Thou singest ye carol

Tenor Ian Bostridge compiled a collection of English songs into a book, together with pianist Julius Drake. The English Songbook.

It presents a personal collection from the extensive repertoire that emerged in the 20th century. For a long time, British classical music was often belittled, with England even referred to as ‘the land without song’. Bostridge showcases the English song, or ‘Artsong,’ in a beautiful collection featuring traditional English poetic settings by Britten, Finzi, Grainger, Warlock, and others.

Playlist:

1. Charles Villiers Stanford – ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’ (John Keats)
2. Charles Villiers Stanford (arr.) – ‘My love’s an arbutus’ (Old Irish Air)
3. Benjamin Britten (arr.) – ‘’The Salley Gardens’ (Irish Tune) (George Butler Yaets)
4. Thomas Dunhill (1877-1946) – ‘The Cloths of Heaven’ (Yeats)
5. Peter Warlock a. Jillian Of Berry (Beaumont and Fletcher) b. Rest, Sweet Nymphs (N.N.)
6. a. Edward German (1862-1936) – ‘Orpeus with his lute’ (Shakespeare) b. Hubert Parry – ‘No longer mourn for me’(Shakespeare) c. Roger Quilter ‘Come away, Death’ (Shakespeare).
7. Ralph Vaughan Williams – a. ‘Linden Lea’ (William Barnes) b. ‘Silent Noon’ (Dante Gabriel Rossetti)
8. Percy Aldrige Grainger (1882-1961) – a. ‘Brigg Fair’(anon.)* b. Frederick Delius – ‘Twilight Fancies’ (Björnstjerne Björnson)  (English by F. S. Copeland)   *met Polyphony o.l.v. Stephen Layton
9. a. Cecil Sharp (1859-1924) – ‘The little Turtle Dove’ (anon.)  b. Roger Quilter – ‘Now sleeps the Crimson Petal’ (Lord Tennyson)  c. William Dennis Browne (1888-1915) – ‘To Gratiana Dancing and Singing’(Richard Lovelace)
10. Ivor Gurney ((1890-1937) – a. ‘I go with my father a-ploughing’ (Seosham MacCathamhaoil) b. ‘Sleep’(John Fletcher)