Description
The name of Peter Pears comes up most often in connection with that of his partner (creative and personal) Benjamin Britten, but his creativity was not laced with Britten’s. He recorded some wonderful Schubert song cycles, unorthodox but highly expressive. He commissioned music from various contemporary composers; just a portion of them are heard here. This release by tenor Robin Tritschler and expert accompanist Malcolm Martineau is anchored by Britten’s Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, Op. 22, but the rest is given over to other composers, and there are several little-known gems. Sample some of the miniatures, like Geoffrey Bush’s Songs of the Zodiac or the Five Chinese Lyrics of Arthur Oldham (not to mention Richard Rodney Bennett’s 12-tone setting of the traditional Tom O’Bedlam’s Song). Best of all, Tritschler manages to suggest Pears’ singing without seeming to reproduce it. Several of the composers force the singer into the high register than Pears handled so comfortably, and Tritschler pulls off these difficult passages well. Yet his voice is of a different sort that Pears’, more rounded, richer, less edgy. There is never a feeling that this album is a historical exercise; rather, it investigates a tradition that has turned out to be rather deep. Signum Classics’ church sound is not ideal, but listeners have been flocking to this fine release, and placed it on classical best-seller lists in the summer of 2024. ~ James Manheim
