Format: CD
Barcode: 0635212049020
Releasedate: 06-10-17
- This programme explores that vast twentieth-century secular English choral repertoire which goes under the generic title ‘partsongs’
This programme explores that vast twentieth-century secular English choral repertoire which goes under the generic title ‘partsongs’. It is an extraordinarily rich repertoire to which almost all the famous composers contributed. Buried amongst vast quantities of slightly twee pastoralism – the much-derided “cow-pat” school – are to be found many settings of glorious poetry, forming a corpus of sublime twentieth-century madrigals at least as fine as their famous renaissance forebears. However, this programme has another particular theme: how poets and composers reflect upon the natural world as a metaphor for our own emotional experience. At the heart of this programme is the complex relationship between man and nature, the bitter-sweetness of a radiant and beautiful dawn creating the same unbearable sadness of a ravishing song, and both with intimations of mortality.
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1Eight Part Songs, Op. 115No. 3, The Blue Bird03:53
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2Four Part-Songs, Op. 53No. 1, There is Sweet Music04:42
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3Silence and Music05:18
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4The Summer is Coming07:34
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5Brigg Fair02:59
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6Bushes and Briars02:10
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7The Winter is Gone01:41
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8The Turtle Dove02:58
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9The Gallant Weaver06:11
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10Who Killed Cock Robin?08:15
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11The Three Ravens04:30
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12Five Flower Songs, Op. 47No. 4, The Evening Primrose03:11
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13Three Dirges of John WebsterNo. 1, All the Flowers of the Spring06:23
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14Four Part-Songs, Op. 53No. 4, Owls (An Epitaph)03:38
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15Rest04:15