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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | The English Song Series Volume 22 - Benjamin Britten
Britten wrote his Songs and Proverbs of William Blake, Op. 74 for the German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in 1965. The singer admired the ‘concentration and enigmatic smile’ of the settings, and Britten constructed, through alternation of proverbs with songs, and an intense contemplation on the human and the eternal, one of his greatest song cycles. By contrast Tit for Tat sees Britten revisiting youthful, light-spirited settings of the poet Walter de la Mare. The folk-song arrangements are amongst his most famous, and beloved. Britten’s song cycles are some of the greatest produced in the twentieth century. This disc focuses on his Blake cycle, one of his deepest and most contemplative. It’s contrasted with a very different and youthful cycle of five called Tit for Tat, written when he was a teenager. The baritone Roderick Williams encompasses a wide repertoire, from baroque to contemporary music, in the opera house, on the concert platform and in recital. His recital appearances have taken him to London’s Wigmore Hall and many European festivals. He has an extensive discography and his recordings of English song with Iain Burnside have received particular acclaim. “this sombre, discomfiting song-cycle [the Blake settings] remains a strikingly modern-sounding work, thanks partly to Blake’s existential poetry and aphoristic proverbs. Williams illuminates the text, but it’s a relief to move on to Britten’s boyhood settings of Walter de la Mare” Financial Times, 12th May 2012 *** “Williams finds an ideal emotional stance - involved, totally word-conscious but never melodramatic...as a recorded recital, Williams - and Burnside, who is similarly colourful but keeps an interpretative distance from pumping up the text - have created an outstanding achievement.” Gramophone Magazine, June 2012 “Williams's voice is lighter than Fischer-Dieskau's, but his response to the texts is so intense, so well judged that there is never a lack of authority. The juvenile Walter De la Mare settings of Tit for Tat provide the perfect foil, followed by some of Britten's best-known folksong arrangements, all beautifully delivered without a trace of archness.” The Guardian, 24th May 2012 **** “Williams brings a gentler, more intimate touch to what Fischer-Dieskau called their 'enigmatic smile': Blake's Tyger burns bright but with less fierce teeth, and there is more melancholy than menace in this performance's view of the human condition. Every beautifully placed word is matched by Iain Burnside's recreation of Britten's pianistic subtext, glinting with many a revealing musical gloss.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2012 **** “It would be easy to exaggerate the claims of these songs [Tit for Tat], but presented so cleanly and with such understanding as do Williams and his superb pianist, Iain Burnside, they make just the effect the mature composer surely intended.” MusicWeb International, July 2012 | | | (also available to download from $6.00) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Britten: Complete Scottish Songs
Steeped in an atmosphere of ancient Scottish musical tradition, Benjamin Britten’s setting of texts by Robert Burns in A Birthday Hansel was his final song-cycle. Who are these children? is another late cycle to poems by William Soutar, combining darkly dramatic musical depictions of wartime life with protest songs which hark back to the composer’s youth. Acclaimed Scottish tenor Mark Wilde’s sensitivities embrace both the vibrantly dramatic and “gently mellifluous” (Manchester Evening News) qualities in this deeply expressive repertoire. “This is a fascinating recital of all Britten’s “north of the border” settings, including his final song cycle A Birthday Hansel and familiar folk-songs such as Ca’the Yowes. The mood is mostly bleak, haunted and haunting: this is Britten at his most austerely romantic and melancholy.” The Telegraph, 11th August 2011 ***** “Sensitive harp accompaniment brings to life this setting of poems from Robert Burns and William Soutar” Financial Times, 13th August 2011 *** “The Scottish tenor has matured into one of our finest artists with time's passing, musically astute, vocally impressive and a generous communicator...the intense beauty of Wilde's lyric voice and the musical wisdom of these interpretations pay handsome compensation for the recital's want of spectacular contrasts.” Classic FM Magazine, October 2011 **** “[In "A Birthday Hansel"] Wilde takes his time and uses his pliable voice to play with light and shade in atmospheric performances. The Soutar cycle, "Who are these children?", is also unhurried, adding several minutes to the timing of Peter Pears's recording, though Wilde generally uses the time productively. The headlong violence of "Slaughter" is more intelligible at this speed and "The Children" has a properly haunting air.” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2011 | | | (also available to download from $6.00) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | Britten - Folksong Arrangements
Australia’s foremost tenor Steve Davislim and conductor/pianist Simone Young are reunited with Melba Recordings to present a mesmerising collection of Benjamin Britten’s Folksong Arrangements. This new CD follows Seduction (MR301108), their highly praised exploration of orchestral songs of Richard Strauss. | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
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| |  | Britten - Who are these Children?
This Britten recital combines two of the composer’s major song cycles, Winter Words, from 1953, and Who are these Children? (1969). In them he explored themes of loneliness, transcience and war – difficult and harrowing material which would test any composer, but Britten is equal to the challenge. His music works its magic by bringing out poignant emotions and subtle insights, sometimes even more vividly than the texts on their own. The music’s emotional depth is grounded in compelling, quasi-naturalistic sound images, such as the whistling, rattling train in the setting of Thomas Hardy’s Midnight on the Great Western. Providing a lighter note between these gripping works are four settings of poems by Robert Burns, containing some of Britten’s most deft and delicate music. Composed on the request of Queen Elizabeth II in 1975, they originally formed part of a set of six songs for high voice and harp, and were later arranged for piano by Britten’s assistant Colin Matthews. “The tenor's affinity or Britten shines through in this promising solo debut. His clear, precisely focused tenor can soften, even sweeten… He is sensitive to musical and verbal implications, both bold and delicate in narrative, enters into the fun of a song... and is good at his Scots.” Gramophone Magazine, October 2008 | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | Songs of Innocence
Barber, S: | Sure on this shining night, Op. 13 No. 3 | Berkeley, M: | Cradle Song | Boyce: | Tell, me lovely shepherd arr. Elizabeth Poston | Britten: | Diaphenia The Owl Witches' Song Chamber Music V The Rainbow The Oxen Little Sir William Ca’ the yowes | Dibdin: | Tom Bowling realised by Britten | Handel: | Silent Worship (based on an aria from Tolomeo) arr. Maurice Jacobson | Ives, C: | Slow March | Jeffries: | Matthew, Mark, Luke and John | Niles: | I wonder as I wander arr. Benjamin Britten | Quilter: | Summer Sunset | Swann, D: | The Slow Train arr. Andrew Plant | trad.: | In the mornin' spiritual, arr. Ives Caleno custure me arr. Andrew Plant | Vaughan Williams: | Dirge for Fidele | Warlock: | The bayley berith the bell away | Williamson: | My bed is a boat Sweet and low | Wood, C: | Who is Silvia? |
Andrew Swait (treble), James Bowman (counter tenor) & Andrew Plant (piano) "I was particularly keen to make this CD as I wanted a newer record of my treble voice: it has changed significantly since my previous recordings as a chorister. I also wished to promote items which are not normally associated with the standard treble repertoire. Through my association with Andrew Plant, The Britten-Pears Foundation generously supported the creation of the recording and allowed me the immense privilege of recording unpublished works by Britten, therefore greatly increasing the documental importance of this CD... Mr Bowman's voice had been one of the first I had heard in recordings and live concerts. Later, as a chorister, I was lucky enough to sing with him when he was a soloist in performances of Messiah and the St John Passion.The chance to work with him made the prospect of the disc better than I could have imagined." Andrew Swait “The voice of experience meets the voice of youth in this album contrasting the voices of Bowman, a countertenor, and Swait, a boy chorister.
Swait's voice is clear, bright and tuned with innate precision, ringing with carefree but studious childhood. Appealingly, he focuses on the mechanics of his singing, maintaining a childish ignorance of the full tragedy of Britten's Little Sir William. Bowman is the uncle, worldly and artistic, duetting with restraint and phrasing with a characteristic elegance and expressivity that Swait duly and sensibly mimics. The pianist Andrew Plant accompanies with sensitivity.” The Times, 12th July 2008 *** | | | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. |
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Gramophone Awards 2012
Gramophone Magazine
