Benjamin Britten: "Hymn to St. Cecilia" | NDR Vokalensemble
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- Опубліковано 1 бер 2022
- NDR Vokalensemble sings Benjamin Britten's "Hymn to St. Cecilia" conducted by Klaas Stok.
As an offshoot of the very first concert of the then NDR Choir on May, 1st, 1946, the long-planned anniversary concert titled "English Masterworks" which was to be held on May, 2nd, 2021 in St. Nicolai, was cancelled due to the Corona pandemic. The English (and Scottish) program was then recorded as a studio concert in the NDR's Rolf Liebermann Studio.
BENJAMIN BRITTEN
Hymn to St Cecilia
NDR Vokalensemble
Klaas Stok, conductor
May 2nd, 2021, Rolf Liebermann Studio, NDR Hamburg
Website: www.ndr.de/vokalensemble/
#ndrvokalensemble #klaasstok #benjaminbritten
Beautiful ❤
To the haters - please remember this is a beautiful piece of heaven-sent music that lifts both the human spirit as well as the name of Blessed Cecilia. Was Britten a Cristian? Are the singers German or another nationality? These are of no consequence. This music is like incense rising to heaven, pleasing the Creator of art.
Ich kann kaum glauben, dass ich dieses Stück vor Jahren selbst mal singen konnte, mit dem sehr guten Franz-Schubert-Chor. Inzwischen ist meine Stimmlage vom ersten Sopran in den Tenorbereich gewandert 😄. Wunderbare Darbietung dieses Ensembles!
Vielen herzlichen Dank! :)
Thanks for performing such an amazing and inspiring version, and bringing a little bit of beauty Hamburg to Argentina (:
Thank you! Greeting from Hamburg to Argentina!
Wunderschöne Aufführung dieser kompakten doch perfekt konponierten Hymne mit gut harmonisierten und perfekt entsprechenden Stimmen aller genialen Sängerinnen und Sänger. Der intelligente und ebenso geniale Dirigent leitet das ausgezeichnete Vokalensemble im gut analysierten Tempo und mit perfekt kontrollierter Dynamik. Wahrlich tiefempfunden!
Beautiful piece. Beautiful performance.
Thank you :)
Beautiful piece. I'll have to have my husband, Fritz, translate the comments that are in Deutsch.
Beeindruckend!! Wie heißt die Sängerin mit den markanten Ohrhängern ? So toll alle
Das ist Lucy de Butts - seit Anfang Februar auch festes Mitglied im NDR Vokalensemble! :))
Very beautiful - probably the most expressive recording of this piece that I've heard. Thank you!
Beautiful indeed-but my goodness, the German accents are heavy! Singing in a language that is not one's native tongue (even though I have little doubt that all or nearly all of these performers speak English very well) is extremely difficult.
For example, the baritone solo @8:25 is musically lovely-but Mr. Kuhnen's vowels and consonants are halfway to a villain in an Indiana Jones movie. ("Ach so, Doktor Jones: Vat hass beeen, veel neffah bee ägän, eh?")
No doubt English/American/etc. choirs performing Brahms and Schubert choral works sound similarly off to native German ears.
True! As a non-native speaker, it is actually not that easy to rehearse and sing works in other languages perfectly.
@@NDRKlassik As a native English speaker I think it sounds great!
This is a bit like the old trick of putting VW Beetle engine in a Porsche 911 and being smug about fooling people.
If Britten had wanted such a small ensemble he would have written it for one and he could be adaptable for amateur performances.
The concept here seems to be to get the right notes but not the textures required (hence doubled writing) and without the texture and heft this performance manages to both too fast yet tedious and plodding.
The meaning of the words (nor enunciation) matter at all yet the essence of the "hymn" by Auden requires sinew because it is really a secular piece interposed with the "blessed Cecilia" passages between delineated sections of raw and challenging words and music of highly contrasted speeds and dynamics. There are NO dynamics here.
The soprano "...dear white children, casual as birds...." is offensively shrill and weedy and because the concept is flawed we get no "gear change" and breadth of background voices in its reprise about the child with "tremendous brain", just offhanded hitting of notes. Auden's word 'tremendous' has all meanings about it. The tension in the harmony underlines this because power and force (tremendeo means trembling at power for good or ill and Auden had experienced dictator power backed by mechanization in the Franco war).
Britten did not set all of Auden's words because they were too bitter for a quasi hymn -- albeit more of choral cantata with a storyline.
This ensemble was misguided by very poor research and understanding and turn a tour de force into a plodding madrigal parody.
Truly misguided.
On the contrary, it is very effective when sung this way. Their phrasing is absolutely breathtaking.
🤣