Tenor
Ian Bostridge bids to claim
Noël Coward as a classical composer on this album, assisted by pianist Jeffrey Tate and, on five songs, soprano Sophie Daneman. The songs all date from the '20s and '30s, and most of them were associated with
Coward's musical revues as well as one of his book musicals, Bitter Sweet. There are also independent songs and songs used incidentally in the
Coward straight plays Cavalcade and Private Lives. Although
Bostridge includes "Mad Dogs and Englishmen," and gives it a lively reading, with Daneman joining in on some background burbling, he isn't much interested in the witty
Coward. Rather, the recording has the air of a classical recital, with the singer in tuxedo standing before a grand piano.
Coward is not anathema to such an approach, of course. Despite being of common birth and limited education (not to mention being a self-taught musician), he affected an upper class manner consistent with
Bostridge's treatment of his music here; in fact,
Coward himself recorded these songs in his own tenor and sometimes with similar piano accompaniment. But
Bostridge doesn't quite succeed in turning
Coward into
Schubert. The lyrics, though often poetic, also drop into vernacular here and there, and sometimes would benefit from a less formal interpretation. And then, too, this is only one part of
Coward's talent as a composer; his humor is mostly missing. Maybe that's just to say that instead of being called
The Noël Coward Songbook, this album should have been called "A Noël Coward Songbook." ~ William Ruhlmann