Iestyn Davies, Joseph Middleton – Divine Music – An English Songbook (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

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.

(more…)

Read more

Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, Iestyn Davies & Graham Ross – Rolling River: American Choral (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, Iestyn Davies & Graham Ross – Rolling River: American Choral (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:14:33 minutes | 1,10 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi

Choral singing enjoys astonishing vitality in the United States of America. Alongside Bernstein’s prodigious Chichester Psalms, Barber’s Two Choruses, and Erb’s much-loved arrangement of Shenandoah, Graham Ross and the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge introduce us to the colourful works of the younger generation of composers on the other side of the Atlantic. A splendid panorama of American choral music from the post-war period to the present day.

(more…)

Read more

Iestyn Davies, Jonathan Cohen, Arcangelo – Bach: Cantatas Nos 54, 82 & 170 (2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Iestyn Davies, Jonathan Cohen, Arcangelo – Bach: Cantatas Nos 54, 82 & 170 (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:04:50 minutes | 1,23 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Hyperion Records

Ich habe genug is a timeless, transcendental masterpiece: a profound expression of Christian faith at the very end of life. It demands artistry of a special order, and Iestyn Davies now joins the likes of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson in the work’s distinguished discography. The couplings are equally ravishing performances of two other great solo cantatas, while the two orchestral sinfonias which complete the album will prove refreshingly familiar.

(more…)

Read more

Iestyn Davies & Fretwork – Lamento (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Iestyn Davies & Fretwork – Lamento (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:04:37 minutes | 1,10 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Signum Records

Countertenor Iestyn Davies and the viol consort Fretwork present a new recording of works for viol consort and voice, drawn from 17th Century Germany, following their critically praised 2019 album of works by Michael Nyman and Henry Purcell.

(more…)

Read more

Iestyn Davies, Joseph Middleton – Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Iestyn Davies, Joseph Middleton - Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz] Download

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.
(more…)

Read more

Iestyn Davies, Jonathan Cohen, Arcangelo – Bach: Cantatas Nos 35 & 169 (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Iestyn Davies, Jonathan Cohen, Arcangelo - Bach: Cantatas Nos 35 & 169 (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download

Iestyn Davies, Jonathan Cohen, Arcangelo – Bach: Cantatas Nos 35 & 169 (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:05:12 minutes | 1,22 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Hyperion Records

Both of these cantatas may have been written for an outstandingly gifted boy alto in Bach’s Leipzig, but—listening to these peerless accounts—it’s impossible to believe he could have approached Iestyn Davies’s flawless technique and profound interpretative insight.
(more…)

Read more

Thomas Dunford, Jupiter, Lea Desandre, Iestyn Davies – Eternal Heaven (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Thomas Dunford, Jupiter, Lea Desandre, Iestyn Davies – Eternal Heaven (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:25:55 minutes | 1,59 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics

Lutenist Thomas Dunford’s first project for Warner Classics is a complete Handel programme with his Ensemble Jupiter, and his longstanding musical partners Lea Desandre and lestyn Davies. The album stems from Dunford’s desire to bring together these two sublime voices and tell a love story through Handel’s most beautiful spiritual music. During the pandemic, Thomas and Lea went through Handel’s entire English-language oeuvre to build a narrative Dunford has dubbed ‘a Baroque West Side Story’. The album features arias from Semele, Theodora, Saul, Susanna, Esther, and more.

(more…)

Read more

David Bates, Rebecca Bottone, Sophie Bevan, Iestyn Davies – Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice, Wq. 30 [Live] (2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

David Bates, Rebecca Bottone, Sophie Bevan, Iestyn Davies – Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice, Wq. 30 [Live] (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:28:33 minutes | 1,55 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PentaTone

La Nuova Musica presents a new live recording of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, with countertenor star Iestyn Davies singing the title role. Once created to reinstate the “noble simplicity and calm grandeur” of ancient Greek culture, the opera continues to delight audiences with its direct and unpretentious appeal, epitomized by the world-famous aria “Che farò senza Euridice”. This live recording presents the original 1762 Vienna premiere version of the opera, with Gluck’s exquisite evocation of the Elysian Fields from his 1774 Paris version as a small addition.

(more…)

Read more

The King’s Consort feat. Iestyn Davies and Robert King – Your tuneful voice – Handel Oratorio Arias (2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

The King’s Consort feat. Iestyn Davies and Robert King – Your tuneful voice – Handel Oratorio Arias (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:07:21 minutes | 1,21 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Linn Records

Acclaimed countertenor Iestyn Davies and The King’s Consort perform an outstanding programme of Handel arias from some of the composer’s finest oratorios. Eleven varied solo arias include ‘O sacred oracles of truth’, the delicate ‘Tune your harps’, ‘Eternal source of light’ (with supreme trumpet playing from Crispian Steele-Perkins), the melodious ‘Your tuneful voice’ and the virtuoso ‘Mighty love now calls to arm’, as well as rarities including ‘On the valleys, dark and cheerless’ and an especial jewel, ‘Mortals think that Time is sleeping’.

Iestyn is joined in two glorious duets by soprano Carolyn Sampson, including the ecstatic ‘Welcome as the dawn of day’ and the ghostly ‘Who calls my parting soul from death’.

Recorded in the well-nigh perfect acoustic of Menuhin Hall with a large and colourful orchestra, who also contribute two

Composer: George Frideric Handel
Performer: Iestyn Davies, Rachel Chaplin, Crispian Steele-Perkins, Carolyn Sampson, …
Conductor: Robert King
Orchestra/Ensemble: The King’s Consort

(more…)

Read more

The English Concert, Harry Bicket, Lucy Crowe, Iestyn Davies, Joshua Ellicott, Brandon Cedel, Jess Dandy – Handel: Rodelinda (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

The English Concert, Harry Bicket, Lucy Crowe, Iestyn Davies, Joshua Ellicott, Brandon Cedel, Jess Dandy - Handel: Rodelinda (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz] Download

The English Concert, Harry Bicket, Lucy Crowe, Iestyn Davies, Joshua Ellicott, Brandon Cedel, Jess Dandy – Handel: Rodelinda (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 03:20:04 minutes | 7,43 GBGenre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Linn Records

Handel’s 1725 hit opera Rodelinda was written for the greatest voices of its day and is performed here by some of today’s finest, as The English Concert and artistic director Harry Bicket’s acclaimed concert cycle of Handel operas appears for the first time on Linn.

Lucy Crowe and Iestyn Davies are the devoted partners Rodelinda and Bertarido, heading a cast packed with exactly the sort of vocal star-power Handel would have expected, including Joshua Ellicott, Tim Mead, Brandon Cedel and Jess Dandy. Both Davies and Crowe have won acclaim for their performances in these roles: BBC Music Magazine wrote, ‘Iestyn Davies stole the show with aria after aria of heavenly purity and ardour’, whilst BachTrack commented, ‘Lucy Crowe gave a brilliant performance … Her singing, firmly centred, agile and sparking with temperament, was a triumph.’

The English Concert’s reputation for combining urgency, passion and fire with precision, delicacy and beauty will ensure their forthcoming series of Handel operas will become an essential part of Linn’s catalogue. The English Concert will be releasing Handel’s La resurrezione in 2021.
(more…)

Read more