DESCRIPTION:
Treble soloist Nolan Wolfe and tenor soloist Michael Slattery, of the Choir of Men and Boys of the Cathedral of All Saints, Albany, New York, offer a stunning performance of Benjamin Britten's 1952 'Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac.' Wooddrow Bynum, Director of Music; L. Graham Schultz, Organist.

Britten's take on the story of Abraham's near-sacrifice of his beloved son is drawn not directly from the words of scripture, but from the text of the Chester Mystery Plays. The treble (or alto) soloist singing the words of Isaac and the tenor soloist singing the words of his God-fearing father Abraham, blend at the start and at the denouement to create the preternatural voice that conveys God's wish that Abraham should slay his son— and then, content with the father's obedience, calls and end to the sacrifice before it can be carried out.

Britten wrote 'Canticle II' for tenor Peter Pears, his longtime partner, and for contralto Kathleen Ferrier, who performed the duet as a fundraiser for the English Opera Group. In his later, more massive 'War Requiem,' Britten would once again draw on the tale of Abraham and Isaac, this time juxtaposing the scriptural story's happy resolution with the bleak, disturbing twist of Biblical canon in Wilfred Owen's 1918 poem 'Parable of the Old Men and the Young.'

The text of the relevant segment of the Chester Mystery Plays can be read here ( http://goo.gl/y08al ) beginning at line 210.

[ Recording available on the disk 'To Thee All Angels Cry Aloud' (Swelk, 2011). ]