Bestaat een unieke Britse muziektraditie? Een lastig te beantwoorden vraag. Sommigen zullen wijzen op de koortraditie, anderen zullen wijzen op de liederen. Ralph Vaughan Williams vond in de Britse folktraditie aanknopingspunten voor zijn indrukwekkende Ten Blake Songs met een opvallende rol voor de hobo en On Wenlock Edge. Tenor Mark Padmpore, die onlangs nog schitterde in Brittens Billy Budd, koppelt deze werken aan Peter Warlocks The Curfew, met prachtige begeleiding van het Britten Sinfonia. In opdracht van dit ensemble componeerde Jonathan Dove vorig jaar The End, dat prachtig aansluit op de liederen van zijn voorgangers en hier voor het eerst op cd is te horen. Aanbevolen.
Vaughan Williams: On Wenlock Edge & Ten Blake Songs
Dove:
The End
Nicholas Daniel (cor anglais)
Britten Sinfonia (members), Jacqueline Shave
Vaughan Williams:
On Wenlock Edge
Britten Sinfonia (members), Huw Watkins (piano)
Ten Blake Songs
Nicholas Daniel (oboe)
Warlock:
The Curlew
Nicholas Daniel (cor anglais)
Britten Sinfonia (members), Jacqueline Shave
Mark Padmore (tenor)
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."