A must for Pears/Britten fans, this disc also features the recording of Britten’s On this Island, the 24-year-old composer’s perfectly wrought, determinedly synergistic settings of five poems by his close friend W. H. Auden. Even if Philip Langridge’s masterly performance for Collins hadn’t vanished from the catalog, this one would supplant it by virtue of Pears’ incomparably sublime interpretation of the cycle’s “Nocturne”, a beautiful, dreamy, slightly uneasy evocation. Throughout these two recitals–from 1969 and 1972–there are innumerable moments of great musical partnering as both Britten and Pears bring their unique interpretive gifts to audible, artistic fruition. Although Pears’ German diction may not always be exemplary, his expressive powers and Britten’s consummate accompanying skills provide delight after delight in the Schubert and Wolf songs.
But, as usual, Pears proves he’s most brilliant when at home, musically speaking. The six songs on Shakespeare texts, from the 1972 concert when Pears was nearly 62 and Britten 59, show the work of two mature and confident artists, completely at ease with each other and with their performing style. Thomas Arne’s “Come away death” is literally breathtaking for Pears’ warm, gentle lyricism. The following songs, by Roger Quilter, Peter Warlock, and Michael Tippett, are no less compelling: the audience is held motionless and noiseless (even the earlier occasional coughs have ceased). Quilter’s “O Mistress mine” is lively and charmingly flirtatious; Tippett’s “Come unto these yellow sands”, with its “cock-a-doodle-doo” and spoken “bow-wow”, is pure fun. The program ends with an encore: Britten’s wonderful arrangement of “The Salley Gardens”. The sound compares favorably with the other releases in this excellent “Britten the Performer” series–good, live concert hall acoustics, airy, resonant, and well balanced between piano and singer–however, the disc’s second half, recorded in 1972 at the Maltings is slightly warmer and truer to the piano than the first, a 1969 performance at a church in Suffolk. The liner notes, by Roger Vignoles, are interesting and insightful, but there are no texts included. [1/20/2000]
