vendredi 12 décembre 2003

Lenya, Wright, Rahman: an astonishing trio of female talents (CDs) It's ungenerous of CBS, in their often so rightly named 'Masterworks' series of classic recordings, to provide fine programme notes in the usual range of languages and then skimp on translations of key lyrics in the actual music. I've kept enough German from school and some more unusual teachers to get the gist of Brecht's sparse, bitter text for 'Die Sieben Todsünden' -- 'The Seven Deadly Sins' -- which was a landmark of his collaboration with composer Kurt Weill once the latter fled Nazi Germany in 1933, his music outlawed. A 1959 performance of the tale of the twin Annas by Lotte Lenya, with unidentified chorus and musicians, remains outstanding today. The artist's often subtle changes of register and style, from near declamation to tender, nostalgia-laden cabaret song, seem to achieve half the missing translation for you! Hearing her in 'The Seven Deadly Sins' for the first time tonight, the justice of the oft-abused words "incomparable" and "legendary" was evident. Though they formed but part of her life, Lotte Lenya is, to me, such an incarnation of those dark, desperate, savagely ironic and witty pre-war Berlin years that it's hard to imagine anybody else pulling the piece off so well. Now on the Sony Classical label, these songs are very well coupled with another masterly CBS recording of the Brecht and Weill 'Happy End' (1960; this time in stereo): a bitter-sweet parable play the two produced in 1927. In this performance, conducted by Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg, a magnificent Lenya again stands out for the star she was. Some people who think they've never heard of Kurt Weill realise they were wrong on hearing one or two of the more familiar tunes from 'Happy End', like the 'Bilbao Song' and the cunning, melancholy 'Surabaya Johnny'. I first came across this and other aspects of Weill's most varied output in what used to be a superb LP box-set 'Miscellany' from a London Sinfonietta on peak form, conducted by David Atherton, now fortunately back on the shelves after vanishing from the catalogues for too long. Outstanding women vocalists are decidedly my flavour of the week, when it comes to exploring or re-discovering my CDs via the iPod. Lizz Wright, a jazz singer in her early 20s, stopped me in my tracks with 'Salt', released last June on Verve. Verve she's certainly got, along with a lot of soul and a range I'd love to hear developed on the considerable strengths of this slightly uneven début album. To my own taste, Lizz's dose of salts goes from pretty good to first rate as it goes along. My current favourites from this collection are mainly the songs that she takes most or all of the writing credit for herself, such as 'Eternity' and 'Fire'. Lizz also does something rather nice with Rachmaninov's 'Vocalise'. One person on the linked Amazon page describes 'Salt' as "easy listening" in a dismissive fashion. To each their own! Much of the CD is indeed easy listening, but it's heart-easing, sometimes intimate music too. Is there something wrong with not setting out to be clever? Best served, maybe, by candlelight. Next to 'Salt' on the wondrous music machine is 'Salt Rain', in which I'm delighted to meet Susheela Rahman (June 2001) a couple of years "late". This album features the radiant voice of an Indian Londoner who was brought up to sing classical Indian music with all the quarter-tone finesse of traditional raga modes, but brings blues-rock, African percussive skills and even central European popular styles into an immensely rich first CD. With some of the lyrics in Hindi or in Tamil (and many in English), at times I can't understand a word the lady's singing, but the sheer beauty of the successful fusion of styles Susheela attains with musicians from at least three continents is sometimes heart-stopping. Go on, make somebody's Christmas, if you're that way inclined! "Raga blues" is what some have said of 'Salt Rain', but that's just part of something so striking that once I'm feeling flush again, her fascinating looking new album, 'Love Trap,' will be close to the top of my shopping list. 9:21:17 PM  link   your views? [] Who would you stick in Trafalgar Square? "You're kidding! A car covered in bird droppings? A pigeon hotel? This isn't art, this is laziness! Who actually enjoys this so-say art anyway? Not exactly something I'd like to look at when eating my sandwiches at lunchtime! I seriously hope my taxes aren't paying for this!" Joe, London "I think I'd rather have a statue so it would match the others. But of the choice, I'd like the anti-war protestor one please, not because I necessarily support this ideal but because it would balance out the military theme of Trafalgar Square by reflecting the views of protestors and aesthetically, I think it matches the other statues the best." Lucy, London Artists, the Beeb tells us, are battling for the fourth plinth, empty since 1837. Onetime "Red Ken", like nature, abhors a vacuum... 10:19:48 AM  link   your views? [] African writing especially for kids An interesting initiative from the newsreader this morning: "Writers from Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda and Zambia have been shortlisted for the 2004 Macmillan Writer's Prize for Africa, the only prize to recognise the very best in unpublished African fiction for children and young people." The story was in 'This Day', one of the finer Nigerian newspapers (via allAfrica). Given the relative scarcity of children's fiction about Africa from Africa, it's a shortlist well worth "googling" on through... 10:02:28 AM  link   your views? []

nick b. 2007 do share, don't steal, please credit under artistic licence terms; contributing friends (pix, other work) retain their rights.