Classical music Review: Curlew River | St Stephen's Church | Springfest | George Vass

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The Review - CLASSICAL & JAZZ
Published: 14 May 2009

Britten’s haunting sounds of river

REVIEW: CURLEW RIVER
St Stephen's Church

THIS year’s Hampstead & Highgate Springfest reached its high point with semi-staged performances of Benjamin Britten’s astonishing Curlew River in St Stephen’s, Pond Street, near the Royal Free Hospital.
Curlew River is a short chamber opera based on a 15th-century Japanese Noh play. Only seven instruments accompany the all-male singers.
A madwoman is looking for her lost son. When she crosses the Curlew River by ferry, she is told a boy had crossed the river a year earlier and had died on the other side. The madwoman and crowd join in singing at the boy’s graveside and, as the song culminates, they hear the voice of the boy’s spirit.
When the spirit appears, the woman is cured of her madness.
The performance directed by George Vass delighted in the strong liturgical textures, building ever so slowly through solo story-telling and choral commentaries to the exciting conclusion when the boy’s voice takes flight above the men’s chorus. Robert Murray was especially notable in the tenor role of the madwoman.
The performances were the first concert of classical music in St Stephen’s following its £4.5 million restoration.
Oddly, the amount of echo was very limited. But the sound of sirens of ambulances rushing to and fro from the hospital became distracting, to say the least.

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