Review: Joubert: Jane Eyre (April Fredrick, David Stout, English Symphony Orchestra/Kenneth Woods)
South African-born, UK-bred composer John Joubert is, we are told, the sort of chap to have three books on the go at a time. Not surprising then that the prolific nonagenarian turned to Charlotte Brontë’s Jayne Eyre as inspiration for his eighth opera in a catalogue that includes George Eliot’s Silas Marner and Joseph Conrad’s Under Western Eyes. A labour of love, written to no commission, the work took him from 1987 until 1997, and only received its premiere performance last year. Bar a few patches, this excellent recording on the pioneering Somm label derives from that concert. Along with composers like William Mathias and John McCabe, Joubert’s sound world owes a debt to Britten’s tonal lyricism, but in Jayne Eyre he allows his innate romanticism full play in a way that the more buttoned-up Britten would perhaps have shied away from. The result is a sensual, melodic score that despite employing only 35 players sounds rich and full with sensitively integrated orchestral piano and substantially deployed percussion leading the powerful climaxes. Joubert and his librettist Kenneth Birkin have crafted a lean framework that omits the extraneous, focusing almost exclusively on the characters of Jayne and… Continue reading Get unlimited…