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. Countermelody is the podcast devoted to the glory and the power of the human voice raised in song. Singer and vocal aficionado Daniel Gundlach explores great singers of the past and present focusing in particular on those who are less well-remembered today than they should be. Daniel’s lifetime in music as a professional countertenor, pianist, vocal coach, voice teacher, and author yields an exciting array of anecdotes, impressions, and “inside stories.” At Countermelody’s core is the celebration of great singers of all stripes, their instruments, and the connection they make to the words they sing. By clicking on the following link (https://linktr.ee/CountermelodyPodcast) you can find the dedicated Countermelody website which contains additional content including artist photos and episode setlists. The link will also take you to Countermelody’s Patreon page, where you can pledge your monthly or yearly support at whatever level you can afford.