Works by Vaughan Williams / Jonathan Dove / Peter Warlock Mark Padmore

• Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958): On Wenlock Edge (1907)
• 1I. On Wenlock Edge03:42
• 2II. From far, from eve and morning02:17
• 3III. Is my team ploughing?03:38
• 4IV. Oh, when I was in love with you00:53
• 5V. Bredon Hill07:24
• 6VI. Clun03:31
• Ralph Vaughan Williams: Ten Blake Songs (1957)
• 7I. Infant Joy01:30
• 8II. A Poison Tree02:24
• 9III. The Piper01:57
• 10IV. London01:44
• 11V. The Lamb02:40
• 12VI. The Shepherd00:57
• 13VII. Ah, Sun-flower01:34
• 14VIII. Cruelty has a human heart01:52
• 15IX. The Divine Image02:25
• 16X. Eternity01:44
• Jonathan Dove (b. 1959): The End (2012)
• 17The End09:00
• Peter Warlock (1894-1930): The Curlew (1920-22)
• 18I. The Curlew07:18
• 19II. Pale brows, still hands01:40
• 20III. I cried when the moon09:15
• 21IV. Interlude03:01
• 22V. I wander by the edge02:06
• Total Runtime01:12:32

Info for Works by Vaughan Williams / Jonathan Dove / Peter Warlock

Tenor Mark Padmore is featured in a program featuring three quintessential British song-cycles. He is joined by pianist Huw Watkins, oboist Nicolas Daniel and members of the Britten Sinfonia in Ralph Vaughan Williams's On Wenlock Edge and Ten Blake Songs and one of Peter Warlock's best-known works, The Curlew. Also included is The End by Jonathan Dove (a co-commission by Britten Sinfonia and Wigmore Hall with support from the Tenner for a Tenor campaign). The work receives its world première recording here.

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.'

“Edge, rather than lyrical elegance, is Mark Padmore's expressive strength, combined with his superb diction...I've never heard [the Blake Songs] come across so convincingly...Lavish praise too for the wonderful playing of the Britten Sinfonia...I shall be coming back to this.” (BBC Music Magazine)

“Dove's musical nightscape shifts slowly and slightly...The same vocal simplicity and white timbre that chafes so tellingly at the smugness of Blake's Innocence poems (aided there by exquisite solo oboe) also works well here for Padmore, never blurring the clarity of the composer's melodic architecture.” (Gramophone)

Mark Padmore, tenor
Britten Sinfonia
Jacqueline Shave, director
Miranda Dale, violins
Clare Finnimore, viola
Caroline Dearnley, cello
Emer McDonough, flute (on tracks 17 - 22)
Nicholas Daniel, oboe (on tracks 7 - 16) English horn (on tracks 17 - 22)
Huw Watkins, piano (on tracks 1 - 6)

Recorded in May, 2012 at Air Studios, Lyndhurst Hall, London.
Engineered by Brad Michel and Chris Barrett

No biography found.

Booklet for Works by Vaughan Williams / Jonathan Dove / Peter Warlock