Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Sounds and Sweet Airs – A Shakespeare Songbook (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Sounds and Sweet Airs – A Shakespeare Songbook (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:24:53 minutes | 2,59 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS

The 37 songs in this recital, written by 27 composers – male, female, English, French, Swiss, German, Romantic, modern and contemporary – bear witness to the richness of Shakespeare’s works to which this recital is dedicated.

Organised in the form of a play in five acts, including prologue and epilogue, the songs, which include several duets, are in turn cheerful and sad, light and profound, classical and jazzy – thus allowing, in Carolyn Sampson’s words, ‘a breadth of responses to these great texts’. Alongside well-known melodies, such as those by Schubert, there are musical adaptations by different composers of the same texts, as well as a contemporary reflection for the two voices by Hannah Kendall exploring the question of gender fluidity and identity through the elusive character of Rosalind from As You Like It.

After many acclaimed releases on BIS, including Album für die Frau, a collection of songs by Clara and Robert Schumann, A Soprano’s Schubertiade and Elysium, two Schubert recitals, as well as a number of themed recitals, some of which were named ‘Recording of the Month’ by MusicWeb International and ‘CD-Tipp’ by BR Klassik, Carolyn Sampson and Joseph Middleton are joined here by renowned British baritone Roderick Williams.

Tracklist:
01. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Ireland: Full Fathom Five (01:20)
02. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Williams: Dirge for Fidele (04:01)
03. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Moeran: The Lover and his Lass (01:47)
04. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Arise (01:29)
05. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Smith: You Spotted Snakes (01:58)
06. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Tippett: Three Songs for Ariel: 1. Come unto these Yellow Sands (01:58)
07. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Tippett: Three Songs for Ariel: 2. Full Fathom Five (01:57)
08. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Tippett: Three Songs for Ariel: 3. Where the Bee Sucks (01:15)
09. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Arne: Under the Greenwood Tree (02:20)
10. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Gurney: Under the Greenwood Tree (01:46)
11. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Parry: Sonnet LXXXVII (03:35)
12. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Ireland: When Daffodils Begin to Peer (02:09)
13. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Haydn: She never told her love, Hob. XXVIa/34 (04:03)
14. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Schubert: An Silvia, D 106 (02:48)
15. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Schubert: Ständchen (Horch, horch! die Lerch), D 889 (01:52)
16. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Schubert: Trinklied, D 888 (01:19)
17. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Schumann: Schlusslied des Narren, Op.127 No. 5 (01:01)
18. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Wolf: Lied des transferierten Zettel (00:56)
19. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Cornelius: Komm herbei, Tod, Op.16 No. 3 (03:06)
20. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Frances-Hoad: They Bore him Barefaced on a Bier (03:29)
21. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Kendall: Rosalind: 1. Here is a space (03:32)
22. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Kendall: Rosalind: 2. all love is a lunacy (03:01)
23. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Kendall: Rosalind: 3. …no explanation is needed (02:14)
24. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Kendall: Rosalind: 4. Take my fear take my feeling (04:03)
25. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Kendall: Rosalind: 5. You do not get to dress me anymore (01:36)
26. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Poulenc: Fancy (02:19)
27. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Britten: Fancie (00:58)
28. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Honegger: Deux chants d’Ariel: 1. Modéré (Venez jusqu’à ces sables d’or) (02:53)
29. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Honegger: Deux chants d’Ariel: 2. Un peu animé (Où butine l’abeille je butine aussi) (00:46)
30. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Bridge: Blow, Blow thou Winter Wind (01:53)
31. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Dring: Take, o take those lips away (03:53)
32. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Dankworth: Shall I Compare thee to a Summer’s day? (02:42)
33. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Horder: Under the Greenwood Tree (01:24)
34. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Coleridge-Taylor: The Willow Song (02:33)
35. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Beach: Fairy Lullaby (02:11)
36. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Williams: Sigh no More, Ladies (01:07)
37. Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton – Sullivan: Orpheus with his Lute (03:21)

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