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Britten: Complete Music with Guitar & Voice / Meucci, Nardis
| The āSongs from the Chineseā, a cycle of six songs on poems translated from the original Chinese by Arthur Waley (1889ā1966), were written in 1957 and premiered the following year by the duo of Pears and Bream. By the late 50s Bream was a lutenist and guitarist of great renown and had accompanied Pears in works by Dowland and other early music of the British Isles, concerts that inspired Britten to write for the duo some music of his own. His cycle naturally invited comparison with another great set of songs from the Chinese, Mahlerās āDas Lied von der Erdeā, and the reception at the time was favourable: āas a whole, they make a statement about life (and particularly the transience of youth and beauty) as poignant and personal as Mahlerāsā (critic Jeremy Noble in Tempo,1959). The sixth instalment of Brittenās lifelong project of folksong arrangements was published in November of 1961 in a second wave along with volumes four and five, which followed some 12 years after the first three volumes were issued in the 1940s. Volume Six contains six English folksongs and is the only one of the sets that he scored for voice and guitar. These folksong arrangements are as much a product of Brittenās admiration for Bream as are the āSongs from the Chineseā. In fact, when Pears and Bream premiered Brittenās song cycle at the Aldeburgh Festival (17 June 1958), they performed three of these folksongs on the same concert. Britten wrote the guitar solo āNocturnalā after John Dowland in 1963 for Bream, who premiered it the following year (12 June 1964). The nine movements of the work are a āvariations & themeā, progressing opposite to the usual order of a theme and variations. The model, āCome, Heavy Sleepā from the First Book of Songs by John Dowland (1563ā1626), is only revealed at the end, with the variations leading up to it hinting at the song with treatments of various thematic fragments. Marcello Nardis and Duilio Meucci complete this album with three additional works by Dowland including the original āCome, Heavy Sleepā on which Britten based his Nocturnal, another well-known song, āFlow my tearsā, and the lute solo āA Dreamā. |
| The āSongs from the Chineseā, a cycle of six songs on poems translated from the original Chinese by Arthur Waley (1889ā1966), were written in 1957 and premiered the following year by the duo of Pears and Bream. By the late 50s Bream was a lutenist and guitarist of great renown and had accompanied Pears in works by Dowland and other early music of the British Isles, concerts that inspired Britten to write for the duo some music of his own. His cycle naturally invited comparison with another great set of songs from the Chinese, Mahlerās āDas Lied von der Erdeā, and the reception at the time was favourable: āas a whole, they make a statement about life (and particularly the transience of youth and beauty) as poignant and personal as Mahlerāsā (critic Jeremy Noble in Tempo,1959). The sixth instalment of Brittenās lifelong project of folksong arrangements was published in November of 1961 in a second wave along with volumes four and five, which followed some 12 years after the first three volumes were issued in the 1940s. Volume Six contains six English folksongs and is the only one of the sets that he scored for voice and guitar. These folksong arrangements are as much a product of Brittenās admiration for Bream as are the āSongs from the Chineseā. In fact, when Pears and Bream premiered Brittenās song cycle at the Aldeburgh Festival (17 June 1958), they performed three of these folksongs on the same concert. Britten wrote the guitar solo āNocturnalā after John Dowland in 1963 for Bream, who premiered it the following year (12 June 1964). The nine movements of the work are a āvariations & themeā, progressing opposite to the usual order of a theme and variations. The model, āCome, Heavy Sleepā from the First Book of Songs by John Dowland (1563ā1626), is only revealed at the end, with the variations leading up to it hinting at the song with treatments of various thematic fragments. Marcello Nardis and Duilio Meucci complete this album with three additional works by Dowland including the original āCome, Heavy Sleepā on which Britten based his Nocturnal, another well-known song, āFlow my tearsā, and the lute solo āA Dreamā. |
$17.99
Britten: Complete Music with Guitar & Voice / Meucci, Nardisā
$17.99
Description
| The āSongs from the Chineseā, a cycle of six songs on poems translated from the original Chinese by Arthur Waley (1889ā1966), were written in 1957 and premiered the following year by the duo of Pears and Bream. By the late 50s Bream was a lutenist and guitarist of great renown and had accompanied Pears in works by Dowland and other early music of the British Isles, concerts that inspired Britten to write for the duo some music of his own. His cycle naturally invited comparison with another great set of songs from the Chinese, Mahlerās āDas Lied von der Erdeā, and the reception at the time was favourable: āas a whole, they make a statement about life (and particularly the transience of youth and beauty) as poignant and personal as Mahlerāsā (critic Jeremy Noble in Tempo,1959). The sixth instalment of Brittenās lifelong project of folksong arrangements was published in November of 1961 in a second wave along with volumes four and five, which followed some 12 years after the first three volumes were issued in the 1940s. Volume Six contains six English folksongs and is the only one of the sets that he scored for voice and guitar. These folksong arrangements are as much a product of Brittenās admiration for Bream as are the āSongs from the Chineseā. In fact, when Pears and Bream premiered Brittenās song cycle at the Aldeburgh Festival (17 June 1958), they performed three of these folksongs on the same concert. Britten wrote the guitar solo āNocturnalā after John Dowland in 1963 for Bream, who premiered it the following year (12 June 1964). The nine movements of the work are a āvariations & themeā, progressing opposite to the usual order of a theme and variations. The model, āCome, Heavy Sleepā from the First Book of Songs by John Dowland (1563ā1626), is only revealed at the end, with the variations leading up to it hinting at the song with treatments of various thematic fragments. Marcello Nardis and Duilio Meucci complete this album with three additional works by Dowland including the original āCome, Heavy Sleepā on which Britten based his Nocturnal, another well-known song, āFlow my tearsā, and the lute solo āA Dreamā. |
