http://www.thestanfordsociety.org/2019/05/23/recording-of-stanfords-the-travelling-companion-to-be-released-in-september-2019/
I was just talking about this, found it today. Very, very excited. Stanford, along with Raff, are my favourite unsungcomposers. I find both Stanfords and Raff's chamber music to be exemplary.
Here it is:
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8668741--stanford-the-travelling-companion (https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8668741--stanford-the-travelling-companion)
Excerpts can be listened to here:
https://somm-recordings.com/recording/stanford-the-travelling-companion/?_ga=2.255675854.770735991.1568096543-310011283.1565952979 (https://somm-recordings.com/recording/stanford-the-travelling-companion/?_ga=2.255675854.770735991.1568096543-310011283.1565952979)
I wonder if this will lead to recordings of A much ado about nothing and the Critic?(his other successful operas)
Gosh I would go nuts for them!
We can only hope, but in the meantime this is a hugely welcome release. The excerpts on the Somm website sound very attractive.
...whereas I thought they sounded remarkably dull. Hey ho. I remain to be convinced - but the whole opera may do the job, of course.
Well, I am a fully paid up member of the Stanford fan club...
...whereas I tend to pick and choose. But I'll be following reactions to this release with interest.
The excerpts on the Somm site are all mixed up. They do not match the words identifying each. For example: No. 2 is actually No. 23 and No. 23 is actually No. 3, so it is impossible to get any sense of structure from the extracts at all.
QuoteThe excerpts on the Somm site are all mixed up. They do not match the words identifying each. For example: No. 2 is actually No. 23 and No. 23 is actually No. 3, so it is impossible to get any sense of structure from the extracts at all.
That is correct: they are all mixed up unfortunately and are very short snippets at that. And keep in mind it's a chamber orchestra performing, I see in the booklet there were only 17 string players... which would not be ideal but it is what it is.
I believe the work was heavily influenced by Parsifal which Stanford loved above all Wagner operas expect Meistersinger. So, I guess if you don't like Parsifal you won't like The Travelling Companion. A big bonus is it's half the length of that work.
Only 17 strings? Oh dear.
I thought the strings sounded thin. If it is modelled on Parsifal there may be a lot of sections where the strings divide which will render the sound texture even worse.
It's a massive shame but we're unlikely to get another recording in our lifetimes.
Why on earth couldn't they have drafted in some more string players?
I don't know why. But even with the reduced strings the usually dismissive Rupert Christiansen of The Telegraph gave the staged performance a good review: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opera/what-to-see/travelling-companion-review-new-sussex-operatouring-accomplished/
Well, yes, but he also wrote:
Quotethe NSO's amateur chorus struggled at times, and a plucky small orchestra under Toby Purser's sensitive baton could hardly do full justice to Stanford's romanticism
I'm sorry, but recordings need to do Stanford's romanticism full justice.
Cost will be the reason, of course. I see that the recent performances of Stanford's Much Ado about Nothing in Leeds also had a "specially-prepared reduced orchestral score". And Stanford such a terrific orchestrator too. What a pity. Well, I am still looking forward to hearing The Travelling Companion, but am prepared to experience only "modified rapture".
Interestingly, it seems it was Rupert Christiansen who was indirectly responsible for this performance/recording. According to the latest issue of Gramophone he did an article about unsung English operas which the director of the NSO saw: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/opera/11077505/Why-cant-we-hear-more-English-operas.html
Also, according to the Stanford Society the performance of The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan, at the Wexford Opera Festival, will be recorded and released on CD http://www.thestanfordsociety.org/2019/05/22/the-veiled-prophet-of-khorassan-at-the-wexford-opera-festival-2019/
It seems to be a very good time to be a Stanford fan.
Good news, although Wexford is often a problematic recording venue. Still, beggars and all that...
Absolutely. I'll be grateful, that's for sure.
17 strings? A performance of Parsifal or Meistersinger with 17 strings might leave us wondering (if it was the only performance we could hope to hear) whether Wagner's ability as a composer was equal to his ambition
or one of those chamber-orchestra arrangements...
Has anyone heard the full recording and if they have, what is their opinion?
I shall wait a few months until it's available as a download.
QuoteI shall wait a few months until it's available as a download.
Months? Do you perhaps know how long it will take? because I've emailed presto twice and got no reply. Seems strange to me in this day and age there's not a digital option at release day, unless I'm missing something?
No, I have no inside information, but recently SOMM CD releases have been followed a couple of months or so later by a digital release, so I assumed that this one would be the same. I think that some companies choose to stagger the release dates to give people an incentive to buy the CD and, although I usually buy downloads muself, I can't say I blame them given the speed with which commercial digital releases are pirated and uploaded to YouTube these days.
Oh well. I've emailed SOMM and lets see if they bother to reply. I still find it baffling... an obscure work is going to be heavily pirated but anyway what do I know.
Just got a response from SOMM...
QuoteWe usually have to wait about a fortnight until Naxos USA makes the SOMM releases digitally available for download etc.
There you go. Thanks.
Qobuz are giving an 18th October release date for the download.
Yep, I got a follow up email from SOMM confirming that date. It seems you were right, four weeks waiting period is the norm.
For a site where Stanford's music has been frequently praised over the years, I am surprised that admirers of this composer have not acquired the CD release of the first commercial recording of one of his operas as soon as it became available. I would have thought that most fans/admirers of composers would gobble up, without hesitation, a release of a rare piece as soon as they could. I certainly would.
Stanford is a composer I have been decidedly cool towards over the years. However, in January, having read about the forthcoming release of The Travelling Companion, an opera I had been aware of since my teens, I downloaded from this site the extracts broadcast from the 1990s. I have listened to them frequently and became enthusiastic about the release of the full opera. If someone had said to me a few years ago that a Stanford piece would be one of my most eagerly anticipated releases of 2019 I would have been highly sceptical.
However, the CD arrived last Friday on its official release date and I have listened to the opera 5 times and intend to listen to it many more times. Whilst it may not be one of the greatest operas ever written, it is a thoroughly competent piece and has given me a great deal of pleasure. In my opinion, whilst the orchestral Prelude might sound richer in the extracts, when compared with the CD and it's reduced orchestration, there are points of detail in the orchestration in the more modern CD that get lost in the extracts from the BBC broadcast with its, presumably, larger orchestra. This, in my view, is true also of the conclusion of the opera. Overall, the orchestral sound of the opera sounds absolutely fine to me, notwithstanding its reduced orchestration.
To me the music is largely memorable and, on occasions, inspired and moving. The singing and chorus sound fine as well. This CD release has made me want to explore more of Stanford or, at least, listen again to music that previously had little impact on me.
Although your review certainly expresses enthusiasm for the opera, you name sufficient reservations for me still to be rather wary of buying it...
Nice review patmos.beje
I personally haven't gobbled it up because I've recently switched over to digital only. It took many months but now my entire CD collection is sitting on my hard drive(with backups close at hand), I see no need for physical media anymore. Even for glorious Stanford I'm not going to buy a CD, I just have to wait it out.
I shall be gobbling it up as soon as it reaches Japan. I have ordered direct from Somm. There will never be a Stanford release I won't order, until I die, and the first recording of a Stanford opera is an especial treat. I can only hope for more (especially Much Ado and the Critic) as well as recordings of more of the big choral works like Eden
Hear Hear JimFin!
Thanks for bringing my attention to Eden, Its the first time I've heard of it. Does anyone know what Professor Dibble says about it?
Eden, Op.40 (begun 1889 or 1890, completed and premiered 1891 (the latter October 7 1891)) is a dramatic/sacred oratorio in several acts to a text by Robert Bridges. Vocal score @ IMSLP (https://imslp.org/wiki/Eden,_Op.40_(Stanford,_Charles_Villiers)) which also has a copy of the libretto. Dibble discusses it pp 223-28.
Got my copy of The Traveling Companion before the super typhoon which is going to keep me inside for the weekend. My first impressions are very positive. I knew much of the music from the broadcast, but hearing the whole thing gives a great sense of unity. The orchestral sections are more considerable than I imagine too, and these and the choral sections are extremely fine. I think this is one of those operas with a good claim to be the best, or one of the best, British opera between Dido and Grimes.
This looks to be the first professional review: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2019/Oct/Stanford_companion_SOMMCD2742.htm
Musicweb found it ''both entertaining and engaging''
The review also mentions the 34-strong orchestra. Hmmm...........
QuoteThe review also mentions the 34-strong orchestra. Hmmm...........
Its no secret, it's at end of the booklet for all to see.
Right. But can they do the job? Hence the 'hmmm...'
One day you'll have to bite the bullet and listen to it yourself, that's the only way to be sure.
Absolutely right. That's what I'm looking forward to doing as soon as I can download a copy
I hope to bite before purchasing. A conundrum indeed...
The Travelling Companion seems to me successful on several points: Starting with a good libretto by Henry Newbolt which suited Stanford to a tee(I'm reminded of another fairy-tale opera - Rusalka - which also was a perfect fit for its composer). Musically, the work its very rich and rewarding, the denouement is breathtaking and I was in tears(always a good sign for me) Dramatically it's well captured and convincing. Orchestrally magnificent as you would expect from Stanford and could be said to be his culmination in that area. Characterisation is good in particular for John and The Travelling Companion but the Wizard does come off somewhat a cartoon villain but it does not harm the work in anyway IMO. The work is inspired from to start to finish, no dull spots. The work is nice and compact at 120 minutes, always a blessed relief when operas are nice and succinct in my book.
The performances are excellent, of course its a massive pity that the strings are reduced but the upside is we get to hear nearly every word of the libretto clearly, which is good because the libretto is strong and quite poignant at times. Vocally, its seems good to me and Toby Purser and his band do Stanford proud as well I think, there's a nice sense of urgency when their needs to be.
This might be his masterpiece not only in opera but in all other forms... yes its that good. I knew he had in him to create a great opera. And I'm salivating to hear more of his operas now as well.
That's all very encouraging, Kevin. Thanks for the review.
Great review, Kevin, and I'd second all the sentiments. I think I'll be often listening to this opera, which is by no means the case with every new-to-me work that I get these days. It's thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish.
I am enjoying this, but I wonder if I'm the only one who finds David Horton's vibrato excessive, and didn't I detect some notes off pitch in Act 1, as if he was straining? I am not a lover of opera, and maybe I'm being too critical, as such problems aren't mentioned here or in any reviews.
Reviews these days tend not to spend too much time on the quality of the singing. It's a fault that badly needs correcting.
Fully paid-up member of the Stanford fan club though I am, I enjoyed this recording rather less than I was hoping to. The fault though is not Stanford's. The Travelling Companion is clearly a very fine work indeed, helped (as others have said) by a first-rate libretto which stimulated Stanford to create music possessing both dramatic subtlety and power. It's full of beauties, has a very wide expressive range and, to echo others again, the closing pages are particularly affecting. In performance, the ending must be a real coup de theatre. Unfortunately, though, I did feel that the slimmed-down orchestra's under-powered strings failed to convey the sonority which so many passages clearly needed to give their full effect. More of an obstacle to enjoyment, though, are the cast's vocal shortcomings. I thought that in several of the faster choruses the women were squawky in their upper register, and the tenor lead David Horton was not only sometimes rather strained, but his light-ish voice was almost comically unmatched to the Kate Valentine's much heavier timbre. Being such a Stanford enthusiast I'm probably being much pickier with The Travelling Companion than I would usually be about the shortcomings of opera recordings, and certainly you'll hear much worse on many modern offerings, as Alan often points out. That said, with the dearth of recordings of English-language operas, it seems to me that this is a potentially ground-breaking issue, and so it's disappointing that it turns out to undersell such a persuasive work as Stanford's opera.
I must admit after several listens now the thin orchestra is really getting to be a bigger bug bear than I anticipated. The strings are too scrawny to do Stanfords scoring full justice(It's quite noticeable in Act 3) The two leads didn't bother me much but I also found some of female members of the chorus too squawky and grating as well at times. Anyway, its still a recording I will turn to for as long as I live(having resigned myself that there will no be other any time soon)I still think everyone should take the time and listen to it because it is very much a masterpiece.
I won't be buying this. The shortcomings are evidently too many and too serious for repeated listening.
I agree with Mark's review, and share his love of Stanford. It's unfortunate that this wasn't recorded by one of the great EMI, Decca, Lyrita or Chandos 'ensembles' of years past - LPO, Boult, et al. and maybe Robert Tear in the tenor role. But they were all too busy recording Elgar and V-W! Generalization, but you get my point. ;D
I can only say that I have been listening almost every day to this recording and don't find the orchestra or any vocal performances a bar to great enjoyment. I think a fuller orchestra would have been any nicer and richer, but I've really enjoyed this. The BBC broadcast of extracts has a fuller orchestra, but I only intermittently listened to it in the years when it was all I had. Listening to the full opera without breaks is really satisfying. I'm not meaning to deny what people above said they felt, but to point out that for some of us this is a very enjoyable release that bears repeated listening.
Yes, fair point, Jim, and I'm sure you're not alone.
Oh, I'll certainly listen again to it and I'll enjoy it too. I enjoyed it the first time I heard it, just not as much as I was hoping too, for the reasons I gave.