From: rtut@troi.cc.rochester.edu (Raymond Tuttle)
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
Subject: Two new CDs by baritone William Parker - a review
Date: 11 Nov 92 02:50:25 GMT
Organization: University of Rochester (Rochester, NY)

One of this year's most moving CDs comes from the Harmonia Mundi
label and features baritone William Parker singing two Bach cantatas
("Ich habe genug," BWV 82, and "Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen,"
BWV 56) coupled with three previously-released arias from Handel's
"Susanna" and "Messiah" (HMN 907601). 

Bach's two meditations on the transience of life and the acceptance of
death are emotionally involving in any context, but are especially so
here.  Parker is struggling with AIDS, and one cannot help being deeply
affected by  both the choice of music and Parker's performances on this
CD. 

The Bach cantatas were recorded a little more than a year ago.  I don't
know what physical and emotional setbacks Parker has suffered since
recording the Handel arias, but his voice has become hollower, his pitch
less steady in the interim.  Although he sounds like a man in some
physical pain, he also sounds like a man whose vision of the Hereafter
is becoming clearer with every minute left to him.  One cries hearing
this disc, but it is hard to pinpoint the bittersweet emotions that this
music and these performances engender. 

Parker is warmly accompanied by members of the Arcadian Academy,
the Baroque Choral Guild and (in the Handel) the Philharmonia Baroque
Orchestra.  The conductor is Nicholas McGegan.  Harmonia Mundi's sound
is intimate and leaves the listener alone with the singer and the song. 

Proceeds from the sale of this disc are being donated to San Francisco's
Shanti Project, a non-profit, volunteer organization which supports
those with AIDS or disabling HIV disease, and their loved ones.  Musical
philanthropy of this sort should be encouraged with brisk sales - buy
many copies and give them to your musically-inclined friends this
season.  Who needs another necktie? 

Another fine (and earlier) example of Parker's artistry can be heard in
"The Andree Expedition," a song-cycle by  contemporary American
composer Dominick Argento (Centaur Records, CRC 2092).  In 1897,
three Swedes, led by Salomon August Andree, attempted to reach the
North Pole via balloon, but failed and eventually perished - sick, hungry
and mad - on the Arctic ice.  

This may not sound like very promising material for a song-cycle, but
two of three explorers wrote about their fateful journey, and their
words are yet another sobering testament to the pride and vanity of
mortal man.  Argento's music can be described as post-Britten
Romantic; it is lyrical, but more descriptive and atmospheric than
memorable.  Impressions linger longer than actual melodies.   

The same is true for Argento's song-cycle "From the Diary of Virginia
Woolf," also on this disc, and sung by mezzo-soprano Linn Maxwell. 
Argento's rather homogeneous musical style means that the depressed
English novelist does not differ greatly from the three Swedish
explorers.  And yet, both song-cycles are effective in their modest and
honest ways.  They are certainly interesting, but not thoroughly
compelling.  

The performanes are good.  Maxwell, as well as Parker, has excellent
diction and  a pleasant timbre, and she too is sensitive to the meaning
of the words and their interrelationship with the music.  The recording,
made in the Music Auditorium at Southeastern Louisiana University, is
claustrophobic but more than listenable.   





--
****************************************   Raymond S. Tuttle
"Dunkel ist das Leben, ist der Tod,"       University of Rochester
but it's nothing to get depressed about!   (still with his two little 
****************************************   white mice).