ancient Byzantium.
There are two main sources for these CDs, the monks (i.e. schoolteachers) of the expensive British Catholic boys' school Downside, and St Dominic's Priory Choir. One husky track is from the Spanish cloister Monasterio Benedictino de Santo Domingo de Silos. The quality of these performances is much of a muchness, and a little plainchant goes a long way. It's the sort of thing that's used in the theater to introduce the England scene from Shakespeare's Macbeth, set in the 11th century. You may ask why the gilded youth of the UK are being inducted into all this theological gobbledegook, but the music is certainly beautiful, and not only on account of its age. Quite what the teenagers are thinking about when cooling out to this sort of thing is, of course, open to question. Meditating on the mysteries of Harry Potter, as likely as not. And why not? They're wonderful books (and films). The sound quality of these CDs is excellent, though the ubiquitous churchy echo, doubtless judged atmospheric, is sometimes hard to take.
Elisabeth Schwarzkorf
A Self-portrait
DVD EMI 4 77831 9
Lastly, a DVD. Elisabeth Schwarzkopf was Europe's foremost Vienna-based operatic soprano in the years immediately after World War II, and this film about her mixes a brief outline of her life with excerpts from interviews and filmed performances. It isn't very long -- under an hour -- but features remarks by her husband, the recording mastermind Walter Legge, an interview extract as she prepares to go on stage as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, a sequence of her trying out the acoustics of a problematic Spanish concert-hall, and her voice as she tutors a younger singer (in later life she didn't like being filmed on camera). Much of all this has a rather dated feel now -- listen, for instance, to the pompous voice of the 1950s interviewer, attempting to be simultaneously polite and aggressive, in the dressing-room sequence. But enthusiasts will be fascinated to have these insights into the life of someone many of whose recordings still adorn the CD catalogues.
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