James Gilchrist & Nathan Williamson - One Hundred Years of British Song, Vol. 3 (2022) [Official Digital Download 24/88]

SOMM Recordings announces the third and final volume of the enthusiastically received One Hundred Years of British Song, with tenor James Gilchrist and pianist Nathan Williamson. Focusing on songs written since 1950, Volume 3 celebrates what Williamson’s booklet note describes as “astonishment at the depth of expressivity of the poetry and music”.

Receiving first recordings are John Woolrich’s settings of Irish poet Matthew Sweeney, The Unlit Suburbs, a deadpan yet evocative exercise in “alternative realism”, and Geoffrey Poole’s stylistically wide-ranging The Eye of the Blackbird, with texts from Virginia Woolf, traditional Nigerian poems, Wallace Stevens, the Tibetan Book of the Dead and Requiem Mass.

Also on disc for the first time are Williamson’s own song-cycle setting poems by Bryan Heiser composed especially for James Gilchrist, The Little That Was Once a Man, and solo-piano miniature, Intermezzo. Peter Dickinson’s early, accomplished Four W.H. Auden Songs and dramatic and intense yet positive and joyful Let the Florid Music Praise, and Madeleine Dring’s characterful Five Betjeman Songs, the product of a “fascinating and multi-faceted artistic personality”, complete the disc.

Gramophone hailed Volume 1 (SOMMCD 0621) as “a most impressive release” and Limelight, awarding its Recording of the Month accolade, as “a penetrating, frequently revelatory start to a promising new series”. Of Volume 2 (SOMMCD 0636), MusicWeb International said: “It is redundant to declare that this is a superlative CD. Considering the two performers, the technical prowess of SOMM Recordings, the excellent liner notes and the imaginative and wide-ranging programme, it could be nothing else”.

Gilchrist’s SOMM releases include Parry’s English Lyrics (SOMMCD 257 and 270) and Penelope Thwaites’ From Five Continents (SOMMCD 0612), to which, theclassicalreview said, “Gilchrist brings authority throughout”.

Williamson’s SOMM association includes Great American Sonatas (SOMMCD 0163), “a release of distinction” (Gramophone), and Colour and Light (SOMMCD 0196), a 2019 Recording of the Year for International Piano.

Tracklist:
1. James Gilchrist & Nathan Williamson – Let the Florid Music Praise (Version for Tenor & Piano) (04:08)
2. James Gilchrist & Nathan Williamson – 4 W.H. Auden Songs: No. 1, Look, Stranger (03:16)
3. James Gilchrist & Nathan Williamson – 4 W.H. Auden Songs: No. 2, Eyes Look Into the Well (02:20)
4. James Gilchrist & Nathan Williamson – 4 W.H. Auden Songs: No. 3, Carry Her Over the Water (02:38)
5. James Gilchrist & Nathan Williamson – 4 W.H. Auden Songs: No. 4, What's in Your Mind? (01:16)
6. James Gilchrist & Nathan Williamson – 5 Betjeman Songs: No. 1, A Bay in Anglesey (03:37)
7. James Gilchrist & Nathan Williamson – 5 Betjeman Songs: No. 2, Song of a Nightclub Proprietress (02:47)
8. James Gilchrist & Nathan Williamson – 5 Betjeman Songs: No. 3, Business Girls (02:25)
9. James Gilchrist & Nathan Williamson – 5 Betjeman Songs: No. 4, Undenominational (01:26)
10. James Gilchrist & Nathan Williamson – 5 Betjeman Songs: No. 5, Upper Lambourne (02:42)
11. James Gilchrist & Nathan Williamson – The Little That Was Once a Man: No. 1, in Someone Else's Poem (02:03)
12. James Gilchrist & Nathan Williamson – The Little That Was Once a Man: No. 2, 4am (02:17)
13. James Gilchrist & Nathan Williamson – The Little That Was Once a Man: No. 3, Not Being the Ordinary Way (01:33)
14. James Gilchrist & Nathan Williamson – The Little That Was Once a Man: No. 4, Not Being Misunderstanding (02:26)
15. James Gilchrist & Nathan Williamson – The Little That Was Once a Man: No. 5, Moon at Rest (06:03)
16. James Gilchrist & Nathan Williamson – The Unlit Suburbs: No. 1, The Submerged Bar (01:01)
17. James Gilchrist & Nathan Williamson – The Unlit Suburbs: No. 2, Rat Town (00:55)
18. James Gilchrist & Nathan Williamson – The Unlit Suburbs: No. 3, The Ghost Choir (00:43)
19. Nathan Williamson – Intermezzo (04:46)
20. James Gilchrist & Nathan Williamson – The Eye of the Blackbird: No. 1, Twenty Snowy Mountains (02:16)
21. James Gilchrist & Nathan Williamson – The Eye of the Blackbird: No. 2, The Autumn Wind (00:52)
22. James Gilchrist & Nathan Williamson – The Eye of the Blackbird: No. 3, I Was of Three Minds (01:26)
23. James Gilchrist & Nathan Williamson – The Eye of the Blackbird: No. 4, Which to Prefer (02:36)
24. James Gilchrist & Nathan Williamson – The Eye of the Blackbird: No. 5, Icicles (02:14)
25. James Gilchrist & Nathan Williamson – The Eye of the Blackbird: No. 6, I Know Noble Accents (01:57)
26. James Gilchrist & Nathan Williamson – The Eye of the Blackbird: No. 7, Out of Sight (02:12)
27. James Gilchrist & Nathan Williamson – The Eye of the Blackbird: No. 8, He Rode Over Connecticut (01:22)
28. James Gilchrist & Nathan Williamson – The Eye of the Blackbird: No. 9, Evening All Afternoon (02:45)


Thanks to the Original customer!