Tenor
Ian Bostridge brings together three of
Britten's most important song cycles: Serenade for tenor, horn and strings, Les Illuminations, and Nocturne. His performances are notable for their dramatic range, particularly the power and passion and vocal abandon he brings to these works. He fully inhabits the music, which leads to some daring interpretive choices. In Serenade, there is a thrilling wildness to "Nocturne" that one does not usually associate with this music, his "Dirge" is a harrowing beacon of doom, and his performance of Nocturne's "But that night when on my bed I lay," is crazed, almost demented sounding. At the opposite end of the spectrum, his "Sonnet" is sung with languid and woozy simplicity. The interpretive integrity of Les Illuminations makes the piece seem more like a mini-opera than a set of songs. Throughout,
Bostridge's performance is notable for the radiance of his tone, the power of his voice over the wide range he is required to traverse, and a technique that allows him to produce an exquisite, almost inaudible mezza voce. Hornist
Radek Baborák has a warm and robust tone, but his performance doesn't quite match the fire of
Bostridge's.
Simon Rattle, leading the
Berlin Philharmonic, fully supports the singer's interpretive perspective. At the end of "Sonnet," though, the uncharacteristically poor intonation of the strings produces an unnerving pulsing pattern that destroys the music's mood of drugged serenity. Listeners who prefer their
Britten to be well mannered may want to steer clear of this CD, but for anyone who wants a fresh take on these works, the pure visceral impact of
Bostridge's performance is hard to beat. EMI's sound is present, clear, and resonant.