Performer: Mark Padmore, Nicholas Daniel, Huw Watkins
Orchestra: Britten Sinfonia
Conductor: Jacqueline Shave
Audio CD
Number of Discs: 1
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Size: 1.14 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Vaughan Williams: On Wenlock Edge
01. I. On Wenlock Edge
02. II. From far, from eve and morning
03. III. Is my team ploughing?
04. IV. Oh, when I was in love with you
05. V. Bredon Hill
06. VI. Clun
Vaughan Williams: Ten Blake Songs
07. I. Infant Joy
08. II. A Poison Tree
09. III. The Piper
10. IV. London
11. V. The Lamb
12. VI. The Shepherd
13. VII. Ah, Sun-flower
14. VIII. Cruelty has a human heart
15. IX. The Divine Image
16. X. Eternity
17. Dove: The End
Warlock: The Curlew
18. I. The Curlew
19. II. Pale brows, still hands
20. III. I cried when the moon
21. IV. Interlude
22. V. I wander by the edge
Fresh from his triumph in the Glyndebourne ‘Billy Budd’, star tenor Mark Padmore is joined by members of Britten Sinfonia in 3 quintessentially British song-cycles: Ralph Vaughan Williams’ ‘On Wenlock Edge’, with pianist Huw Watkins; ‘Ten Blake Songs’ with oboist Nicholas Daniel; and Peter Warlock’s best-known work, ‘The Curlew’. ‘The End’ by Jonathan Dove (a co-commission by Britten Sinfonia and Wigmore Hall) receives its world première recording here.
British composer Jonathan Dove (b. 1959) made the following remarks on the genesis of his new work, ‘The End’ (2012), with support from the ‘Tenner for a Tenor’ campaign.
“When I heard Mark Strand read his poem ‘The End’ to a small gathering of artists in Italy a few years ago, I was moved – and also felt immediately that it was a poem that could be sung. I hoped that one day I might have the chance to set it to music. I did not know exactly what the music would sound like, but I imagined a solo voice with several instruments.
Britten Sinfonia gave me the opportunity to make this wish come true, by inviting me to write something for Mark Padmore to sing, with instrumentation to match Warlock’s ‘The Curlew’. String quartet with two solo wind instruments seemed the perfect combination to suggest the gentle rocking motion of the ship slipping into darkness, and perhaps hear birds suspended in flight.”