Search - John [1] Harbison, Collage New Music, Janice Felty :: John Harbison: Mottetti di Montale

A great song cycle

Thomas F. Dillingham | Columbia, Missouri USA | 09/04/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am amazed that no one had reviewed this recording here. It is certainly one of the most beautiful and moving works I have heard recently.



Harbison has been writing fine songs for a number of years; his early "Five Songs of Experience," from 1971, setting poems of William Blake, and his more recent "Milosz Songs," represent the range of possibilities in his vocal writing, but his songs also demonstrate the wonderful creativity of his instrumentation. That is especially true in the collection of poems by Eugenio Montale, "Motetti di Montale."



Harbison tells us that Montale considered this poem sequence to be a verse "novel," and so, like Schubert's "Winterreise," this song sequence recounts the progress of a lost love. I invoke the memory of Schubert's masterpiece intentionally, because this sequence, performed on this recording by two mezzo-sopranos, has much of the same dramatic and lyrical power of the Schubert work, and Harbison's orchestration of it is truly masterful. David Hoose conducts the group, Collage New Music, and the first half of the set is sung by Janice Felty, the second half by Margaret Lattimore. Both mezzos have the vocal and dramatic power needed to convey the full effect of this work, though Felty's voice is marginally less pleasant, having a slight sour edge at times (not uncommon in the mezzo range, especially when the singer is pushing for dramatic intensity).



As it happens, the second half of this cycle was recorded earlier by the glorious Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, and that performance is available on a CD called "At First Light." It is not necessary to compare Lieberson and Lattimore (who performs the same section on this disc), except to say that Lattimore imposes her own interpretation and offers a beautiful and moving performance in her own way. I will review Lieberson's version in connection with the other CD. In fact, I only learned of this recording because I was trying to learn more about the cycle based on Lieberson's performance, but I am happy to have both and can fervently recommend this to anyone who loves modern song."