Britten - The Holy Sonnets of John Donne - Pears / Britten 1947

[@mckavitt13]

Thank God for these wonderful acoustic early recordings! Unlike others perhaps, I love the young tenor voice of Peter Pears! True, his interpretations matured as he did, phrasing became authentic as well as sublime, but the voice, which he continued to train in his mature years, got pinched sounding. In the 1940s, it is, in my estimation at its most beautiful, granting that certain of BB’s technical feats were still v difficult for him. But who cares? Like his heart, his throat is open. I still enjoy some of his later work, ofc, but nothing can beat these early recordings for pure beauty of voice. And his interpretations, remembering that he was in his early 30s, benefited from his direct work w the composer, as well as from his maturing literary & musical vision, hence was considerable during their long relationship, both musical & personal. In fact, it is impossible to separate these latter two, imo. Bravo!!!

[@notaire2]

Wunderschöne und spannende Interpretation dieses ein bisschen bedrohlichen doch perfekt konstruierten Meisterwerks mit herrlicher Stimme des Solisten und gut artikuliertem Klang des Klaviers. Die perfekt entsprechende und gut vereinigte Miteinanderwirkung zwischen dem genialen Tenor und dem unvergleichlichen Komponisten/Pianisten ist immer noch unübertrefflich. Die Tonqualität ist auch erstaunlich hoch als eine Aufnahme von mehr als siebzig Jahre vor. Alles ist wunderbar und atemberaubend zugleich!

[@mckavitt13]

... FOR a recording from more than...

[@stephenhall3515]

Pears and Britten recorded this masterpiece several times but, to my ears, this is the mightiest. It is evidently difficult to perform because it is intense even if slow passages. Pears's voice at this time was nearing top maturity and he had performed in operas, oratorios and honed his craft before becoming most associated with Britten's music from the end of the 1930s. As a multiply-talented musician, Pears could have chosen many musical paths and was aware that his marvelously extensive range voice was not to all tastes at a time of "sweeter" lyric tenors. However, Stravinsky heard Pears in his 'Oedipus Rex' on American radio and said that he had conceived the voice type of the hero of the 'opera-oratorio' of 1927 for exactly what the Englishman turned out to have. (Indeed, when the composer conducted the work for recording by Columbia in 1951 he insisted upon Pears for it). Being praised by a musical giant and for roles in Mozart and other opera caused Pears to be a dedicated tenor. Britten's Op.35 is very 'modernistic' but he considered John Donne to have been a modern man in his own lifetime. Thus the music is powerful, exact, exacting and muscular even in the penitential sonnets. Donne was what we might say was "pretty full on" all his life. Of all of the tenor and piano song cycles Britten composed this one is probably the best. And here we have the best recording.

[@treesny]

I would also put the 1953 cycle "Winter Words" (on poems by Thomas Hardy) as well as the Michelangelo Sonnets (1940) at the top of any list of Britten's best. But there is no denying the feverish intensity of these stunning songs.