Hyperion: CDD22044

At least fifty composers - and not all English - have set poems from Housman's nostalgic and prophetic 'A Shropshire Lad', published in 1896 and never out of print since that date. It has been said that, worldwide, there are at least 160 song-cycles based on the 60 or so poems. Some of them have been set many times (there are at least ten settings of 'Loveliest of trees') but, surprisingly, many have never been set at all. This two-CD set (for the price of one), reissued from CDA66471/2, for the first time presents the whole of the 'Shropshire Lad' in sequence, with the un-set poems read by Alan Bates. The songs, sung by Anthony Rolfe Johnson, include the well-known and much loved settings by George Butterworth.