Paul McCreesh & Gabrieli - Silence & Music (2017)

This programme explores that vast twentieth-century secular English choral repertoire which goes under the generic title ‘partsongs’. It is an extraordinarily rich repertoire to which almost all the famous composers contributed. Buried amongst vast quantities of slightly twee pastoralism – the much-derided “cow-pat” school – are to be found many settings of glorious poetry, forming a corpus of sublime twentieth-century madrigals at least as fine as their famous renaissance forebears. However, this programme has another particular theme: how poets and composers reflect upon the natural world as a metaphor for our own emotional experience. At the heart of this programme is the complex relationship between man and nature, the bitter-sweetness of a radiant and beautiful dawn creating the same unbearable sadness of a ravishing song, and both with intimations of mortality.

TRACKLIST

01. Eight Part Songs, Op. 119: No. 3, The Blue Bird
02. 4 Part Songs, Op. 53: No. 1, There is Sweet Music
03. Silence and Music
04. The Summer is Coming
05. Brigg Fair
06. Bushes and Briars
07. The Winter is Gone
08. The Turtle Dove
09. The Gallant Weaver
10. Who Killed Cock Robin?
11. The Three Ravens
12. Five Flower Songs, Op. 47: No. 4, The Evening Primrose
13. 3 Dirges of Webster: No. 1, All the Flowers of the Spring
14. 4 Part Songs, Op. 53: No. 4, Owls (An Epitaph)
15. Rest