|
 |
RECORDINGS
Choral and Song
BACH: CANTATAS BWV 51, 209, 210
 Futral; Washington Bach Consort, J. R. Lewis. Texts and translations. Lyrichord LEMS 8069
Although this issue is part of Lyrichord's Early Music Series, it isn't strictly an early-music production. As in several other recent albums, the soloist — Elizabeth Futral here — is noted for mainstream performances of nineteenth- century vocal repertoire, but she's backed by an orchestra of period instruments and reconstructions thereof. The felicitous results, with the chamber ensemble's pointed, light-textured framework setting off the flexibility and color of the singing, demonstrate yet again how the labors of the musicologists have influenced Bach performance in all styles.
Since Futral's opera repertoire takes in demanding coloratura roles including Lucia and the Puritani Elvira, it's no surprise that she's most impressive in those movements and passages calling for virtuosity and dash. She sings the lively outer movements of Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen (BWV 51) energetically yet maintains a lovely soft-grained tone that only occasionally wants a bit more bite. The notes in her scales and runs don't have the machine-like rhythmic evenness that the "period" singers impose, but they're always clearly defined, sung with full tone and bound in a good legato; the run to high C in BWV 51's first movement is free and clear. Futral gets a bit flustered by the quick series of melismas and trills in the first aria of O Holder Tag, Erwünschte Zeit (BWV 210), but the isolated trill at "O wundervolles Spiel!" later in the same cantata is excellent and beautiful. In the secco-style recitatives, Futral maintains a basically dignified demeanor but doesn't adopt the static "devotional" manner that sometimes comes with it. She inflects the German text with a natural-sounding, verbal quality, subtly lengthening important words and timing their articulations, as lied singers do, and varying the pace and delivery. She doesn't always find the tessitura congenial, however, tending to "reach" in those lines that park on or near the top of the staff. Unexpectedly, Futral sounds inhibited by the more insistent rhythmic structure of the accompagnato passages; the musical accents become too regular, and the inflections stiffen.
Futral is weakest when the music sits in, or moves slowly through, her imperfectly anchored midrange, which doesn't have the firm "sit" needed for, say, the opening of the chorale in BWV 51. Similarly, in BWV 210's "Doch, haltet ein," she gets a bit buried in the surrounding textures; the microphones keep her audible but can't fix the lack of real presence. This isn't a problem, oddly, in a lively piece such as the final aria of BWV 209, where the drops into the lower midrange are solid.
J. Reilly Lewis, leading from the continuo organ — which registers clearly within the orchestral textures — sets judicious tempos, accommodating his soloist with a slight acceleration in the "Höchster" aria of BWV 51, bringing out the subtle lilt of the triple-time numbers as well as the agitated undercurrent of some of the recitatives. The members of the Washington Bach Consort play well, though the attacca into the finale of BWV 51 seems to catch them off guard. The flutist's low octave sounds vague in BWV 209, but it's pleasant and focused in BWV 210. In the recitatives, the harpsichordist adds a few discreet flourishes, clearly but unobtrusively registered in the sonic frame.
STEPHEN FRANCIS VASTA
Send feedback to OPERA NEWS.
|
