Roderick Williams, Sophie Bevan, James Gilchrist, Coull Quartet – On This Shining Night (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:05:55 minutes | 1,13 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © SOMM Recordings
SOMM Recordings is delighted to announce a thrilling first collaboration between long-time SOMM stablemates, baritone Roderick Williams and the Coull Quartet, joined by tenor James Gilchrist and soprano Sophie Bevan. With six first recordings, On This Shining Night is a ravishing recital focusing revealingly on a 20th-century phenomenon: works for voice and string quartet. It takes its title from a James Agate setting by Samuel Barber (whose masterly Dover Beach is also heard), here in a sublime arrangementby Roderick Williams. Williams also provides arrangements of Barbers Sleep Now and three Frederick Delius pieces from his Seven Songs from the Norwegian: the evocative Twilight Fancies, vivacious Young Venevil and exotic I-Brasil. They serve, as Robert Matthew-Walkers erudite booklet notes observe, as companions to 11 songs by Deliuss close friend and associate, Peter Warlock, including the gentle intimacy of Corpus Christi, the mini-cantata Sorrows Lullaby, and unique free-recitative of My gostly vader.Composed for Williams and the Coull Quartet, Sally Beamishs five-part Tree Carols offer striking, variegated settings of poems by Fiona Sampson in their premiere recording.
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The English Concert, Harry Bicket, Sophie Bevan – Handel: La Resurrezione (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:57:14 minutes | 2,05 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Linn Records
Following their acclaimed recording of Handel’s Rodelinda, The English Concert and Harry Bicket continue their Handel series with a superb soloist line-up including Sophie Bevan, Iestyn Davies, Ashley Riches, Hugo Hymas and Lucy Crowe.
Starting with an unusual verbal altercation between an Angel and Lucifer, Handel’s La Resurrezione is an extraordinary retelling of the three days between Christ’s death and resurrection which is unlike any other Passion or Oratorio. This journey centres around women, Mary Magdalene and Mary Cleophas, in a way that seems very modern, and which mirrors the ambiguities of their feelings in music that is completely original in concept and orchestration. The journey from grief, through hope, to love is wonderfully depicted. The message seems to be that grief is the price we pay for love; and that should be part of the narrative of our lives, not the defining moment.
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Sophie Bevan & Sebastian Wybrew – Songs of Vain Glory – Wigmore Hall Live (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:09:37 minutes | 1,02 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Wigmore Hall Live
With each season soprano Sophie Bevan grows in artistic stature and when taking breaks from her distinguished operatic career, she has always felt supremely comfortable performing songs. Her enduring partnership with Sebastian Wybrew began as students at the Royal College of Music and this, their debut release on Wigmore Hall Live, captures her beguiling artistry and astonishing vocal gifts.
A recital to commemorate the anniversary of the beginning of the First World War, Songs of Vain Glory draws from a wider range of songs in English depicting the excitement, disillusionment and peace of those who must leave to fight and the love, fear and loss of those left behind. From the timeless, astral perspective of Finzi’s ‘At a lunar eclipse’ to the oceanic depths of Elgar’s ‘Submarines’ and the cosy evergreen ‘We’ll gather lilacs’.
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.
Read moreChristopher Glynn, Sir John Tomlinson, Sophie Bevan, Julian Bliss, Alec Frank-Gemmill – Schubert: Swansong (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:12:40 minutes | 1,17 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Signum Records
Christopher Glynn continues his series of late Schubert song cycles in English, joined by celebrated soloists Sir John Tomlinson, Sophie Bevan, Julian Bliss and Alec Frank-Gemmill.
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