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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Britten: The Rape of Lucretia, and Phaedra
Britten: | The Rape of Lucretia Janet Baker (Lucretia), Peter Pears (Male Chorus), Heather Harper (Female Chorus), Benjamin Luxon (Tarquinius), Bryan Drake (Junius), John Shirley-Quirk (Collatinus), Elizabeth Bainbridge (Bianca), Jenny Hill (Lucia) English Chamber Orchestra, Benjamin Britten Phaedra, Op. 93 Janet Baker English Chamber Orchestra, Steuart Bedford |
“two outstanding performances by Dame Janet Baker, recorded at the peak of her career...Luxon makes the selfish Tarquinius into a living character...The seductive beauty of the writing - Britten then at his early peak - is caught splendidly” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition *** | | | (Sorry, download not available in your country) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Edward Gardner conducts Britten
The repertoire on this CD is written across a period of more than forty-five years, from the year Britten entered the Royal College of Music at the age of sixteen, to the very last year of his life. The works are performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and they are conducted by Edward Gardner, whose Britten release in March 2011 (CHAN10658) was made Disc of the Month in the April issue of BBC Music. They are joined by two extraordinary soloists. Sarah Connolly CBE is one of the foremost British mezzo-sopranos and a fellow of the Royal College of Music. She has been nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award, a TMA Award, and two Grammy awards – and won Edison, Gramophone, and South Bank awards. The violist Maxim Rysanov is one of the up-and-coming stars on today’s classical music scene. In the words of Gramophone: ‘It is rare for a musician featured as our One to Watch, already to be on his second Editor’s Choice…, but such is the pace of viola-player Maxim Rysanov’s rise that it’s difficult to keep up.’ The earliest of the works recorded here is Britten’s Two Portraits for strings. Written around the time Britten joined the Royal College of Music, this work remained unpublished during his lifetime. It was published only posthumously, in 1997. The first ‘portrait’ is an exuberant character-study of a childhood friend. The second, by contrast, is a characteristically introspective self-portrait, with the plaintive voice of the viola (the string instrument that Britten himself played) taking the lead. The soloist in the Two Portraits and Lachrymae is Maxim Rysanov. The cantata Phaedra, Op. 93 is one of the very last works written by the composer before his death in 1976. Britten modelled the work on the Italian baroque cantatas of Handel, but it is also strongly influenced by Purcell, especially in the quality of the word setting. Phaedra is based on Robert Lowell’s acclaimed verse translation of Racine’s classical tragedy Phèdre, in which Phaedra, who is suffering from unrequited love for Hippolytus, the son of her husband by his former wife, causes his death, before, devastated by remorse, she takes her own life. Originally written for the mezzo-soprano Janet Baker, the tragic part of Phaedra is here sung by Sarah Connolly (also featured in A Charm of Lullabies). This is an extremely taut and economical work, very intense, and emotionally charged. “[Connolly's] plush mezzo is in prime condition. This is the highlight of an unusual programme of five works spanning more than 40 years of Britten’s career...The prodigious Sinfonietta, which Britten was proud to call his Op 1, completes this surprisingly successful collection of his short works.” Sunday Times, 1st May 2011 **** “Gardner’s sympathy for the music of Britten is fully displayed in a programme ranging from juvenilia to the late Phaedra, a short cantata with the force of an opera. But the dominating artist is the mezzo Sarah Connolly, compelling as Racine’s heroine in the grip of a tragic passion. In a quieter mood, Maxim Rysanov’s viola shines in the melancholic reflections of Lachrymae” The Times, 7th May 2011 **** “Sarah Connolly is tremendous is this new recording...her diction is impeccable and her sense of dramatic involvement is enormously impressive. She is also accompanied with exceptional sensitivity, attention to detail and theatrical flair by Edward Gardner and members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra...This disc, part of a series that clearly deserves the most serious attention from Britten collectors, is very strongly recommended.” International Record Review, May 2011 “Connolly reveals Phaedra’s stature, summoning such word-sensitivity, rhetorical flourish and classical poise that you wonder why this remarkable piece is not heard more often in the concert hall. Better still the stage: Connolly turns Racine’s heroine into the protagonist of an imaginary monodrama” Financial Times, 28th May 2011 **** “Gardner's sensitivity to the bittersweet Thirties idiom of the first portrait and the elegiac eloquence of viola soloist Maxim Rysanov in the second combine to highly atmospheric effect...Spurred on by Gardner's keen sense of theatre, Sarah Connolly goes straight for the drama...creat[ing] a veritable operatic scena...Rysanov returns as solost in a deeply thoughtful performance of Lachrymae...Imaginative programme, highly recommended.” Gramophone Magazine, July 2011 “[Rysanov] gives an outstanding reading of these 'reflections on a song of Dowland'...[Connolly's] ravishing accounts of A Charm of Lullabies and Phaedra subtly suggest in their colourations the singers Britten originally composed for: Nancy Evans and Janet Baker.” Classic FM Magazine, July 2011 **** “The real stunner...is Lachrymae...[which] benefits immensely from Edward Gardner's lean conducting and the sparse intensity of Maxim Rysanov's playing. Connolly is notably haunting in Colin Matthews's orchestration of the 1947 song cycle A Charm of Lullabies...Gardner and the BBC Symphony Orchestra are particularly good in the second movement [of the Sinfonietta]” The Guardian, 9th June 2011 **** “The Charm is a total winner, wrapped by Matthews in string woodwind sleep-music so familiar from the Nocturne and phrased by Connolly with alternate tenderness and edginess. Maxim Rysanov compels in introspective conversation with the excellent BBC Symphony strings in Lachrymae and is also behind the very fine self-portait of the teenage composer in Two Portraits.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2011 ***** | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | Janet Baker - Plaisir d'amourA Celebration of the Art of Dame Janet Baker
Bach, J S: | Cantata BWV170 'Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust' | Berlioz: | Dieu! Que viens-je d'entendre?…Il m'en souvient ... Je l'aime donc? (from Béatrice et Bénédict) | Britten: | Phaedra, Op. 93 | Caccini, G: | Amarilli mia bella | Cesti: | Intorno all'idol mio | Giordani, G: | Caro mio ben | Gluck: | Divinités du Styx (from Alceste) Che faro' senza Euridice? (from Orfeo ed Euridice) Che puro ciel (Orfeo ed Euridice) | Handel: | Pompe vane di morte! (from Rodelinda) Care selve (from Atalanta) Frondi tenere e belle ... Ombra mai fù (from Serse) Dopo notte (from Ariodante) Hercules: Where shall I fly? | Haydn: | Berenice, che fai? (Scena di Berenice), Hob XXIVa:10 | Lotti: | Pur dicesti, o bocca bella | Martini, G B: | Plaisir d'amour | Mozart: | La clemenza di Tito, K621 - Deh, se piacermi vuoi | Paisiello: | Nel cor più non mi sento | Pergolesi: | Ogni pena più spietata | Piccinni: | O nuit, Dèesse du mystère | Purcell: | But Death, Alas! (Dido And Aeneas) When I am laid in earth (from Dido and Aeneas) With Drooping Wings (from Dido and Aeneas) | Sarti: | Sen corre l'agnelletta | Schubert: | Ständchen 'Zögernd leise', D920/921 |
A new 2-CD compilation from Dame Janet Baker's many Decca and Philips recordings, released to mark her 75th birthday on 21 August 2008. This generously-filled 150-minute programme ranges from arie antiche and baroque arias through to one of Benjamin Britten's last works, the cantata Phaedra, written specially for Janet Baker. Recordings included in this programme were made between 1961 and 1977 and showcase the many and varied vocal talents of this much-loved, and justifiably internationally-lauded artist. “A fine selection which demonstrates the English mezzo's huge range of expression in repertory ranging from Baroque to Britten (the cantata Phaedra written for her) and the unique commitment she brought to everything she sang.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2009 ***** | | (Sorry, download not available in your country) | |
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| |  | Dame Janet BakerPhilips & Decca Recordings 1961-1979
Beethoven: | Ah! Perfido, Op. 65 | Berlioz: | La Mort de Cléopâtre - Scène lyrique Herminie - Scène lyrique (cantata) | Bononcini, G B: | Deh più a me non v'ascondete | Britten: | Phaedra, Op. 93 | Caccini, G: | Amarilli mia bella | Caldara: | Come raggio di sol Sebben crudele me fai languir Selve amiche | Cesti: | Intorno all'idol mio | Chausson: | Chanson perpétuelle, Op. 37 | Delage: | Quatre Poèmes hindous | Durante: | Danza fanciulla gentile | Giordani, G: | Caro mio ben | Haydn: | Arianna a Naxos, cantata, Hob.XXVIb/2 Berenice, che fai? (Scena di Berenice), Hob XXIVa:10 | Lotti: | Pur dicesti, o bocca bella | Martini, J P: | Plaisir d'amour | Paisiello: | Nel cor più non mi sento | Pergolesi: | Ogni pena più spietata | Piccinni: | O notte o dea del mistero | Ravel: | Trois poemes de Stephane Mallarmé Trois chansons madécasses | Sarro: | Sen corre l'agnelletta | Scarlatti, A: | Spesso vibra per suo gioco Gia il sole al Gange Sento nel core certo dolore | Schubert: | Ständchen 'Zögernd leise', D920/921 Lazarus, D689: 'So schlummert auf Rosen' | Stradella: | Ragion sempre addita |
plus arias from operas by Handel, Purcell, Cavalli, Rameau, Gluck, Berlioz & Britten
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