Britten’s ‘Serenade’ beautifully interpreted
Besides being one of the great song cycles, Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings is a primal piece of music from my childhood. My brother studied the French horn, and he and I would attempt this piece now and then. I can still sing Blake’s “O rose thou art sick,” in a manner of speaking, though I was never able to manage the cascades of notes that decorate the phrase “excellently bright” from Ben Johnson’s “Hymn to Diana.”
Even more, though, I listened endlessly to the recording of Serenade with Peter Pears and Dennis Brain. How those two men, for whom the piece was written, played that music is seared into my brain cells and will remain there until I die.
So pity the poor duo that dares to perform that work. They are competing not just with Pears and Brain but also with the specter of one of my most cherished childhood memories.
Nonetheless, when I heard that the New Century Chamber Orchestra was playing Serenade this past weekend, nothing, short of nuclear disaster, could have kept me from the performance. Sounds like a recipe for disappointment, no?
Definitely not. I was impressed, captivated, transported. There were moments when horn player Kevin Rivard did not hit those high notes with the impeccable precision and effort-free sureness that was a feature of Brain’s horn playing, but those moments were fleeting, the inevitable imps from a persistent memory. What I could revel in more was the completely delicious quality of Rivard’s tone. Creamy is the only word for it: you could bathe in the sound, abandoning yourself to its softness, its seductive beauty. His playing of this challenging yet strongly melodic work was sensitive and intelligent, from fanfares to eerie mysteries.
Tenor Brian Thorsett also brought wonderful tonal grace to piece. With a remarkably sweet, high lyric tenor, his overall tone is fresher than Pears, who at the time of the Decca recording was in his mid-fifties. It is such a pleasure just to listen to Thorsett. And it’s clear that he has thought long about this piece; he is as careful with the words as Britten was—and these words about the dark glamour of evening are some of the most translucent in the English language: “The long light shakes across the lakes,/ And the wild cataract leaps in glory.” When Thorsett decides to put an emotional spin on a word or emphasize it with forte dynamics, he is controlled, precise and … subtle. His diction and phrasing, clear and unhesitating.
I suppose what I heard this past Thursday could be described as an American rendition, very different than the English original but not without its own unique virtues. But I would go back and listen to Thorsett and Rivard perform this piece again and again, just as I played that old Decca record in the understated, rose-colored jacket over and over.
The vivacious strings of the New Century Chamber Orchestra
What about the strings? you ask. The concert was part of the New Century Chamber Orchestra’s 2010 season after all. They were there, all right, in all their atmospheric pulsing and pizzicato intensity. This is one terrific ensemble.
Opening with Hugo Wolf’s lively and melodic Italian Serenade, with its oddly parodic portraiture, and moving swiftly to Dvorak’s Serenade for Strings, with its lovely Tempo di Valse, the program showcased all the sections of the group in its bright enthusiasms and emphatic lyrical rhythms through excellent ensemble playing and short dialogs between sections and soloists. The program ended with Bartok’s Romanian Folk Dances, six short, almost gestural, folk dances that are splendid in their vibrancy and rhythmic dash. The program put together by the group’s music director, super violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, was wonderfully diverse, accessible and played with emotional gusto by everyone in this very talented ensemble.
—Jaime Robles
The New Century Chamber Orchestra concludes its season May 6–9, with “Sea to Shining Sea,” a celebration of American composers, including Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland and NCCO’s 2009-2010 Featured Composer, William Bolcom.
Photo: Brian Thorsett by Claire McAdams