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This excellent release is a unique collection of English love songs by some of the great English composers of the 20th century including Vaughan-Williams, Purcell, Britten, Dowland, Finzi and Warlock. All of the songs are firm favourites; amongst the most well known are Silent worship, Where’er you walk, If music be the food of love and The salley gardens. Mark Stone has sung at Covent Garden most recently in “Don Giovanni” and is a regular guest at ENO, WNO, Glyndebourne and Opera North. He and Stephen Barlow regularly perform together as a recital duo and often appear on Radio 3 and in concert in the UK and abroad.
Ralph Vaughan Williams: The House of Life
The House of Life: No. 2. Silent Noon
Ralph Vaughan Williams: 5 Mystical Songs (version for voice and keyboard)
5 Mystical Songs: No. 3. Love bade me welcome (version for voice and piano)
John Dowland: Book of Songs, Book 1: Come again, sweet love doth now invite
Book of Songs, Book 1: Awake sweet love, thou art returned
Roger Quilter: 5 English Love Lyrics, Op. 24
5 English Love Lyrics, Op. 24: No. 3. Go, Lovely Rose
Roger Quilter: 3 Songs, Op. 3 (text by P.B. Shelley)
3 Songs, Op. 3: No. 1. Love's Philosophy
Henry Purcell: The Indian Queen, Z. 630 (arr. B. Britten)
The Indian Queen, Z. 630, Act III: Solo: I Attempt from Love's Sickness (arr. B. Britten)
Frank Bridge: Come to me in my Dreams
Come to me in my dreams
Frank Bridge: Love went a-riding
Love went a-riding
George Frideric Handel: Tolomeo, HWV 25, Act I: Aria: Non Io diro col labbro (arr. Somervell)
Tolomeo, HWV 25, Act I: Aria: Non Io diro col labbro (Silent worship) (arr. A. Somervell)
John Ireland: If We Must Part
If We Must Part
John Ireland: Love is a Sickness Full of Woes
Love is a Sickness Full of Woes
Franz Joseph Haydn: 6 Original Canzonettas, Book 2, Hob.XXVIa:31-36 (text by Anonymous)
6 Original Canzonettas, Book 2, Hob.XXVIa:31-36: No. 5. Piercing Eyes, Hob.XXVIa:35
George Butterworth: Bredon Hill and Other Songs
Bredon Hill and Other Songs: No. 5. With Rue My Heart is Laden
George Butterworth: 6 Songs from A Shropshire Lad
6 Songs from A Shropshire Lad: No. 2. When I was one-and-twenty
Franz Joseph Haydn: 6 Original Canzonettas, Book 1, Hob.XXIVa:25-30
6 Original Canzonettas, Book 1, Hob.XXIVa:25-30: No. 5. Pleasing Pain, Hob.XXVIa:29
Peter Warlock: Take, O take those lips away
Take, O take those lips away
Peter Warlock: Thou gav'st me leave to kiss
Thou gav'st me leave to kiss
George Frideric Handel: Semele, HWV 58 (arr. E. Prout)
Semele, HWV 58, Act II Scene 3: Aria: Where'er you walk (arr. E. Prout)
Gerald Finzi: Earth and Air and Rain, Op. 15
Earth and Air and Rain, Op. 15: No. 7. To Lizbie Browne
Gerald Finzi: I said to Love, Op. 19b
I said to Love, Op. 19b: I said to Love
Henry Purcell: If music be the food of love, Z. 379 (arr. B. Britten)
If music be the food of love, Z. 379 (arr. B. Britten)
Benjamin Britten: Folk Song Arrangements, Vol. 1, "British Isles"
Folk Song Arrangements, Vol. 1, "British Isles": No. 1. The Salley Gardens
Benjamin Britten: Wild with passion
Wild with passion
Book of Songs, Book 1: Come again, sweet love doth now invite
Book of Songs, Book 1: Come again, sweet love doth now invite
Stephen Barlow: If thou would'st ease thine heart
If thou would'st ease thine heart
March 2009
“..this is not a recital restricted to one vocal hue. Each song is looked at and receives relevant response from both singer and pianist. ….he (Mark Stone) introduces so much by way of nuance and colour to make this a very interesting and fulfilling programme, one which is well recorded.”
15th February 2009
***
“Stone has made an estimable career as a lyric baritone at Opera North and English National Opera, but he is less familiar as a recitalist. His light, airy baritone is well suited to the more easy-going English love songs, but takes on a nasal, pinched quality when a sense of drama is required, as in Frank Bridge’s galloping Love went a-riding. This attractive miscellaneous programme might have made a stronger impression if the order of songs were not so haphazard: Vaughan Williams (Silent Noon and Love bade me welcome) segues uncomfortably into Dowland’s Awake, sweet love, and Purcell, Handel and Haydn are interspersed pell-mell between Quilter and Ireland, Butterworth and Warlock, Finzu and Britten. Stone’s theme and sequence are too loose to be compelling and his diction, mostly clear, rarely achieves the eloquence of a born song interpreter.”
Click on any of the works listed above for alternative recordings.
The House of Life: No. 2. Silent Noon
