The idea of a countertenor in songs by Mendelssohn and Schumann may seem odd, and even unrecognizable to the composers themselves. But first of all, check your prejudices: countertenor Iestyn Davies is fully idiomatic in the Purcell songs (as filtered through Britten), and only slightly less so in the neo-Elizabethan tunes of Roger Quilter, so one might just as easily complain about similar programs where a female contralto was used. Second, Davies neatly avoids the issues that have plagued the few countertenors who have ...
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The idea of a countertenor in songs by Mendelssohn and Schumann may seem odd, and even unrecognizable to the composers themselves. But first of all, check your prejudices: countertenor Iestyn Davies is fully idiomatic in the Purcell songs (as filtered through Britten), and only slightly less so in the neo-Elizabethan tunes of Roger Quilter, so one might just as easily complain about similar programs where a female contralto was used. Second, Davies neatly avoids the issues that have plagued the few countertenors who have ventured into music of the 19th century. He doesn't force his voice into places it doesn't want to go, instead relying mostly on the gentle, foghorn-like quality it has in its large sweet spot, and thus setting its timbre off from that of soprano Carolyn Sampson. You might say that, except for the solo pieces, Davies puts Sampson at center stage, but this would ignore the intelligence of his performance. Sampson, at any rate, has never sounded better. Getting your attention with an...
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