Search - Franz [Vienna] Schubert, Ludwig van Beethoven, Paul Hindemith :: The Age of Gold

Pears, Brain, Mewton-Wood & Britten in Top Form, Rare Repert

Nicholas A. Deutsch | New York, NY USA | 08/10/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The bulk of this CD consists of a BBC recital from January, 1953, in very good sound, featuring 3 top-flight interpreters in peak form: tenor Peter Pears, hornist Dennis Brain and pianist Noel Mewton-Wood. The program opens with 3 works by German composers: Schubert's "Auf dem Strom" (all 3), Beethoven's "An die ferne Geliebte" (tenor & piano) and Hindemith's 1937 Sonata for Piano and Horn. (I'm pretty sure Pears never recorded either of the vocal works commercially; I don't know about Brain and the Hindemith.) These are all excellent readings.

What makes this CD truly special, however, is the last 2 items. Pears and Mewton-Wood close their recital with Michael Tippett's song cycle "The Heart's Assurance," which Pears had premiered (with Benjamin Britten) in 1951, and recorded with Mewton-Wood in 1952. This live performance, however, puts even their studio version in the shade, not to mention any subsequent recordings - and there have been some fine ones. The music, in Tippett's most attractive, lyrical, ecstatic mode, springs to indelible life in Pears's vocally fearless, exquisitely shaded reading, supported by Mewton-Wood's beautiful playing. A must-have for Tippett and/or Pears fans.

The last piece comes from a 1948 BBC broadcast, and in some ways is the most precious item, despite incompleteness and some sound limitations. The great Swiss composer Frank Martin's "Six Monologues from Jedermann," on texts from Hugo von Hofmannsthal's play, was composed in 1943 for baritone and piano

(and subsequently orchestrated). It's one of the great song cycles of the 20th century, and has been taken up by such singers as Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Jose van Dam and Theo Adam, and more recently by Thomas Quasthoff & Matthias Goerne in concert, and by Roman Trekel & Christian Gerhaher on CD. The fact that Peter Pears and Benjamin Britten performed it together in 1948 - with discreet upward transpositions to accommodate the tenor voice - doesn't come as a surprise to those familiar with the Martin literature; that 4 of the 6 songs were preserved does. Despite the absence of Nos. 4 & 5 (and the final bars of No. 6), and despite a few sonic distractions, such as another radio frequency "ghosting," this is an astonishing, vivid performance, which joins hands (so to speak) with Britten's then-new "Holy Sonnets of John Donne" in plumbing the depths of spiritual experience. A must for Martin, Pears & Britten fans."