Divine Music: An English Songbook

by Iestyn Davies, Joseph Middleton

Overview

The stated aim of this Signum Classics release is pretty murky: "Inspirations and imaginings, evolving, changing English usage, landscapes, friendships, and passings lie behind this album," reads the booklet. The idea is that the divine relates to beauty these days. More important, perhaps, is another feature: countertenor Iestyn Davies and the superb pianist Joseph Middleton offer a new entry in the increasingly common trend of countertenor performance of music outside the usual Renaissance and Baroque repertory. Davies' program includes some Purcell songs but is mostly drawn from the contemporary era. Listeners will make up their own minds about this, but it is worth noting that Davies has done it quite intelligently. He includes pairs of works by Thomas Ades and Nico Muhly. All of his contemporary pieces refer, some quite subtly, to Renaissance and Baroque styles, even the dissonant The Lover in Winter of Ades. Muhly's Four Traditional Songs are a fascinating modern take-off on the folk music strain in 20th century English music. Perhaps the highlights are the Six Songs from "A Shropshire Lad" of George Butterworth, which retain the foursquare construction of A.E. Housman's poetry but add a deep note of uneasy nostalgia that, although the songs were written prior to World War I, seem to prefigure the losses of that war, losses that included Butterworth's own death. Listeners who find countertenors self-indulgent when they depart from their usual circles should hear this release. ~ James Manheim

Product Details

Release Date:	05/05/2023
Label:	Signum Classics
UPC:	0635212072523
Rank:	152491

Tracks

1. Lord, What Is Man?
2. Four Songs~By Beauteous Softness
3. Four Songs~Come Unto These Yellow Sands
4. Four Songs~Full Fathom Five
5. Four Songs~An Evening Hymn
6. A Hymn on Divine Music
7. New-Made Tongue
8. I'll Sail Upon the Dogstar
9. King David
10. Old Bones
11. The Lover in Winter~Iam nocet frigus
12. The Lover in Winter~Nec Limpha caret
13. The Lover in Winter~Modo frigescit
14. The Lover in Winter~Nutritur ignis osculo
15. Six Songs from 'A Shropshire Lad'~Loveliest of Trees
16. Six Songs from 'A Shropshire Lad'~When I Was One and Twenty
17. Six Songs from 'A Shropshire Lad'~Look Not in My Eyes
18. Six Songs from 'A Shropshire Lad'~Think No More Lad
19. Six Songs from 'A Shropshire Lad'~The Lads in Their Hundreds
20. Six Songs from 'A Shropshire Lad'~Is My Team Ploughing?
21. Four Traditional Songs~A Brisk Young Lad
22. Four Traditional Songs~Searching for Lambs
23. Four Traditional Songs~The Cruel Mother
24. Four Traditional Songs~The Bitter Withy
25. The Exterminating Angel~Act II: Coffee-Spoon Cavatina

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Iestyn Davies   Primary Artist,Counter Tenor (Vocal)
Joseph Middleton   Primary Artist,Piano

Technical Credits

Chris Sorensen   Photography
Benjamin Britten   Arranger
George Butterworth   Composer
Herbert Howells   Composer
William Shakespeare   Text
Marco Borggreve   Photography
William Croft   Composer
Andrew Mellor   Editing,Engineer,Producer
Alfred Edward Housman   Text
Henry Purcell   Original Material,Composer
Nico Muhly   Composer
Thomas Cairns   Text
Thomas Ades   Composer
Ates Orga   Liner Notes
Thomas d'Urfey   Text
Walter de la Mare   Text
Richard Buckley   Text
Thomas Traherne   Text
William Fuller   Text
Gerard Collett   Cover Image
James Beddoe   Photography
Guto'r Glyn   Text
Philippa Langley   Text