Havergal Brian: The Cenci
The Cenci (1951–52) is Havergal Brian’s operatic realisation of Shelley’s gruesome tale of incest and parricide in Renaissance Italy. The score calls it simply ‘Opera in Eight Scenes’, but it rarely goes in for grand tunes; instead, its dark colours reflect Shelley’s fascination with the struggle between good and evil. Stylistically, it is an unusual but highly effective hybrid: a music-drama focused on the intense delivery of Shelley’s text, with the declamatory style of the vocal lines echoing such recent oratorios as Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex and Honegger’s Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher, and the freewheeling orchestral writing producing something of a vocal symphony.
Helen Field, soprano
David Wilson-Johnson, baritone
Ingveldur Ýr Jónsdóttir, contralto
Stuart Kale, tenor
Justin Lavender, tenor
Jeffery Carl, baritone
Nicholas Buxton, tenor
Devon Harrison, bass
Serena Kay, soprano
The Millennium Sinfonia
James Kelleher, conductor
Listen To This Recording:
The Cenci
CD1
- Overture (Preludio Tragico) (13:57)
- Scene 1: An apartment in the Cenci palace, Rome (8:48)
- Scene 2: A Garden of the Cenci palace, Rome (7:45)
- Scene 3: A magnificent hall in the Cenci palace, Rome: A banque (10:26)
- Scene 4: An apartment in the Castle of Petrella (among the Apulian Apennines) (13:17)
CD2
- Scene 5: Before the Castle of Petrella (15:59)
- Scene 6: An apartment in Orsino’s palace, Rome (6:16)
- Scene 7: The Hall of Justice, Rome (9:55)
- Scene 8: A hall of the prison (15:05)
Fanfare Magazine :
‘The music, like Brian’s symphonies, is written in post-Romantic vein, with an extraordinarily rich and effective orchestration. overture is a miniature tone poem that deserves to be excerpted as a concert piece. It is a splendid work. […] That style makes all the more powerful Beatrice Cenci’s final farewell to her brother before their execution, where Brian gives her a soaringly powerful scene to bring about the opera’s conclusion before Beatrice concludes with spoken words over a tender, touching orchestral conclusion. […]
It is hard to imagine a more persuasive recording of the work. Although this is a single-take live recording, there is stunningly little that goes awry. The orchestra plays with precision, Kelleher has clearly studied the score and loves it, and the recorded balances are particularly fine considering the heaviness of some of the orchestration. Helen Field and David Wilson-Johnson as Beatrice Cenci and her brother the Count are terrific. They enunciate the text clearly and with meaning (Toccata’s printed libretto is still useful, as some of Brian’s word setting does not lend itself to easy comprehension), and they sing passionately. The remainder of the cast is excellent, with everyone doing their best to communicate the opera’s music and emotions. […]
Anyone who enjoys the late Romantic idiom is likely to find enough pleasure here to repay the time invested in listening to it. […] Toccata and the Havergal Brian Society deserve plaudits for making the work available and for doing so at a high level.
—Henry Fogel, Fanfare Magazine, Sept/Oct 2024
Gramophone :
‘Conductor James Kelleher assembled a fine cast for the performance, with David Wilson-Johnson magnificent as the unrepentant Cenci, Ingveldur Ýr Jónsdóttir as his long-suffering wife Lucretia, Stuart Kale as Cardinal Camillo and Justin Lavender as the despicable Orsino. All are eclipsed ultimately, however, by Helen Field as Beatrice, the strongest character of all, feisty in scene 3 where she defies her father, resilient in scene 7’s trial and radiant in her acceptance of her fate (execution for parricide) at the close. The Millennium Sinfonia play astonishingly well, sounding every bit the opera orchestra. Toccata Classics’ sound, originally recorded by Geoff Miles of Floating Earth, has been magnificently remastered by Adaq Khan. Brianophiles will, no doubt, acquire this set, but so should anyone with the slightest interest in 20th-century opera. Strongly recommended.’
—Guy Rickards, Gramophone
Gramophone :
‘Gramophone Editor’s Choice
The only performance of Havergal Brian’s early 1950s opera The Cenci was given in 1997 and is thankfully preserved here on this valuable release from the Toccata label.’
—Gramophone
BBC Music Magazine :
‘The darkness of the story is framed by a performance [with] the commitment of a quality cast led by Helen Field and David Wilson-Johnson, and conductor James Kelleher.
[The work has] a touchingly effective ending. Decent recording and excellent presentation.
—BBC Music Magazine