Rating: - Out of this world
`Sappho' is a story of rejection and unrequited love. These poems, most of them so bitterly sad in themselves, are set to Granville Bantock's haunting music, reminiscent of Amy Woodforde-Finden and Samuel Coleridge Taylor. Bantock captures exquisitely the suffering of the soul (as witness, in I Loved thee Once Atthis, the agonised chord following the final `Thou art nought to me'; I don't know the correct term for it, but `dissonant diminished seventh with tortured fourth, fifth and sixth' would do nicely).
This performance is unutterably beautiful. Vernon Handley extracts from the RPO a performance of magical quality. The harpist and the principal wind-players in particular soar to the heights and beyond. The orchestra is no mere accompaniment, and the visceral beauty of the music and the RPO's playing gives it equal status with the soloist.
But for me, the most earth-shattering discovery is Susan Bickley. At least the equal of any mezzo of world renown you care to mention and with a voice of liquid gold and the utmost musicality, she doesn't so much perform these songs as live them. With her, the listener suffers the rejections and agonies of most of the songs, rejoices with her in the eighth, and is allowed a glimpse of celestial perfection in the ninth and final.
I have tried - with considerable success, I'm sure you will agree - to maintain a restrained and measured objectivity in writing this critique. If I had allowed myself to lavish upon this CD the superlatives it really warrants, then a) I wouldn't have had the words, and b) you wouldn't have believed me.
One word or warning: there is a serious danger that the listener will end up a jellified emotional wreck. Every time.
Rating: - Beautiful works by a neglected master
Hyperion's Bantock series is one of the jewels in thier crown and this CD is possibly the best of all. Bickley is marvellous in Sappho with every word beautifully enunciated and Julian Lloyd Webber gets right under the skin of Bantock's style in the superb Sapphic Poem for cello and orchestra. Vernon Handley conducts with his usual masterly flair.
Rating: - A fabulous piece deserving to be better known
This is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I have heard. Bantock combines the melodic invention and grace of Tchaikovsky with the wistful Englishness of Delius or Vaughan Williams. Mezzo-soprano Susan Bickley is ravishing.
Rating: - Be prepared to be bowled over
Chris Todhunter reviews this music perfectly and I can only echo every single word he says. If you thought Bantock was some kind of second-rate British composer of the early 20th century and this was going to be a turgid old pot-boiler you are about to be astonished at the foolishness of your preconceptions.
Tod Handley handles the RPO ravishingly and Susan Bickley is just absolutely stunningly perfect with each word clearly and lovingly audible.
Take the prologue for example: A quiet, deceptive beginning but about half-way through Bantock (and Handley's RPO) unleash an astonishing climax that lifts the listener off the seat. From then on right to the end, over 60 minutes later, you are transfixed to the exotic miasma of sound that emanates from the speakers.
It is an emotional journey of epic proportions. Bantock's "Das Lied Von der Erde"? Yes...and more so.
