Composer: Gustav Mahler, Charles Ives, Helen Grime
Performer: Ruby Hughes, Joseph Middleton
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: BIS
Catalogue: BIS2468
Release: 2021
Size: 1.14 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen
01. No. 1, Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht
02. No. 2, Ging heut’ morgen über’s Feld
03. No. 3, Ich hab’ ein glühend Messer
04. No. 4, Die zwei blauen Augen
Ives: 114 Songs (Excerpts)
05. No. 15, The Housatonic at Stockbridge
06. No. 57, Mists
Grime: Bright Travellers
07. No. 1, Soundings
08. No. 2, Brew
09. No. 3, Visitations
10. No. 4, Milk Fever
11. No. 5, Council Offices
Ives: 114 Songs (Excerpts)
12. No. 42, Serenity
13. No. 74, The Children’s Hour
14. No. 108, Songs My Mother Taught Me
Mahler: Kindertotenlieder (Arr. for Voice & Piano)
15. No. 1, Nun will die Sonn’ so hell aufgehn
16. No. 2, Nun seh’ ich wohl, warum so dunkle Flammen
17. No. 3, Wenn dein Mütterlein
18. No. 4, Oft denk’ ich, sie sind nur ausgegangen
19. No. 5, In diesem Wetter
20. trad.: Suo Gân, Welsh lullaby (Arr. H. Watkins for Voice & Piano)
After appearing on a quartet of very different BIS releases, ranging from early baroque arias to orchestral songs by Alban Berg and Mahler’s ‘Resurrection Symphony’, the British soprano Ruby Hughes has devised a song recital, together with her regular Lieder partner Joseph Middleton. The process began in 2018 when the two gave the world première of Helen Grime’s Bright Travellers, a set of five poems charting the interior and exterior worlds of pregnancy and motherhood. Ruby Hughes soon set about planning a programme which would converge with Grime’s music and the themes of new life and of love in all its aspects. The recital is bookended by two song cycles by Gustav Mahler which explore love, grief, loss and reconciliation through quite different lenses. In the opening cycle we experience Mahler as solitary wayfarer and hear of unrequited love. In Kindertotenlieder, the second cycle, the poet Friedrich Rückert pours out his pain as a grieving father in songs about the beauty and innocence of children. Completing the programme is Charles Ives – described by Ruby Hughes as Mahler’s ‘musical kindred spirit’ – with a selection of love songs, prayers and lullabies.