American tenor Nicholas Phan's first solo recital features two of Britten's most important song cycles and a handful of his folk song settings. Winter Words, eight settings of Thomas Hardy, dates from 1954, just before The Turn of the Screw, and it includes some of the composer's most distinctive and immediately appealing songs. Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo was one of the first works Britten wrote for Peter Pears, and the 1940 cycle one of his most vocally demanding compositions, so demanding that the singer postponed its premiere a year while he honed his technique enough to master the songs. It's just about impossible, for better or for worse, to avoid comparisons of new performances with those of Pears, whose vocal idiosyncrasies played an important role in shaping the music itself. Phan's voice is ideal for Winter Words; it's significantly more substantial and robust than Pears' in its weight, resonance, and power, and it's no less expressive. He has a bright, ringing top that can soar when necessary, and he has plenty of agility to manage the composer's distinctive coloratura demands. He also has the control to project the quietest, most intimate moments with sweetness and without loss of focus, as in "The Little Old Table." Phan's voice doesn't have the easy Italianate warmth that's ideal for the fiery bel canto lyricism the Michelangelo Sonnets, and his production tends to sound forced in the sections calling for the most power. He's not helped in that regard by the extreme closeness of the recording, which is not so problematic when he is singing more quietly. He delivers the folk songs with charming directness. Pianist Myra Huang provides a muscular but refined accompaniment.
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