Iestyn Davies

Iestyn Davies, Joseph Middleton – Divine Music – An English Songbook (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:22:14 minutes | 3,03 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Signum Records

“Inspirations and imaginings, evolving, changing English usage, landscapes, friendships and passings lie behind this album… Loosely, the songs we’ve selected embrace multiple interpre- tations and nuances of ‘divine’. As well as, I could argue, that sentiment of English song and English speaking composers embodying the [Blake/Parry] ‘Jerusalem-Builded-Here’ trope. The world I came from (singing in choir stalls), along with how countertenors are perceived generally, has been hard to escape. So here perhaps I’m taking on the challenge. As well as an opportunity to include songs written for me that for some while I’ve been needing to put down on disc.” (Iestyn Davies) ‘Divine Music’ marks Iestyn Davies’ third recital album on Signum Classics. The ‘Four Songs’ (Purcell/ Adès), Spoons Aria (Adès), Four Traditional Songs and Old Bones (Muhly) are world premiere recordings. Muhly’s Four Traditional Songs were also written dedicated to Iestyn Davies.

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Iestyn Davies, Joseph Middleton – Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:04:20 minutes | 2,44 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Signum Records

Renowned performers Iestyn Davies and Joseph Middleton perform Schubert’s tragic song-cycle Die schöne Müllerin (The Beautiful Maid of the Mill).

Adapting poetry by Wilhelm Müller, the genesis of D. 795 marks the beginning of the end of Schubert’s life; he discovered that he had contracted syphilis sometime in late 1822 or early 1823, and it was in 1823 that he composed this tale of a poet-singer who dies in the aftermath of erotic experience. Released under the own label of St John’s College, Cambridge, this recording acts as a celebration of Iestyn Davies’s formative period at the college; beginning there as a 7-year-old probationer in 1987, he progressed to become Head Chorister, before ultimately returning to study as a choral scholar. Alongside full texts and translations, the booklet includes a background on the work by noted Lied expert Susan Youens, as well as reflections on Iestyn’s time at St John’s from the College’s past and present Directors of Music – Christopher Robinson and Andrew Nethsingha.
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