Bantock: Sappho; Sapphic Poem

• Main performer: Susan Bickley
• Booklet languages: English, French, German
• Libretto languages: French, German, English
• Time: 75:19
• Release Date: 1997

Review

One generation's pornography is another generation's curiosity. Grenville Bantock's setting of his wife's dilations on Sappho entitled Sappho from 1906 was supremely seductive to the Edwardian England of its day, a seductiveness spiced by the apparent uncertain nature of the sexual inclinations of Bantock's wife. But whether it is Sappho and her lovers, his wife and her lovers, or his wife and himself Bantock is depicting, there is no question that, judged purely in terms of musical pornography, Bantock's Sappho was once, with its luxuriant melodies, voluptuous harmonies, lascivious colors, and orgasmic mezzo soprano, very, very hot stuff.

But as this 1997 recording by mezzo soprano Susan Bickley with Vernon Handley and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra demonstrates, Bantock's Sappho is now about as exciting as a French postcard or a Tijuana Bible. This is not to say that the performers do not do everything in their powers to beguile and entice. The Royal Philharmonic is rich and ripe. Handley's conducting is firm and hard. Bickley's singing is ecstatic and orgasmic. And Hyperion's sound captures every ripe, hard, and orgasmic moment. But the music itself sounds so absurdly overdone, overwrought, and over the top that it verges on parody or even burlesque. Bantock's Sapphic Poem from 1906 has the virtues of having a smaller orchestra and a cellist for a soloist and a smaller orchestra and Julian Lloyd Webber, Handley, and the RPO turn in a respectful performance. ~ James Leonard, Rovi

Performances

Composer	Title	Time
Granville Bantock	Sappho, prelude & 9 fragments for mezzo-soprano and orchestra	60:20
Granville Bantock	Sapphic Poem for cello and orchestra	14:59

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