Sweet indulgence

Rae de Lisle, Andrew Joyce, Julia Joyce

Photo credit: Tracy Trinder

In late February this year, just weeks before New Zealand locked down to fight a global pandemic, a lovely new CD was released by Atoll Records. A collection of glorious music, Morgen received less attention than it deserved in a distracted period but right now it may provide much-needed solace and hope as we face more days of restrictions.

England-born cellist Andrew Joyce has been Principal Cellist of the NZSO for a decade and has established a reputation as one of our finest musicians. He has for many years wanted to explore the repertoire of song transcriptions for the cello and asked his mother-in-law, pianist and teacher Rae de Lisle, to work with him to record this CD.

For de Lisle Morgen was a very special project - a return to performance. Twenty-five years ago a major over-use injury and the chronic pain that followed ended her busy concert career and she has since been an inspiring teacher of pianists through the University of Auckland. She has also undertaken important research on brain-related pain and other dysfunction for musicians including focal dystonia, recently completing a PhD on the latter. The moving story of her patient work with pianist Michael Houstoun,  enabling him to return to performance after suffering from focal dystonia, has been told many times.

MORGEN

“…gorgeous music beautifully played.”

Morgen is a collection designed to share the pleasures of beautiful and emotional songs and these melodic lines transfer easily to cello. Joyce glories in the soaring vocal phrases with a rich vibrato-laden tone and the absence of words is forgotten by the listener. De Lisle’s pianism is subtle and spacious and the players work together with a flexible intimacy ideally suited to the music.

The opening  seven songs by Brahms are a highlight. For this music full of passionate grief and poignant yearning Joyce uses a huge range of timbre and dynamics, de Lisle a light and easy flow in accompaniment.  The Wiegenlied, famous as “Brahms’ Lullaby”, ends the group, the cello in the foreground as singer and both musicians playing with loving gentleness.

Transcriptions from Dvořák, Venezuelan-born French composer Reynaldo Hahn and Fauré follow. Sensitive playing in three joyous songs by Schumann, written for his beloved wife Clara, communicate the depth and subtlety of the composer’s ardent music. For the two longer Brahms songs of his Opus 91 violist Julia Joyce joins her mother and husband, the darker viola timbres contributing to a more complex texture of entwined string melody.

I confess to finding this feast of Romantic song just a little cloying at times and to craving an acidic harmony, a quirky rhythm or some variety in pace and emotion. But this is an album for sweet indulgence and it isn’t hard to relax into pure enjoyment of gorgeous music beautifully played.

The album is named after Richard Strauss’s exquisite song Morgen! which is the final track. The title translates as Tomorrow! and Strauss composed it as a wedding gift for his wife. Julia Joyce joins the ensemble again and the collection ends with perfect emotions for our times – simple happiness, warmth and optimism.

MORGAN: songs for cello and piano by Andrew Joyce (cello) and Rae de Lisle (piano) with Julia Joyce (viola). (Atoll Records)

Purchase Morgen from Marbecks