Albert Samain’s ‘Élégie’ and Maetrlinck’s ‘Cantique’. All of them demonstrate Boulanger’s complete understanding of vocal and pianistic technique and expressive capabilities (she was, after all, one of the 20th century’s most influential teachers), and they receive glorious performances here.
The feature that really sets this disc apart, however, is a brand-new song-cycle, This be her verse, specially written for the performers by librettist Lila Palmer and composer Kathleen Tagg. While almost all the other works here are settings of texts by male poets (albeit ones often highly attuned to the feminine sides of their protagonists), these three songs – ‘After Phillip Larkin’, ‘Wedding’ and ‘Single Bed’ – tap into a particularly compelling combination of sensitivity and wit that makes them instantly engaging, on a both a poetic and a musical level. Tagg’s use of extended piano techniques – metallic striking down the length of the piano string as well as using prepared timbres – is especially ear-catching, along with the jazzy/bluesy inflections. Schultz and Ware are vibrantly alert to the texts and subtexts here, while both music and verse are accessible enough that this cycle should be taken up more widely, though one can scarcely imagine a more authoritative or enjoyable performance than the one it receives here.
For anyone who wants to discover why women composers deserve and benefit from more attention, this disc is an absolute zinger. If you also want to explore this week’s other vocal releases, they include tenor Nicky Spence’s powerful disc of Vaughan Williams songs On Wenlock Edge, Carolyn Sampson’s Trennung (a venture into well- and lesser-known classical-era song with fortepianist Krystian Bezuidenhout), and A-listers Véronique Gens and Sandrine Piau in a selection of late-18th-century largely French opera entitled Rivales. All will give immense satisfaction. But Golda Schultz’s debut recital really is something special!
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