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Annette Betanski A Birthday Hansel.(Sound Recording Review)
[] "A BIRTHDAY HANSEL" Songs by Caplet, de Falla, Tournier, Saint-Saens, Spohr, Britten, Donizetti, Ravel, Reissiger, Rubbra. Miron, harp; et al. Texts and translations. Chandos 9843
What might seem, at first glance, an odd assortment of pieces unfolds as a skillfully assembled recital, flowing nicely and offering plenty of variety, as well as two world-premiere recordings. The harp, ably played by Susan Miron, unifies the selections, which range from nineteenth-century songs by Donizetti and his German contemporary Carl Reissiger, in which the harp evokes a genteel and intimate salon, to late-twentieth-century song cycles by Benjamin Britten and Edmund Rubbra, where the harp represents (as Steven Ledbetter points out in his excellent liner notes) the bardic tradition.
Canadian soprano Annette Betanski has a real feel for the contours and declamation of twentieth-century English music. Rubbra's 1962 cycle The Jade Mountain is an attractive cycle of five settings of short, T'ang dynasty poems in English translation. Betansky and Miron give the work a first-rate treatment, especially the wonderfully restrained "On Hearing Her Play the Harp."
Britten's A ...
- A DISAPPOINTING FACULTY RECITAL AT LONGY
- Newspaper article from: The Boston Globe Richard Buell, Special to the Globe October 28, 1987 700+ words
...clearly it wanted to pour itself all over Larson's dry, efficient vocalizing. The Britten folksong arrangements, the "Birthday Hansel," and the Suite for Harp are, of course, first-rate music and wonderfully imagined for their resources, but the doing...
- PRO ARTE DOESN'T BITE DOG, MAKES MUSIC INSTEAD
- Newspaper article from: The Boston Globe Richard Buell, Special to the Globe October 27, 1987 700+ words
...clearly it wanted to pour itself all over Larson's dry, efficient vocalizing. The Britten folksong arrangements, the "Birthday Hansel," and the Suite for Harp are, of course, first-rate music and wonderfully imagined for their resources, but the doing...