BRITTEN's Cantata Misericordium is a beautiful and moving work, compressing into 20 minutes much of what is said more dramatically, and at greater length, in the War Requiem and the three church parables of the same period. But its brevity and subtlety, which might be considered its special virtues, seem to have been its undoing. Unlike these other works, it has almost vanished from the repertoire, even though its message, that of the Good Samaritan, is more vital than ever.
So Perth's performance of it in church surroundings Britten himself would have favoured, was a timely act of restitution by a festival which in recent years has made a major feature of Britten's music. Placing it alongside Faure's Requiem, a work which similarly proclaims the value of understatement, was moreover an inspired idea, ensuring that both composers were heard to advantage.
Conducting his annually recruited festival forces, John Currie obtained performances whose points of climax sounded all the better for emerging from such a soft-grained, often mistily luminous background of choral and orchestral tone.
Choosing two young soloists - Mark Wilde and Daniel Broad - from his Albert Herring cast for the roles of the Traveller and Samaritan was similarly inspired, helping to make the one work seem an obverse of the other.
The music was unerringly paced, touchingly voiced, and articulated with meticulous clarity. The same could be said for the Faure, sung in John Rutter's restrained arrangement. In this, the same tenor and baritone were joined by Susan Leslie, heard to sweet and steady effect in the Pie Jesu.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article