Document

  1984
    November 1984
        Choral and Song
                Canteloube Chants d'Auvergne, Volume 2. Villa-Lobos Bachianas brasilieras No. 5

Canteloube Chants d'Auvergne—Jou l'pount d'o Mirabel; Oi ayai; Per l'efon; Tchut, tchut; Pastorale; Lou coucut; Obal, din lo coumbelo; Quand z'eyro petitoune; Lahaut, sur le rocher; He! Beyla-z-y-dau fe; Postouro, se tu m'aymo; Te, l'co, te; Uno jionto postouro; Lou diziou be. Villa-Lobos Bachianas brasilieras No. 5 (1938)^a . (instrumental ensemble) Dame Kiri Te Kanawa (sop) ^a Lynn Harrell (vc) English Chamber Orchestra / Jeffrey Tate.

Decca digital (Full price) (LP) 411 730-1DH (Cassette) 411 730-4DH (CD) 411 730-2DH.

With a few irresistible exceptions, second helpings are an over-rated pleasure; not without perils either. Canteloube continued to collect and work on these folk-songs till as late as 1955, but the last sets, which are the ones recorded here, have more than a suggestion of deja entendu about them. Another Bailero ( "Pastorale") shimmers with languorous tinklings and swirls of woodwind; another "Soun, soun" lullaby lilts beguilingly with lush harmonies undreamt of by any Auvergnat peasant; several more playfull shepherdesses flirt till deserted. They're not the same, no, and they all have their special beauty, but the melodic freshness of the earlier sets is missing, while the orchestrations and harmonies become still more luxurious.

This was very much my feeling when Victoria de los Angeles brought out her second volume (HMV ASD3134, 11/75) containing many of these songs: a second-best selection, one felt, after the delights of her earlier recording (ASD2826, 3/73) drawn from the better-known earlier sets. But then, the voice itself was fading at this time; and that cannot be said of Dame Kiri who produces most beautiful tone and has the technical assurance to give herself to the spirit of the collection, which she does with sparkling animation in the livelier songs and with warmth and humanity in the sadder ones. De los Angeles was well accompanied by the Lamoureux Orchestra under Jean-Pierre Jacquillat, but the playing of the ECO under Jeffrey Tate has, as in the first volume (Decca SXDL7604, 3/83), exceptionally vivid colouring and appreciation of texture. The rival modern version (von Stade on CBS 37299, 2/83) sounds orchestrally paler and less detailed in most comparisons (they had a different system of ordering the songs so that several of the later sets occur in the first volume).

Textural clarity and subtlety also distinguish the playing of the Villa-Lobos pieces: hear, for instance, the introductory bars of the "Aria". I wish, however, that the moony approach to the soprano's first phrases had been firmly discouraged and that the brisker, less fussy style of the composer himself in his 1957 recording with Victoria de los Angeles (HMV mono ALP3803, 11/79—nla) had prevailed. The "Dansa" is splendid: gloriously voiced calls for a second helping— "Canta mais" ( "Sing some more")—not to be resisted.

JS



		With a few irresistible exceptions, second helpings are an over-rated pleasure; not without perils either. Canteloube continued to collect and work on these folk-songs till as late as 1955, but the last sets, which are the ones recorded here, have more than a suggestion of deja entendu about them. Another Bailero ( "Pastorale") shimmers with languorous tinklings and swirls of woodwind; another "Soun, soun" lullaby lilts beguilingly with lush harmonies undreamt of by any Auvergnat peasant; several more playfull shepherdesses flirt till deserted. They're not the same, no, and they all have their special beauty, but the melodic freshness of the earlier sets is missing, while the orchestrations and harmonies become still more luxurious.



		This was very much my feeling when Victoria de los Angeles brought out her second volume (HMV ASD3134, 11/75) containing many of these songs: a second-best selection, one felt, after the delights of her earlier recording (ASD2826, 3/73) drawn from the better-known earlier sets. But then, the voice itself was fading at this time; and that cannot be said of Dame Kiri who produces most beautiful tone and has the technical assurance to give herself to the spirit of the collection, which she does with sparkling animation in the livelier songs and with warmth and humanity in the sadder ones. De los Angeles was well accompanied by the Lamoureux Orchestra under Jean-Pierre Jacquillat, but the playing of the ECO under Jeffrey Tate has, as in the first volume (Decca SXDL7604, 3/83), exceptionally vivid colouring and appreciation of texture. The rival modern version (von Stade on CBS 37299, 2/83) sounds orchestrally paler and less detailed in most comparisons (they had a different system of ordering the songs so that several of the later sets occur in the first volume).



		Textural clarity and subtlety also distinguish the playing of the Villa-Lobos pieces: hear, for instance, the introductory bars of the "Aria". I wish, however, that the moony approach to the soprano's first phrases had been firmly discouraged and that the brisker, less fussy style of the composer himself in his 1957 recording with Victoria de los Angeles (HMV mono ALP3803, 11/79—nla) had prevailed. The "Dansa" is splendid: gloriously voiced calls for a second helping— "Canta mais" ( "Sing some more")—not to be resisted.