Awakenings: Brahms, Saint-Saens, Wolf, Schoenberg, Stenhamer, Rebecca Clarke, Prokofiev, Hugh Wooden, Jake Heggie, Weill, Britten: Laurence Kilsby, Ella O’Neill; AVI Music
Reviewed 15 July 2024
An intriguing & eclectic programme filled with disturbing components complemented by performances of exceptional maturity enlightened with the darkish, burnished tones of Kilsby’s voice
On this disc from tenor Laurence Kilsby and pianist Ella O’Neill on AVI Music (in co-production with SWR Kultur), beneath the title Awakenings we’re introduced with a programme that strikes from Brahms to Saint-Saens, to Wolf, to Schoenberg, to Stenhamer, to Rebecca Clarke, to Wolf, to Prokofiev, to Hugh Wooden, to Jake Heggie, to Weill, to Schoenberg, to Britten, to Clarke to Heggie. It’s fairly an eclectic combine, but the songs are drawn collectively beneath fairly a classy theme. As Kilsby explains, “There’s an concept that the darkest, most lustful and impulsive variations of ourselves stem from our innocence being corrupted. This concept varieties the premise of this programme by way of its sub-themes of inexperience, naivety and corruption.“
There’s a wealthy sophistication of thought working by way of this programme that appears worlds away from the everyday debut recital. For a begin, few of the songs are well-known and few pop up within the recitals of younger singers. Additionally, having chosen such a shocking and questioning topic for the recital, Kilsby and O’Neill convey it off with poise, sophistication and actual depth. There’s a burnished darkness to Kilsby’s tone, that actually fits the music, and his performances have a questing thoughtfulness that actual impresses.
This isn’t a lyric tenor that settles for singing acquainted Schubert or twentieth century English lyrics. As a substitute we now have an examination of the darkness of the human soul, as in every track Kilsby and O’Neill solid their questing eyes deep. The songs type one thing of an arc, from youth to expertise, from the sixteen-year-old youths in Saint-Saens’ La Coccinelle and Wolf’s Der Knabe und das Immlein to the performers reimagining Jake Heggie’s Animal Ardour as an exemplar of older expertise. In direction of the tip of the recital comes Britten’s Canticle 1, My beloved is mine, with its portrayal of a deeper, developed but passionate relationship.
Two of Schoenberg’s Brettl-Lieder reach combining a cabaret really feel with a much more sinister undertow, while Stenhammer’s Flickan kom ifrån sin älsklungs möte is way much less demonstrative but nonetheless remarkably disturbing. This sense of disturbing undertones continues with Rebecca Clarke’s The Sea Man which receives a remarkably mature and sophisticated efficiency, bringing out the completely different threads within the track.
Prokofiev’s Belief Me (from 5 Poems, Op. 23) is exceptional for its mixture of mystical lyricism and expressionism, a far cry from what we count on Prokofiev to sound like and Kilsby has nice enjoyable in the way in which he stretches the road out over O’Neill’s shimmering piano. Hugh Wooden’s Robert Graves setting, Horizon sees Kilsby’s reasonably understanding narrator unfold a narrative over a quasi-habanera. It’s an enormously assured efficiency of a classy track and makes you hope the 2 will document the entire of Wooden’s Wild Cyclamen from which it comes. Jake Heggie’s Snake (from his cycle Eve-Tune) has parallels with the Wooden, however Heggie mixes in a jazzy fashion that Kilsby has actual enjoyable with.
Weill’s Complainte de la Seine is finely sung, however with that darkish burnished tone and a really feel for the phrases bringing a beautiful undertow to the track. Although written for the French stage, it is a actual track deserving of the type of grownup remedy it will get right here. The early Schoenberg track, Schenk mir dinen goldenen Kamm has a splendidly expressive expressionist lyricism to it, a lot in order that my first thought was, was that Schoenberg?
Britten’s Fish within the unruffled lakes will get a finely poised efficiency, although right here I’d have ideally preferred extra crispness to the declamation of the textual content. With My beloved is mine, Kilsby unfolds the vocal line with thought-about ecstasy over O’Neill’s poised piano. They do not rush and handle to look effortlessly flowing while permitting a lot of house. The penultimate track is extra Rebecca Clarke, a darkly intense and vivid account of her terrific Tiger, Tiger. We finish with the second Jake Heggie, Animal Ardour with the 2 performers actually having enjoyable with this jazzy telling of a disturbing story.
The booklet consists of Kilsby’s enlightening introduction and O’Neill’s informative notes about every track, however there are solely texts within the authentic languages, you must discover the hyperlinks offered to get translations.
As I’ve stated, that is way over a formidable debut disc, there’s something subtle and really mature about each Kilsby and O’Neill’s programme and performances. I beloved it, and I can not wait to listen to what they do subsequent.
JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897) – Unbewegte laue Luft (8 Lieder and songs Op. 57) (1871) [04:02]
CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS (1835-1921) – La Coccinelle (1868) [02:16]
HUGO WOLF (1860-1903) – Der Knabe und das Immlein (Mörike-Lieder) [03:13]
ARNOLD SCHOENBERG (1874-1951) – Mahnung (Brettl-Lieder) (1901) [03:35]
ARNOLD SCHOENBERG – Galathea (Brettl-Lieder) (1901) [03:24]
Wilhelm Stenhammer (1871-1927) – Flickan kom ifrån sin älsklungs möte (2 Songs from ‘Idyll and epigram’, Op. 4) (1893) [05:27]
REBECCA CLARKE (1886-1979) – The Seal Man (1922) [05:48]
HUGO WOLF – Nimmersatte Liebe (Mörike-Lieder) [02:19]
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) – Belief me (5 Poems, Op. 23) (1915) [02:44]
HUGH WOOD (1932-2021) – Horizon (Wild Cyclamen, Op. 49) (2005/2006) [02:59]
JAKE HEGGIE (*1961) – Snake (Eve-Tune) (1996) [03:19]
KURT WEIL (1900-1950) – Complainte de la Seine (1934) [04:47]
ARNOLD SCHÖNBERG – Schenk mir deinen goldenen Kamm, (4 Songs Op. 2) (1899) [03:45]
BENJAMIN BRITTEN (1913-1976) – Fish within the unruffled lakes, (Six Auden Settings) (1938/rev. 1942/43) [02:34]
BENJAMIN BRITTEN – My beloved is mine (Canticle I, Op. 40) (1947) [08:48]
REBECCA CLARKE – Tiger, Tiger (1933) [04:21]
JAKE HEGGIE – Animal Ardour (Pure Choice) (1997) [03:44]
Laurence Kilsby (tenor)
Ella O’Neill (piano)
Recorded July 2023, SWR Hans-Robaud-Studio, Baden-Baden
AVI MUSIC 4866025 1CD [67:14]
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