Episode 470. Peter Pears Plays Around
A year ago, I published as my final Pride 2025 episode, Pears Sings Not-Britten, which explored the voice and artistry of British tenor Peter Pears in repertoire other than that written for him by his partner Benjamin Britten. Today’s episode, a refurbished bonus episode originally published nearly a year ago has a new, catchy title that carries that theme even further, in that Britten is entirely absent, either as composer or as Pears’s usual accompanist. Today, I feature collections of songs by five different composers, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Claude Debussy, Robert Schumann, Alan Bush, and Michael Tippett, all featuring Pears accompanied by pianists other than Britten, including celebrated solo virtuosi Noel Mewton-Wood, Murray Perahia and Sviatoslav Richter; with composer Alan Bush himself accompanying Pears himself in the thornily difficult piano part of his self-described cantata Voices of the Prophets.Of today’s setlist, all but the Bush are either live or radio recordings which span three separate decades of Pears’s career, and show an artist who, whether in his vocal prime or in the inevitable decline of his later years (and even after Britten’s death), was fixated on expressing the finest shades of textual nuance and vocal color.
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
Ludwig van Beethoven, Alois Jeitteles: An die ferne Geliebte, Op. 98. Peter Pears, Noel Mewton-Wood [BBC recording 28.I.53].
- I. Auf dem Hügel sitz ich spähend
- II. Wo die Berge so blau
- III. Leichte Segler in den Höhen
- IV. Diese Wolken in den Höhen
- V. Es kehret der Maien, es blühet die Au
- VI. Nimm sie hin denn, diese Lieder
Claude Debussy, Paul Verlaine: Fêtes galantes I, L. 80. Peter Pears, Sviatoslav Richter [live Aldeburgh 20.VI.67]
- I. En sourdine
- II. Fantoches
- III. Clair de lune
Alan Bush: Voices of the Prophets, Op. 41. Peter Pears, Alan Bush [1964]
- I. From the Sixty-fifth Chapter of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah [For behold I create a new heaven and anew earth]
- II. From the Oration Against the Scholastic Philosophy (John Milton). [So at length the spirt of man will reach out]
- III. From Selections from Milton (William Blake) [Rouse up, O Young Men of the New Age]
- IV. From My Song is for All Men (Peter Blackman) [Over the years I hear strong voices rise]
Robert Schumann: Vier Gesänge, Op. 142. Peter Pears, Murray Perahia [live Aldeburgh 1974]
- I. Trost im Gesang (Justinus Kerner)
- II. Lehn deine Wang’ an meine Wang’ (Heinrich Heine)
- III. Mädchen-Schwermut (Lily Bernhard)
- IV. Mein Wagen rollet langsam (Heinrich Heine)
Michael Tippett: The Heart’s Assurance. Peter Pears, Noel Mewton-Wood [BBC recording, 28.I.53]
- I. Oh Journeyman (Sydney Keyes)
- II. The Heart’s Assurance (Sydney Keyes)
- III. Compassion (Alun Lewis)
- IV. The Dancer (Alun Lewis)
- V. Remember Your Lovers (Sydney Keyes)