Music@Menlo, The English Voice: Britten, Walton, and Elgar

Music@Menlo
St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Palo Alto
July 27, 2010

The English Voice

Benjamin Britten - 

A Charm of Lullabies,
 op.41 (1947)
Sasha Cooke, soprano
Inon Barnatan, piano

William Walton - Piano Quartet (1918-1921, revised 1955, 1974-5)
Wu Han, piano
Ani Kavafian, violin
Lily Francis, viola
David Finckel, cello

Edward Elgar - Piano Quintet in a minor, op. 84 (1918-1919)
Inon Barnatan, piano
Miro Quartet
Daniel Ching, Sandy Yamamoto, violins
John Largess, viola
Joshua Gindele, cello

The saving grace of "music for children,”

 I find, is that it is never really composed for children, but about them — or more usually about the part of us which traffics in irony, yet yearns to remain simple and pure. There are few lullabies effective for sleep which would long engage an adult mind, so I know Sasha Cooke will forgive me for saying that her stunningly effective rendition of Britten's Charm of Lullabies last Tuesday at Music at Menlo, outwitted Morpheus.

Ms. Cooke has a fine intuitive sense of what underlies words, and just as in recent Berlioz performances with the San Francisco Symphony, her melting way with cadences and refrains was something to savor.  "Heel Balou,” in the Robert Burns song, was mesmerizing. Blake's ending of "beguiles"...beguiled. The Nurse's Song brought moments of Gerontius-like dignity ("thy shield and comfort in need"), followed by the heartrending fadeaway of "lullabylabylabylaby baby." And, in between, for contrast, Thomas Randolph's ironically named "Charm" raged noisily for quiet, its message essentially murderous. Inon Barnatan proved a sensitive and energetic accompanist, very much on the same page with Ms. Cooke. The English enigmas of the evening had revealingly and excellently begun.

Read the full review on the Berkshire Review for the Arts!

Michael Miller