Peggy Glanville-Hicks, composer

Deborah Polaski, soprano
[credit: Milena Schlösser]

Martin Homrich, tenor
[credit: Matthias Creutziger]

Scott MacAllister, tenor
[credit: Devon Cass]

Roman Trekel, baritone
[credit: Imagem]

Wolfgang Koch, bass-baritone

Sir John Tomlinson, bass
[credit: R. Workman]

Jacquelyn Wagner, soprano
[credit: Bruce Szopo]

Bettina Jensen, soprano
[credit: Reinhard Simon]

Maria Markina, mezzo soprano

Laurence Meikle, baritone
[credit: Nathan Amzi]

Coro Gulbenkian, choir

Orquestra Gulbenkian, orchestra

Jennifer Condon, conductor
[credit: Milena Schlösser]

Condon’s achievement should be celebrated

[Glanville-Hicks’] attempts to use non-Western musical language in opera – an essentially Western musical form – helps explain why Sappho was rejected by the San Francisco Opera, which complained of its “abundant use of modal tonality”. The score would have seemed simplistic – this was the era of difficult, avant-garde music – and the opera remained unperformed for almost 50 years.

Condon argues that Sappho was being judged on the reduced piano score and not the full orchestration with its vivid effects: the cymbals and gongs, dramatic scenes for chorus, and solos for cor anglais and clarinet. The music comes to life when the instrumental colour is added. […]

Given the few performances in Australia of any of Glanville-Hicks’s music this year, Condon’s achievement in bringing out the composer’s last complete opera should be celebrated. The recording will be a calling card to opera companies that she hopes will stage the work.

Matthew Westwood The Australian

All the elements of a Greek drama

The eagerly anticipated world premiere recording of Peggy Glanville-Hick’s opera Sappho, with libretto by Lawrence Durrell, is at last on the shelves, timed to perfection with the centenary of the composer’s birth on December 29th 2012 (d 25th June 1990).

The 2 CD set released by Toccata Classics is a recording of the complete opera in 3 acts, lasting a little over two hours. It is a substantial project with meticulous attention to quality and detail. The cast of soloists is little short of jaw-dropping, the orchestra and chorus are world class; the supporting literature is robust with archival photographs, biographies of writers and performers and the complete libretto. […]

The biggest revelation of the recording however, is the music of Peggy Glanville-Hicks. Though based in the traditions of western classical music, her aesthetic was informed by her travels and her philosophy and draws on an eclectic mix of Greek modes, Indian ragas, ancient Italian, Spanish and Caribbean influences. The music of the opera is distinctly modal with instrumentation, rhythms and ornaments that conjure images of a dangerously exotic Mediterranean epic.

Shamistha de Soysa SoundsLikeSydney

Recording of the month

Sappho […] is blessed with a beautifully poetic libretto, packed with memorable phrases and singable lines. The plot is cursed with a lack of forward momentum, but what it lacks in dramatic impetus it makes up for in meditative insight. […]

Musically, Sappho is a most attractive work, full of atmospheric modal harmonies, with pentatonic effects adding an exotic air. Some fine highlights compensate for occasional moments of patchy inspiration. Condon marshals her considerable forces with sensitivity. Martin Homrich and Scott MacAllister as the love interest sing ardently, and there are fine contributions from Wolfgang Koch, Roman Trekel and a characterful John Tomlinson. The Germans in the cast manage the English text pretty well. […] This major release deserves a strong recommendation, and Condon deserves a medal.

Clive Paget Limelight

Sappho awarded an ‘Outstanding’ by IRR

If […] you’re willing to let the music work its hypnotic powers on you, you’ll find yourself caught. This premiere is an act of commitment by the 30-year-old conductor, who has been working since 2001 to bring this work to the world, and who is responsible for deciphering the manuscript of the full score to make this performance possible. Her dedication is palpable from first note to last and she’s fortunate to have been able to secure a solid orchestra and to convince a first-rate set of world-class singers to participate […] The entire cast boasts excellent enunciation, especially important in an opera that relies so heavily on textual detail. The orchestra coaxes out the music’s understated effects expertly (listen, for instance, to the wailing of the strings beginning a minute or so into Scene 5 or to the keening solo winds throughout). All in all, a major contribution to the catalogue, served up with Toccata’s usual high-quality presentation values; the engineering is solid, too. Strongly recommended to any opera lover with a sense of adventure.

Peter J. Rabinowitz International Record Review