An Night of Don Juan: Emily Hazrati together with songs by Schubert, Elise Schmezer, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Wolf, Ravel, Quilter, Walton, Maconchy, Barber, Britten, James MacMillan; Ella Taylor, Jocelyn Freeman; SongEasel at St Catherine’s Church
Reviewed 31 Might 2024

Track in South East London, an imaginative programme taking us by Byron’s Don Juan in an eclectic however vivid programme bookended by two new songs from Emily Hazrati

Pianist Jocelyn Freeman’s live performance collection, SongEasel has because it subtitle, ‘Bringing Track to South East London’ and their present live performance collection A Huge Obscurity is celebrating music and poetry in all kinds of SE London venues. We caught up with them at St Catherine’s Church, Telegraph Hill on Friday 31 Might 2024 when soprano Ella Taylor and Jocelyn Freeman offered An Night of Don Juan, celebrating the bicentenary of Lord Byron’s loss of life with a track programme themed round Byron’s well-known satirical poem, Don Juan. The night featured the premiere of two new songs by composer Emily Hazrati together with songs by Schubert, Elise Schmezer, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Wolf, Ravel, Quilter, Walton, Maconchy, Barber, Britten and James MacMillan.

Byron wrote his satirical poem Don Juan between 1819 and 1824, finishing 16 of 17 cantos; an epic poem written in ottava rima, Byron’s Don Juan portrays the Spanish people legend of Don Juan, not as a womaniser as traditionally portrayed, however as a sufferer simply seduced by ladies. Aside from Hazrati’s two new songs, which bookended the programme, not one of the songs reference Byron or Don Juan straight, as a substitute the imaginative programme led us by Don Juan’s adventures, being seduced as a schoolboy by a lady who is distributed to a nunnery as punishment, being shipwrecked on a Greek island, Juan apparently forgetting the ladies he leaves behind, being taken up by a Sultan’s spouse, getting blended up within the Imperial Russian Military, visiting London and so forth.

The consequence was an eclectic but satisfying programme stuffed with vitality and selection, it additionally performed to one in all soprano Ella Taylor’s strengths because it was clear from the start that they get pleasure from telling a narrative. Every track was projected with character, but you by no means felt that they had been pushing the music in direction of opera, this remained a track recital stuffed with tales.

We started with Emily Hazrati’s The Schoolboy setting a textual content by Joseph Spence. Hazrati featured as one of many composers on Younger Composers 5, the newest iteration of the Nationwide Youth Choir’s Younger Composers scheme on disc [see my review]. Spence is native, he’s Grasp of Dulwich School and wrote the libretto for Emily Howard’s opera The Yellow Wallpaper [see my review]. Spence, actually, wrote an entire cycle of poems (additionally in Ottava Rima) impressed by Byron’s Don Juan, taking the hero by the seven ages of man. Hazrati selected to set two poems, The Schoolboy and the ultimate poem, Sans every part (or Don Juan displays) however the hope is that they are going to have the ability to create an entire song-cycle.

The efficiency of The Schoolboy revealed one of many limitations of St Catherine’s Church, regardless of Ella Taylor working arduous the phrases didn’t at all times come over effectively within the resonant acoustic. Hazrati’s music mixed a vivid and jagged piano half that hinted at an everyday rhythm however didn’t fairly settle, with chatteringly rhythmic vocal line, delivered with relish by Taylor, significantly the dead-pan ending.

The programme had 4 of Samuel Barber’s Hermit Songs unfold by it, starting with ‘At Saint Patrick’s Purgatory’. Each performers invested rather a lot within the track, and it appeared to suit Taylor’s voice effectively, with their mixture of lyricism and power. Schubert’s Nähe des Geliebten (Near the beloved) was contained and concentrated, with a way of stillness, then Barber’s ‘Church Bell at Night time’ from Hermit Songs remodeled the ambiance into one thing slightly eerie, but Taylor delivered the trenchant ending ‘mild and silly girl’ with relish.

It was attention-grabbing listening to Taylor and Freeman in Ravel’s Cinq mélodies populaires grecques having heard the songs not too long ago sung by James Newby at Leeds Lieder [see my review]. Taylor introduced out the lightness of texture, vivid however not as intense maybe extra sympathetic. ‘Chanson de la mariée’ was joyous and ardent, ‘Là-bas, vers l’église’ slightly haunting, ‘Quel galant m’est comparable’ vividly character with Taylor embodying the galant, and in ‘Chanson des cueilleuses de lentisques’ they spun the unique melody in a manner that was haunting. We ended with the pure pleasure of ‘Tout gai!’

Wolf’s Die verlassene Mägdlein (The forsaken lady) hinted on the many ladies Don Juan left. Right here, Taylor and Freeman created a quiet, concentrated ambiance, bringing out the track’s lyrical bleakness. Elise Schmezer was a reputation that was new to me. Born to a musician father in Graz (now in Austria), on marriage she moved to Braunschweig the place she revealed songs within the late 1840s and early 1850s, although not rather a lot is find out about her. Die Sultanin (The Sultaness) was completely apt for Don Juan’s involvement with a Sultan’s spouse. Right here, the music was lyrically ardent, stuffed with romantic foreboding, the romantic outpouring for Taylor supported by Freeman’s dramatic piano. One thing of a discovery. Hugo Wolf’s Der Tambour (The drummer boy) turned us to Don Juan’s navy exploits in Russia, and right here Taylor informed the story with relish, embodying the drummer boy imagining his mom as a witch. This group ended with a bleaker reflection of conflict, James MacMillan’s ‘The Kids’ from Three Scottish Songs; this units William Soutar’s poem initially written concerning the horrible deaths of kids within the Spanish civil conflict. MacMillan’s setting is exceptional and bleak, the voice left largely unsupported with the piano offering flashes of horrible gestures. Each Taylor and Freeman created one thing exceptional out of it, a haunting bleakness and horrible magnificence.

Heinrich Heine’s Du bist wie eine Blume was offered not in one of many higher recognized settings however within the 1843 track by Franz Liszt, easy but efficient with an intriguing forged to the melody. The track mirrored Don Juan’s difficulties with the chilly in Russia, which led to his go to to England. First, Walton’s ‘The Lord Mayor’s Desk’ from A Track for the Lord Mayor’s Desk, with Taylor clearly having fun with the music’s mixture of bravura thrives and lyricism This was a type of performances that made you lengthy to listen to the entire work. Nonetheless in England, we heard Elizabeth Maconchy’s ‘King Stephen’ from 4 Shakespeare Songs from 1965. Maconchy’s songs are a good distance from English pastoral, and right here we had sturdy phrases, vivid character and a vibrant efficiency. This contrasted remarkably with Roger Quilter’s Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal the place Taylor and Freeman invested within the track, taking its coronary heart on sleeve strategy critically. One other of Barber’s Hermit Songs adopted, the tiny however excellent ‘Promiscuity’, a terrific aphorism given actual character. Lastly on this group we mirrored on Don Juan’s tendency to stroll away from his ladies, with Britten’s Johnny from the cabaret songs written with W.H. Auden. Right here Taylor started with fulfilling character after which progressively let rip with one thing extra operatic.

Maconchy’s ‘Take, O take these lips away’ from her 4 Shakespeare Songs revealed fairly how far she was from Quilter. This was a terrific track, haunting, mysterious and complicated. Tchaikovsky’s To Forge So Quickly (sung within the authentic Russian) moved from lyric depth to highly effective drama, terrific stuff. Then the ultimate Barber Hermit Track, ‘The Need for Hermitage’, actually capturing the track’s distinctive ambiance.

We ended with the second of the 2 Hazrati/Spence songs, Sans every part (or Don Juan displays) the place Spence’s poem has Don Juan reflecting on Byron’s unfinished last canto, leaving Don Juan’s destiny within the air. The track started with Taylor nearly intoning the textual content in opposition to an exquisite wash of piano chords, then because the track grew to become extra dramatic, Taylor moved from track to speech, ending with hanging melodrama after which vocalise as they walked off stage, the ending unfinished and as much as us the viewers to resolve.

After the live performance there was a brief Q&A with Freeman, Hazrati and Spence (although Taylor was within the viewers and good-naturedly added their feedback often), speaking extra about their collaboration on the songs and Spence learn the entire of his nine-poem sequence, tempting us with concepts of a future full cycle.

Freeman’s SongEasel clearly has quite a lot of native help and it was heartening to see that among the distinguished patrons listed within the programme had been really current within the viewers. A Huge Obscurity continues subsequent month with a free fringe live performance in Walworth and a free lunchtime live performance, Shakespeare in Track in Dulwich, and ends with tenor Mark Padmore and Jocelyn Freeman in The Wanderer and The Soldier in Dulwich.

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