Michelangelo in Song

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Few basses have the right inky-black colour [Shostakovich] imagined...Tomlinson does, and he chills the soul...Owen Norris, sometimes overpedalling in the earlier songs, brings a special focus... — BBC Music Magazine, December 2013, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 2nd Sep 2013
Catalogue No: CHAN10785
Label: Chandos
Length: 62 minutes

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Britten: Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, Op. 22

Work length16:33

$7.00

$9.10

$12.25

John Tomlinson, David Owen Norris
Recorded: 29 November – 1 December 2012
Recording Venue: Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk, England, United Kingdom

I. Sonneto XVI. Si come nella penna e nell'ichiostro

Track length1:52

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II. Sonetto XXXI. A che più debb'io mai l'intensa voglia

Track length1:28

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$1.75

III. Sonetto XXX. Veggio co' bei vostri occhi un dolce lume

Track length3:36

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IV. Sonetto LV. Tu sa' ch'io so, signor mie, che tu sai

Track length1:33

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V. Sonetto XXXVIII. Rendete agli occhi miei, o fonte o fiume

Track length2:00

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VI. Sonetto XXXIL. S'un casto amor, s'una pietà superna

Track length1:44

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VII. Sonetto XXIV. Spirto ben nato, in cui si specchia e vede

Track length4:20

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Wolf, H: Songs (3) on poems by Michelangelo Buonarroti

Work length9:31

$3.00

$3.90

$5.25

John Tomlinson, David Owen Norris
Recorded: 29 November – 1 December 2012
Recording Venue: Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk, England, United Kingdom

I. Wohl denk' ich oft

Track length1:44

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II. Alles endet, was entstehet

Track length3:52

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III. Fuhlt meine Seele

Track length3:55

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$1.75

Shostakovich: Suite on Verses by Michelangelo Buonarroti, Op. 145

Work length36:35

$11.00

$14.30

$19.25

John Tomlinson, David Owen Norris
Recorded: 29 November – 1 December 2012
Recording Venue: Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk, England, United Kingdom

I. Istina (Truth)

Track length3:47

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

II. Utro (Morning)

Track length2:42

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III. L'ubov' (Love)

Track length3:46

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V. Razluka (Separation)

Track length2:06

$1.00

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V. Gnev (Wrath)

Track length1:42

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VI. Dante

Track length3:16

$1.00

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VII. Izgnanniku (To the Exiled)

Track length4:15

$1.00

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VIII. Tvorchestvo (Artistry)

Track length2:22

$1.00

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IX. Noch (Night)

Track length3:54

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X. Smert' (Death)

Track length5:06

$1.00

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XI. Bessmertie (Eternity)

Track length3:39

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When the name of Michelangelo comes up in conversation it is usually in connection with such undisputed masterpieces as the statue of David in front of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence (the original now in the Accademia gallery), or the legendary ceiling dome of the Sistine Chapel at the St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. What fewer people might know is that Michelangelo also wrote a great number of poems, including madrigals and sonnets, some of which were set to music by such illustrious composers as Benjamin Britten, Hugo Wolf, and Dmitri Shostakovich.

The internationally acclaimed bass Sir John Tomlinson and pianist David Owen Norris have performed these songs at their Michelangelo evenings on many occasions. At these events the sixteenth-century Michelangelo is portrayed by Tomlinson in updated form, as a nineteenth-century painter in his workshop, looking over his old papers and poems, and reliving each one in turn. The singer explains that the idea was inspired in part by his many years of playing historical characters on the opera stage, and partly by his seeing, at a London exhibition in 2010, the actual pieces of paper upon which the sculptor himself had written out some of his poems – an encounter he describes as ‘Extraordinary!’

Shostakovich felt strongly that Michelangelo’s poetry transcended its Italian roots to have a universal appeal, and that it embraced ‘profound philosophical ideas, humanism, and penetrating reflections of love and art’. For the Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti, the composer selected eight of Michelangelo’s sonnets and three other poems, all in Russian translations, covering the principal subject areas of wisdom, love, creativity, death, and immortality.

The Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo was the first song-cycle that Britten composed specifically with the voice of his partner, Peter Pears, in mind. At the time, Britten was consciously broadening his musical horizons in an attempt to free himself from his English roots. He did this in part by setting foreign-language text to music. The resulting love songs recorded here are passionate, ecstatic, almost evangelical in tone.

Drei Gedichte von Michelangelo, based on poems about the joy and pain of love and youth, and the brevity of life, were among the last compositions written by Hugo Wolf, before his descent into mental illness. He had originally envisioned that these settings would become the beginning of a large-scale portrait of the poet, but sadly this project never materialised.

Reviews

December 2013

Few basses have the right inky-black colour [Shostakovich] imagined...Tomlinson does, and he chills the soul...Owen Norris, sometimes overpedalling in the earlier songs, brings a special focus to extraordinary accompniments...The sound captures the velvet that still sometimes envelops the wear and tear of his voice.

October 2013

a sort of King Lear-style meeting of voice and repertoire, especially in the Wolf and Shostakovich cycles...Rhetorical moments go fairly well, the Wolf songs having particular authority.

8th September 2013

With the experience of a long operatic career, and a voice still richly intact if understandably at times a little weathered, Tomlinson brings drama and wisdom to the feelings expressed here.

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