This excellent compilation brings together two of Benjamin Britten’s finest song cycles–the Michelangelo Sonnets and Winter Words–in their most memorable and authoritative realizations, the original recordings from 1954 by the composer and the singer for whom they were written. (These two performances originally appeared on CD in 1992, along with the 1944 recording of the Serenade Op. 31 with Dennis Brain.) This music, and the Pears/Britten performances, should be in the collection of every vocal music fan, and listeners will be happy to know that the sound on this Eloquence reissue, even in the mono selections, is remarkably clean and vibrant, with a more natural presence than on the earlier Decca release.
A significant bonus is the cycle Who are these children Op. 84, written in 1969 to texts by Scottish poet William Soutar and premiered two years later. Although there’s a wonderful concert recording of the work from that year, made at the Maltings concert hall and issued in the late-1990s in BBC’s Britten the Performer series, this one, made in the same venue in 1972 and apparently making its CD debut, shows Pears in even finer voice, his phrasing more elegant and his expression even more affecting (just listen to his renditon of “A Laddie’s Song”, and nothing more need be said!).
John Shirley-Quirk’s Tit for Tat, another CD premiere recorded at the same time as the Op. 84 cycle, also is a gem, and the two Purcell realizations with James Bowman are basically throw-aways, especially the silly “When the cock begins to crow”. You absolutely can’t go wrong with this–and Britten/Pears fans absolutely must have it. [12/4/2006]
