There are two English musical traditions at work here. Ian Bostridge’s reedy, agile tenor falls squarely into the mould of his illustrious predecessors, Peter Pears and Robert Tear. Britten’s serenade unites the unique timbre of the British tenor voice with the great tradition of horn playing inaugurated by Dennis Brain and his successors, Alan Civil and Barry Tuckwell. If Bostridge does indeed live up to the standards of his exalted forebears, the same can’t be said of horn player Marie Neunecker. She’s nimble enough, but lacking in sheer weight of tone. Still, Bostridge is the star of show, executing Britten’s intricate vocal writing with idiomatic ease. This is a good thing, for when it comes to the obscure W.H. Auden poems used in Our Hunting Fathers (an early opus that awkwardly recalls the composer’s debt to Mahler, Berg, and Shostakovich), Bostridge’s eloquent vocalism makes light of any difficulties of the text by keeping our attention focused on the music itself. Two additional humorous folk song settings, “O Waly, Waly” and “Oliver Cromwell”, act as vehicles to further display Bostridge at his virtuoso best. The sonics are good, too. [10/27/1999]
