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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | The English Song Series Volume 19 - Ivor Gurney Songs
Described by his teacher, Stanford, as “the one who most fulfilled the accepted ideas of genius”, the poet and composer Ivor Gurney composed more than 300 songs despite suffering from bipolar disorder and tuberculosis. The Five Elizabethan Songs show the young composer’s astonishing limpid fluency, while Tears and Sleep rank among his most exquisite creations. Comedy, heavenly rapture, tender urgency and lovelorn longing all touch the music of this ‘lover and maker of beauty’, whose songs find ideal interpreters in Susan Bickley and Iain Burnside. “Susan Bickley’s sensitivity and vocal allure confirming her among the finest mezzos of her generation” Classical Source “…Susan Bickley shares with Gurney a direct and instinctive response to the inflections, metres and emotional colours of the English language.” BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2009 **** “…the settings of John Masefield are especially memorable, notably "By a Bierside" with a wonderful final climax, superbly conveyed here by Susan Bickley. Wherever you turn, these songs offer illumination and refreshment, splendidly captured not only by Susan Bickley but by her ever-sensitive accompanist, Iain Burnside.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2009 “Bickley’s attractive mezzo is the perfect interpreter for Gurney, gutsy one moment, restrained the next, whilst textual clarity is always given paramount importance. Iain Burnside accompanies her superbly on the piano, with real passion for the music.” Opera Britannia, 26th August 2009 *** “...as Susan Bickley's beautifully understated performances with pianist Iain Burnside show, Gurney was not only an important figure in early 20th-century English song, but also a distinctive one detached from its folksy mainstream. Gurney's style is much more European, much more conscious of the German Lieder tradition, and Schumann especially; this is a well-conceived and important disc for all English music enthusiasts.” The Guardian, 7th August 2009 **** | | | (also available to download from $6.00) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | The Power of LoveAn English Songbook
Elgar: | Pleading, Op. 48 No. 1 Speak, Music, Op. 41, No. 2 | Gibbs, C A: | A Song of Shadows Op. 15, No. 3 Hypochondriacus | Grainger: | The Power of Love | Gurney: | Lights out The boat is chafing Goodnight to the meadow | Holst: | Betelgeuse Journey's End | Lehmann: | Pa's bank Love, if you knew the light Ah, moon of my delight | Moeran: | In youth is pleasure | Molloy: | Love's old sweet song | Peel: | The early morning Almond, wild almond | Quilter: | Love's Philosophy, Op. 3 No. 1 (Shelley) Now sleeps the crimson petal, Op. 3 No. 2 (Tennyson) There be none of Beauty's daughters, Op. 24, No. 1 | Vaughan Williams: | Silent Noon | Warlock: | Queen Anne The Night Take, O take those lips away | White, M: | The Spring has come The Devout Lover So we'll go no more a-roving |
Alice Coote, one of the most distinctive mezzo-sopranos of today, makes her recital debut on Hyperion with pianist Graham Johnson, a stalwart of the label and tireless explorer of vocal repertoire. The Power of Love creates what Johnson describes as a ‘pageant of English song and poetry’. It’s a journey through half a century of song, surveying not just human love but love of nature and even of money. Some of the most touching pieces here involve the loss of love through death, not least Ivor Gurney’s Lights Out and Gustav Holst’s Betelgeuse. There’s serenity, too, in mellifluous settings by Roger Quilter, while high spirits are supplied by Maude Valérie White’s The Spring has come and Warlock’s sardonic Queen Anne, which includes the immortal lines ‘I am Queen Anne, of whom ’tis said / I’m chiefly fam’d for being dead’. “From start to finish, the artistry of Alice Coote and Graham Johnson is of the highest order.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2012 “Almost every track on the mezzo’s recital springs a surprise” Financial Times, 11th February 2012 “['Love's Philosophy'] needs and receives a bolder and stronger delivery than its neighbour, rising to a showy conclusion. It allows Coote to introduce an almost operatic approach as her voice peals forth...the Holst songs, mesmerizingly captured by Coote, whose voice seems almost detached as she intones 'Betelgeuse', recorded, like the rest of the programme, in clear sound.” International Record Review, February 2012 “[Victorian parlour repertoire] proves both admirably suited to her distinctively creamy yet expressive voice, and occasionally revelatory...The well-structured programme concludes with Holst's late Humbert Wolfe settings, in which Coote finds surprising power. Journey's End is tragically bleak” BBC Music Magazine, April 2012 ***** | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | War’s Embers
‘If you enjoy English song, this set is a must … the singers are Britain’s best, and their excellence is matched by the accompaniments of Clifford
Benson’ (BBC Music Magazine) | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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