Ruby Hughes & Manchester Collective: End of My Days
BIS

The title of this illuminating collaboration between British soprano Ruby Hughes and Manchester Collective (violinists Rakhi Singh and Donald Grant, violist Ruth Gibson, and cellist Marie Bitlloch) focuses on death, obviously, but don't be fooled: consistent with the 1994 work by Errollyn Wallen from which it takes its name, the tone of the recording isn't resignation but instead exultation, with Hughes characterizing it as “a resounding celebration of life that embraces death without regret or sadness but with great verve and acceptance.” Hope, not despair, is the album's calling-card. How telling it is that in Wallen's piece the protagonist confronts death's imminent onset with the words “Joy, Bliss, Now.”

The other selections on this eclectic set adopt a similarly wise perspective to Wallen's that acknowledges the reality of death but also the profound gift of life and all the marvels it brings with it. Such thematic focal points crystallized during early 2020 when the singer and quartet conceived the recital programme with the idea in mind of uplifting UK audiences weighed down by pandemic-related anxiety, isolation, and grief. It's no accident that the thoughtfully sequenced release ends with Deborah Pritchard's uplifting Peace. As intimated by the inclusion of works by Wallen and Pritchard, End of My Days presents material by living composers, with Brian Ellise and Caroline joining them; complementing theirs are works by Dowland, Ravel, Vaughan Williams, Mahler, Debussy, and Tavener, the set-list panoramic in its centuries-spanning scope.

That Hughes and Manchester Collective are equally integral to the project is shown by the fact that the opening pieces spotlight each separately, Ellis's Meet Me in the Green Glen (2009) performed by the soprano alone and Shaw's Valencia (2012) the instrumental ensemble. Without wishing to downplay the impact of Manchester Collective, it's Hughes who is the primary reason why the recording resonates so powerfully. She invests every word with maximum purpose and in preparing for the recording clearly examined every line to probe its fullest meaning and fashion a delivery in accordance with it; the bite with which she delivers the line “My fortune is thrown” in the Dowland song “Flow My Tears” is a memorable illustration, but any number might be cited. Listening to this renowned, award-winning soprano is, in short, transfixing, and whether Hughes sings in English, German, French, or Russian, her diction and control are impeccable. To its credit, the string quartet matches her mesmerizing performances with its own on this sixty-six-minute release.

It's a bold singer who begins a recording unaccompanied but Hughes pulls it off fabulously when every utterance commands attention. Elias's haunting setting of the nature poetry of John Clare sees her wresting intense emotional shadings from its words, though never self-indulgently. Valencia is striking too, particularly for how vividly (and convincingly) Shaw renders into instrumental form the sensation of eating an orange and the feeling of juices exploding inside one's mouth. The passion with which Manchester Collective delivers its rendition does much to bring that experience to life. The collaborators' first joint performance, a nuanced treatment of Vaughan Williams's “Along the Field,” shows how attuned and responsive each is to the other. The subsequent readings of three pieces from Tavener's 1993 cycle Akhmatova Songs, “Dante,” “Boris Pasternak,” and “Couplet,” prove as riveting when the singer and quartet handle them bewitchingly. Perpetuating that lamenting tone are David Bruce's arrangements of two Tudor lute songs by John Dowland, with Hughes gently suspended over the strings in the dolorous “Go Crystal Tears” and poignant “Flow My Tears.”

February 2024