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Three unaccompanied choral settings are most sensitively sung by Stephen Layton’s London Schubert Chorale.
Hilary Finch
At a time when the multinational labels fill their booklets with gushing hype about the artists, Hyperion's documentation puts all to shame: as in his Schubert Lieder Edition, Johnson supplies a 100-page essay, devoting at least a page to each song. He is erudite, readable and witty. Of Clara Schumann's Liebst du um Schönheit, Johnson writes: "The text implies a female singer (although a certain...
At a time when the multinational labels fill their booklets with gushing hype about the artists, Hyperion's documentation puts all to shame: as in his Schubert Lieder Edition, Johnson supplies a 100-page essay, devoting at least a page to each song. He is erudite, readable and witty. Of Clara Schumann's Liebst du um Schönheit, Johnson writes: "The text implies a female singer (although a certain...
The English National Opera brings Bach to vivid dramatic life
Against a pale yellow background the chorus appears in silhouette, standing in rows. On the back wall of the stage is projected the face of a dying man. As the orchestra and chorus launch into the troubled opening music, one spotlight moves among the singers. It lingers on individuals, for this production of Bach's St. John Passion...
Seeing the light
It may not be what Bach intended, but ENO's St John Passion is a unique event.
The live lamb at the close is a mistake. Nothing wrong with the image - borrowed from Zurbarán's Agnus Dei - but the little beast's pitiful bleating provoked laughter when most of us were sitting awe-struck by Bach's grief-laden music and Deborah Warner's otherwise scrupulously reverential staging of...
Just three elements make the new show worth catching: an intensely moving portrayal by Mark Padmore as the Evangelist, finely structured conducting from Stephen Layton, and, in the final moments of the performance, one of the most exquisite moments of kitsch to be seen in a British opera house for a long time.
Andrew Clements