Respighi: Songs
Ian Bostridge (tenor), Saskia Giorgini (piano) (Pentatone)
(scroll down for English review)
這星期新碟中，博斯捷這張雷斯碧基藝術歌曲集頗令人意外。托斯蒂的歌曲大把人唱，但國際級歌手唱雷斯碧基藝術歌曲實屬罕見，聽全張雷斯碧基歌唱的CD我也是第一次。伴奏是上次和他來港的意大利鋼琴家佐真尼，小冊子她寫了一篇小文談她如何發掘雷斯碧基的歌曲，到底是博斯捷本來就認識它們，還是她再向博斯捷介紹，我就不敢肯定，但我猜是後者。
全碟有23首歌，一首鋼琴獨奏的《夜曲》（軌16），剛在高柏的新碟聽過。但如何介紹那23首歌呢？我嘗試個人一點、籠統一點談，尤其是我相信喜歡波斯捷、或者喜歡藝術歌曲的朋友橫豎都會整張碟地聽。
首先我覺得它們很有古典美，但我不是說巴洛克、或者維也納古典派那種音樂式的古典主義，而是好像有個古希臘遊唱詩人拿着豎琴，半唱半唸着詩歌那般。又或者我是因為博斯捷也拿手唱蒙台威爾第的《奧菲奧》，令我有那種古風聯想。
雷斯碧基的寫法，我覺得有點像胡爾夫的藝術歌曲，鋼琴會很直接定立氣氛及心情，人聲方面，不太像是用旋律包含詩詞，而是先找尋字句在意思及讀音上的抑揚，再用旋律去貼近。有時我覺得這些歌曲，是有趣的「歌唱」多過「歌曲」，亦即是要用人聲才能表現到那種難度，不是可由任何樂器演奏的旋律。博斯捷近年的舒伯特我覺得太整色整水，但唱雷斯碧基確是發揮到他的表達力，去到一個程度，就是我分不清是聽雷斯碧基還是聽博斯捷了。
What a surprise from Ian Bostridge. I’d never heard a full disc of Respighi songs, let alone one from a world-class singer. Saskia Giorgini, his present accompanist, wrote an article on her discovery of this repertoire during covid. She probably introduced this composer to Bostrdige, but I’m not sure.
The Notturno for solo piano (track 16) is the encore of the Imogen Cooper recital that I just reviewed. What about the 23 songs on this disc? Let me take a more personal and general approach, because people who adore Bostridge or art songs in general would listen to the whole disc instead of picking the best bits.
First of all, they have an antique or classical feel. I don’t mean it in the sense of Viennese Classicism, but the image I had was a Grecian balladeer with a harp. Perhaps I was reminded of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo which is in Bostridge’s opera repertoire.
Respighi’s crafting of art songs somehow resembles Wolf. The piano set the tone and mood decisively, while the vocal part was written not as a melody for the words to follow, but as a melodic line that fits the meter of the text. At times these songs sounded more like “singing” than “songs” to me. Respighi challenged his singers and the songs wouldn’t have worked as “songs without words” for instrumentalists. I don’t like Bostridge’s recent Schubert interpretation for its artificiality but Bostridge’s expressiveness suited Respighi very well.