Mahler Chamber Orchestra
George Benjamin conductor
Nimbus N18116
At little more than an hour and a bit it was no hardship to watch Picture a Day Like This twice at the Royal Opera Studio last year, although this recording is actually from the Aix-en-Provence première.
This is the composer’s fourth collaboration with playwright Martin Crimp, and it is their most compact and, to my mind, most successful piece yet. In seven brief scenes it tells the story of The Woman setting out on a quest to bring her dead child back to life, through a series of fable-like encounters.
There are a number of types (the Craftsman/the Lovers/the Collector etc); each at first seeming to possess something she needs, until ultimately she discovers (like the traveller in Cavafy’s Ithaka) that the journey is itself in some ways her destination. Perhaps one might think of this as a 21st century Savitri – but where Holst is all pared-back simplicity, Benjamin and Crimp encompass a wide range of colours and ideas from simple limpidity to resonant complexity.
The risk with setting any story in a literally fabulous realm is that you end up with characters who are little more than symbols – as is so often the case (sadly) in Tippett’s operas. Here that danger is largely avoided, partly because Crimp’s succinct text achieves a concise level of haiku-like poetry, and partly because the score fills in those dramatic and psychological depths that are not immediately apparent.
The vocal music often sits somewhere between chant and recitative but rises to memorable heights when required: while the dazzlingly rich orchestral music is at once clear and complex – it shimmers glowers and glitters from the pit like a coral reef seen through crystal-clear seas. (On stage all this was matched by similarly rich and sophisticated sets and lighting.) The five soloists inhabit their varied roles completely, and there is some astonishing vocal dexterity on show – in particular from John Brancy, reaching from baritone to full falsetto – complemented by seemingly flawless orchestral playing. (Somehow, when required, Benjamin contrives to make a twenty-two piece ensemble sound like a full eighty-piece orchestra.)
It is a truism to describe a stage work as ‘haunting’, but Picture A Day Like This really did leave me with much to think about after seeing it – it has the genuinely atmospheric impact of myth. Even shorn of the rich visual aspect this recording has the same final effect: a DVD of the stage production would be most welcome. The production is impeccable, and the CD notes virtually constitute a small and highly interesting booklet. This is a landmark release, and a triumph all round.
Review by Kevin Mandry