Shropshire Lads: English Art-Song
The long and vibrant tradition of art-song in England has seen many great composers from Finzi to Vaughan Williams, Gurney to Moeran and Warlock and countless more, supported for many years now by the English Poetry and Song Society.
This is the first of four albums of live EPSS concert performances made by Dunelm for private use and now on general release due to demand; it contains works by major composers and also the five excellent finalists in the EPSS competition of 2006. The concert took place to celebrate the 110th anniversary of the publication of A. E. Housman’s A Shropshire Lad.
These EPSS recordings were made on portable recording equipment and with less than ideal microphone placement and are not to our usual modern standard. However they contain fine performances and many very unfamiliar and exquisite songs, which will delight any lover of late-Romantic vocal music.
Track Listing
-
Benjamin Burrows
- Grenadier (1:26)
- The half-moon (1:11)
- The sigh (1:17)
- From far (1:39) Arnold Bax
- Far in a western brookland (3:29)
- In the morning (2:22)
- When I was one-and-twenty (3:03) Brian Daubney
- The land of lost content (3:30) Margaret Wegener
- Look not in my eyes (3:19) Clive Pollard
- Because I liked you better (2:16) Calvin Bowman
- R.L.S. (1:31) Stephen Duro
- Is my team ploughing? (5:05) Ernest John Moeran
- When smoke stood up (3:36)
- When I came last to Ludlow (1:01)
- Far in a western brookland (2:27) Arthur Somervell: A Shropshire Lad
- I. Loveliest of Trees (1:54)
- II. When I was one-and-twenty (0:59)
- III. There pass the careless people (1:14)
- IV. In summertime on Bredon (2:49)
- V. The street sounds to the soldier's tread (2:03)
- VI. On the idle hill of summer (2:00)
- VII. White in the moon the long road lies (2:28)
- VIII. Think no more, lad (1:41)
- IX. Into my heart an air that kills (1:35)
- X. The lads in their hundreds (2:22)
Reviews
“If you have been waiting for this series to appear on disc, as I have, here is your chance. Those who have not yet caught the English art song bug may wish to explore elsewhere. But come back here for the rarities.
” —Ronald E. Grames
“The sound is clear and allows a chance to hear a fine array of 20th Century English songs. Stephen Foulkes has a firm and steady voice and sings with exemplary diction. [Pianist] David Bednall is another Somerset treasure.
” —Robert A Moore
