Review Details
LUNCHBREAK CONCERT AN ENGLISH SONG RECITAL PAUL TIERNEY Baritone and ROGER B. WILLIAMS Piano
Alan Cooper
02 April 2009
Cowdray Hall, Aberdeen
Although the history of English Art Song can be traced right back to the age of Dowland and Purcell or even before, it was the astonishing burgeoning of compositional talent in the first half of the twentieth century that lifted the reputation of this musical form to a status rivalling that of German Lieder or French Song. Thursday’s recital featured the music of five such composers performed by the elite musical duo of baritone Paul Tierney with accompanist Roger B. Williams.
Paul’s range and style of vocal delivery is particularly well suited to this area of the repertoire and with sensitively played intuitive piano accompaniments from Roger Williams the Cowdray Hall audience was in for an eye-opening musical experience. Helpful introductions to the form in general and the songs in particular given by both Roger and Paul were thoroughly appreciated.
Let Us Garlands Bring, Gerald Finzi’s settings of words by Shakespeare stamped the seal on a truly vintage performance. The five songs often alternating slow and thoughtful themes with crisper brighter music made for a beautifully balanced musical garland. Paul’s steady control of long breathed passages brought out all the emotional charge of Come Away Death while Who Is Sylvia and It was a Lover and his Lass were sung with tremendous verve and bright-eyed optimism. The momentary relaxation of pace which Finzi incorporates into two of the songs was nicely handled by both performers too.
John Ireland’s settings of three poems by John Masefield culminated in one of the finest of English songs, Sea Fever and in Vagabond Paul Tierney’s clear transparent high notes affirmed the truly fine quality of his singing.
As Roger Williams explained in his opening remarks, the poems that contribute the texts of these songs are so crucial to their success and Paul’s impeccable diction paid off richly here. Not a word was lost. For me, the real proof of that came with Holst’s setting of words by Alice M. Buckton’s poem The Heart Worships. I remember having had to learn the words of every one of the previous poems in primary school with the threat of utter damnation from the fearsome Annie O. Cumming hanging over us. The words of these songs were therefore more than familiar, but The Heart Worships was unknown to me yet I was able to follow every single word without difficulty.
The Sky above the Roof translated from Verlaine’s original French by the English “decadent” poet Earnest Dowson was the first of two settings by Vaughan Williams leading to my favourite English Song of all time, Silent Noon. Interestingly enough, setting it alongside Holst’s The Heart Worships, we find two songs both expressing the idea of silence in music. For me, Vaughan Williams wins out by a long way over his friend Holst.
Benjamin Britten was the last in the golden age of English Art Song composers. His Folksong Arrangements were masterful creations leaving the voice with the original tune and adding piano accompaniments that express a well of deeper significance swirling beneath the surface, a perfect reflection of The Age of Anxiety if I may borrow the words from both Auden and Bernstein and it was in these songs that the expressive artistry of Tierney and Williams reached its summit.