Frank Martin - Maria-Triptychon; Der Sturm; Six Monologues from Jedermann

FRANK MARTIN 

Der Sturm (1954) - Overture; Mein Ariel, hast du, der Luft nur ist; Ein feierliches Lied

Hin sind meine Zauberei'n

Maria-Triptychon (1968)

Six Monologues from Jedermann (Everyman) (1943)

Linda Russell (sop)

David Wilson-Johnson (bar)

Duncan Riddell (violin)

London PO/Matthias Bamert.

The Tempest, not surprisingly, holds a magical enchantment for composers. Martin's music for Der Sturm (drawn from an opera on Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' and following, in a continuous setting, the translation by A W von Schlegel) fulfils high hopes. Its translucent murmur (Eugene Goossens By The Tarn), its otherworldliness (Holst's Neptune), its dash and explosive assaults, its anger - all these are only undermined by a vocal part of protesting declamation. The work comes full circle at the close in a quiet instrumental murmur.

Maria Triptychon was written for wife and husband Irmgard Seefried and Wolfgang Schneiderhan (whose fine recording of the Martin violin concerto is on Decca). Seefried and Schneiderhan's recording of the triptych is on Jecklin Disco mono JD645-2. The style of the work is one of acid tenderness with the orchestra back-dropping the two principal players. An insistent violin solo dances in dependent adoration (as a pilot fish to a shark) around the voice as its tracks through the 'trois parties' of Ave Maria; Magnificat; Stabat Mater. The violin line's contentment drinks reverentially from the same source as the Beethoven violin concerto. Such serenity cannot be matched by the vocal part. The violin acts as a continually-in-motion 'sheet anchor'. The violin can express neurotic irritation as well but serenity is in the dominant.

The Jedermann music encompasses in its Bergian lyricism the slow mournful spell of the bassoon and the rhythmic grimoire such a hallmark of Welsh composer, Grace Williams. The male singer produces an effect recalling Das Lied von der Erde. This is astringent music with a hint of alkali corrosive about it. Frank sets Hugo von Hoffmansthal's words from the play 'Jedermann'.

Both the Jederman and the Der Sturm extracts have been recorded before by the Berlin Phil conducted by the composer on DG 20th Century Classics 429 858-2GC.

Triptychon stands out in this company though reputedly not effacing memories of Seefried and Schneiderhan's 1960s recording.

Rob Barnett