Such Stuff As Dreams Are Made On
Works by Brahms, Debussy, Halfvén, Ravel, Schubert, Vaughan Williams et al
The King’s Singers et al
Signum Classics SIGCD887 63:27 mins
Clip: Ravel - Trois chansons i. Nicolette
This is the last recording The King’s Singers made before the departure of bass Jonathan Howard. It bears all the familiar hallmarks of a well-loved vocal team that has honed its style over half a century: every line of polyphony is given its proper weight, every word of text is cherished, consonants impeccably placed and vowels homogenous throughout the texture. The overall impression is of a single organism, comfortable in its skin, moving and breathing as one.
The programme features music that spans national traditions drawn from all over Europe in four languages. Arrangements of songs by Schubert, Brahms and Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn, by turns rousing and wistful, are juxtaposed with settings of English poetry by Elgar and Vaughan Williams that seem to capture the shifting uncertainties of life in a time of war. French chansons by Debussy, Saint-Saëns and Ravel are threaded through the collection, bringing ravishing Gallic light and colour to the mix. Meanwhile, little-known works by the ‘Swedish Vaughan Williams’, Hugo Halfvén, appear as curiosities and revelations.
The addition of two female voices in Vaughan Williams’s well-known settings of songs from Shakespeare is a first for the group, but sopranos Grace Davidson and Victoria Meteyard have assimilated the style completely, blending seamlessly into the ravishing King’s sound.This recording is pervaded by a poignant sense of the end of an era, and anyone who wants to hear unrivalled a cappella singing at its serious best will not be disappointed. Ashutosh Khandekar
