Lorelei Ensemble: David Lang's love fail
Cantaloupe Music

Quince Ensemble: David Lang's love fail
Innova

It's not unusual for a particular work by a composer to be recorded by different ensembles; it's less common, however, for two treatments of the same piece to appear at almost the same time. In issuing recordings of David Lang's love fail, Lorelei Ensemble and Quince Ensemble present an irresistible opportunity to consider each performance in light of the other, not so much to determine which one is ‘better' but to consider the ways by which Lang's material is illuminated by having two renderings, not one, at hand. Ultimately, each ensemble provides a worthy treatment; the major difference is rooted in ensemble size, with the Quince's four singers presenting a comparatively more intimate version than the one by the nine-member Lorelei.

A few words about the work itself are in order first. The material the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer creates is consistently marked by originality and imagination, and love fail is no exception. The fifteen-part piece was written for Anonymous 4 and premiered by the group in June 2012 at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas in New Haven, CT. Conceiving it as a meditation on the timelessness of love and the complications thereof, Lang drew for its libretto from various retellings of the Tristan and Isolde story and contemporary writings by Lydia Davis. While the gist of the story remains in place, particular details separate one version of the saga from another: in Marie de France's, a message carved by Tristan into a stick is found and interpreted by Isolde; in Gottfried von Strassburg's, the characters discover the drinking material they've ingested isn't wine but a love potion (in Lang's words, “a cup of their never-ending sorrow”). The version of love fail performed by the Saint Paul, Minnesota-based Quince Ensemble on its fifty-minute release is presumably the 2012 treatment Lang wrote for Anonymous 4. The version presented by Lorelei Ensemble came about when Lang heard them sing another piece by him and was immediately inspired to create an expanded version of love fail for them. This 2016 treatment received its premiere by the Boston-based ensemble at the city's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

In keeping with Lang's original conception, Quince members Amanda DeBoer Bartlett (soprano), Liz Pearse (soprano), Carrie Henneman Shaw (soprano), and Kayleigh Butcher (mezzo-soprano) augment their singing with percussion instruments, specifically glockenspiel, conch shell, concert bass drum, ratchet, woodblock, and sizzle cymbal. While love fail is best experienced as a single work composed of fifteen discrete parts (all but four are in the one- to three-minute range), certain parts leave an indelible impression, starting with the haunting opening movement “he was and she was.” Interweaving phrases lull the listener into a state of entrancement when repeated voicings of “he was” establish a gently rocking ground over which multiple phrase endings appear; the subsequent verse shifts the focus to Isolde with variations on “she was” establishing an equally enchanting counterpoint to the Tristan verse. As gripping, the anguish wrought by love in its greatest intensity is captured in “the wood and the vine” (the text by Lang after Marie de France) in passages such as “you and I - we are like the vine that winds itself around the branch / it twines and pulls and digs into the flesh / so tight that the two of them become one” and in “i live in pain” with its expressions of longing (“I want him more / than any long-forgotten lovers ever loved before”). Numerous examples of the potency of the ensemble's singing could be cited, one such the memorable wave-like motion animating the second half of “as love grows stronger” (“as it ever was / as it ever is / as it ever will be”). In some instances a single voice is heard, typically with a single percussion instrument as accompaniment (e.g., “a different man”), but in most parts all appear. With four voices in play, distinctions between the vocal parts are rendered clearly and allow the listener ample opportunity to savour the ensemble's vocal interplay.

With artistic director Beth Willer conducting, Lorelei's eight singers—sopranos Elizabeth Bates, Sonja Tengblad, and Sarah Brailey; mezzo-sopranos Carrie Cheron, Christina English, and Clare McNamara; and altos Stephanie Kacoyanis and Emily Marvosh—generate a rendering that's naturally fuller and richer than Quince's, which could be deemed austere by comparison. The additional vocal textures Lang has incorporated into the expanded choral arrangement of the work also enhances its sensual quality, especially when Lorelei's voices blend so lustrously. That's apparent the moment “he was and she was” appears, the ensemble generating a dense, register-spanning vocal mass whose effect is stirring; adding to the music's impact, the singers seamlessly alternate between hushed and declamatory passages without losing any of the group's characteristic precision in the process. Many of the standout moments on the Quince recording apply here, too: Lorelei's commanding performance of “the wood and the vine” matches Quince's for hypnotic effect, especially when Lorelei's voices ascend gloriously in the line “I cannot live without you,” and the aforementioned passage in “as love grows stronger” registers as powerfully in the expanded version. The musicality of the ensemble asserts itself throughout, whether the part features a single singer (e.g., Cheron in “a different man”) or all eight. It's tempting to view its treatment as the more ‘official' one, given that Lang's a co-founder and co-artistic director of Bang on a Can and that Cantaloupe Music is the organization's label. That said, both versions are credible and, while alike in many respects, differ with respect to the character of sound generated by four versus eight singers. Each, in other words, has something to offer, with one presenting a more intimate take and the other expansive by comparison. Regardless, both ensembles are indebted to Lang for providing them with a work that so thoroughly grants them a vehicle for displaying their respective gifts. He, in turn, is honoured in having the work vividly brought to life by such talented artists. In Willer's words, love fail “draws you in, and it's gripping.”

July 2020