Thanks to Britten’s own recordings of the Canticles with tenor Peter Pears (Decca), we not only have versions of these songs as near to definitive as we could hope for, but also in Pears’ unique voice and style of delivery we have a standard against which to measure all tenors who subsequently take on these works. Their well-documented personal relationship aside, the fruitful result of the Britten/Pears artistic collaboration is unique in all of music, and the Canticles, which were written over a period of decades, from the 1940s to the mid-’70s, are among the most personal of Britten’s Pears-influenced compositions.
Philip Langridge is an eminently credible successor to Pears and a worthy interpreter of these dramatic and involving songs, operatic in scope yet retaining a decided intimacy in their tone and instrumental settings. When this recording first was released on Collins nearly 10 years ago (1996), it was positively welcomed, and it remains a solid, complementary companion to the preeminent Britten/Pears version. Steuart Bedford, who worked with the composer late in his life, is one of today’s leading authorities on performance of Britten’s music, and together with Langridge he has offered some of the finest renditions of the song repertoire.
The inclusion of The Heart of the Matter–a set of Edith Sitwell poems that incorporates Canticle III and three other songs, revised by Pears in 1983 from Britten’s original–makes this disc especially attractive for it apparently is the only version still in the CD catalog. Although the music on this program has been scarcely addressed on recordings, we are blessed that the few examples have been excellent. So while the world may not be in desperate need of more Britten Canticle recordings, this music’s profound beauty and unique, often stunning treatment of texts (the Abraham and Isaac duet is a prime example) calls out for renewed attention, especially by listeners who want to better understand the greatest vocal music composer of the past 100 years. Get this.
