Rain has fallen - Barber Four songs of Whitman - Weill Remember your lovers - Tippett An evening hymn - Purcell Farewell to arms; aria - Finzi
IN the first of two recitals in the Lane Gallery's Sunday at Noon series, under the general title Songs on a Theme of Reconciliation, it was surprising to see the name of Weill linked to those of Tippett, Purcell, Finzi and Barber. However, it was Weill's settings of Whitman's poems about the American Civil War, about the tragic waste of lives, that spoke most strongly for reconciliation. The bugles and drums that cheered the troops on the way to the slaughter, by an ironic twist, now accompany the dead march. Weill, eager to find a niche in American society, may have intended these songs to be delivered with an excess of passion and Anthony Norton (tenor) and Brian McKay (piano) did just that; but a more intimate approach would have worked better in the Lane Gallery, which is not big enough to contain the "multitudes" Whitman was addressing. As the texts are so important, it was a pleasure to find the programme contained them all.
Musically, the best item was the song by Tippett, the last song in his cycle The Heart's Assurance. The cycle is about the opposition between love and death, which are hardly to be reconciled; and the last song mysteriously asks the dead (of the second World War) to remember their lovers, who gave them more than flowers, than dreams, than love. The music is more persuasive than the words, unlike the Weill, where the reverse is true.
