Portraits and Serenades
Simone Ibbett Brown (mezzo-soprano)
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Michael Poll
rec. 2023, Henry Wood Hall, London
Spanish texts to Four Afrocuban Poems
Pixaudio 2026 [43]
This album comprises of an eclectic mixture of “classical” and “world” music for string orchestra by composers ranging from Elgar to the young Shruthi Rajasekar, embracing Western, Afro-Cuban and Indian-American cultures. The title of the collection supplies a kind of catch-all unity; all the works are essentially tonal and approachable and the fact that they are also all for strings and primarily elegiac enhances a sense of coherence despite their variety.
The programme opens with a gentle, reflective and vaguely melancholy chorale, in an arrangement the composer made especially for the performers here. It is to my ears strongly reminiscent of Vaughan Williams but tempered by an almost indefinable admixture of “American” mood and sensibility – which makes a most agreeable combination. It is a beautiful work, so short as never to outstay its welcome but evocative of bitter-sweet remembrance – and I like it very much.
Although at first glance the selection of works here might appear a little random, the transition from Venables to Elgar makes complete sense, as both are redolent of nostalgia for past pleasures and there is no jar to the listener. The piece is of course by far the best known work here and as such provides a kind of anchor to the collection. The RPO strings play it sweetly, with assurance and sensitivity and the recorded sound has a pleasing balance with plenty of bass prominence. “Lighter” Elgar? Perhaps; but the central Larghetto has great emotional weight and the final, tripping Allegretto is delicately delivered, providing reassurance and consolation. What a gem of a miniature this work is.
Son of Pandu is a portrait of the Hindu prince Arjuna, hero of the Mahabharata. It is a tripartite work, essentially classical in form in that it consists of a vigorous, angular opening and a slow, lyrical, darkly coloured mid-section before a reprise of the opening theme followed by a short, hymnic coda.
A Photograph Reproduces is an elegy derived from the composer’s opera, “gradually unfolding in slowly pulsing and repeated phrases” (notes). It is richly sonorous and somewhat mesmeric in quality, giving prominence to the lower strings. As with everything here, it is flawlessly played; the dynamics are carefully graded and the increased intensity of expression is palpable, building to a disconcerting and suddenly truncated conclusion.
The four songs Four Afrocuban Poems are spikily characterful, sassily sung by steady, powerful, mellow-toned mezzo-soprano Simone Ibbett Brown. The dissonance of the third song, Sigue, is especially striking: it is weird and spooky, indicative of the malevolence of the woman the singer is warning against. The final song, Mi Chiquita (My Little Woman), is cheerful and upbeat – if hardly an anthem to female liberation – and sounds like a Cuban cousin to an Appalachian folk song. The Spanish texts by poet Nicolás Guillén (1902-1989) are given without English translations, but a narrative summary for each is included in the attractively designed booklet, with also provides full biographies of all the artists involved and plenty of photographs. The author of the notes remains uncredited by they are a model of their kind – just enough information and guidance to be helpful to the listener, without overload or pretension.
Ralph Moore
Contents
Ian Venables (b. 1955)
Portrait of Janis
Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
Serenade for Strings in E Minor, Op. 20
Shruthi Rajasekar (b. 1996)
Son of Pandu
Daniel Thomas Davis (b. 1984)
A Photograph Reproduces
Odaline de la Martínez (b. 1949)
Four Afrocuban Poems
Availability: Qobuz
CD available here: https://michael-poll.com/shop/
