His emotion alone makes this collection of songs worthwhile.
Rating: - AN INDESCRIBABLY WONDERFUL ALBUM
Ian Bostridge has one of the most beautiful voices on record, and has shown enormous courage and wisdom in selecting material that will extend and develop his extraodinary gifts. Not all of this material has been a perfect match for his smooth and soaring tenor voice, notably some of Schubert’s more dramatic “lieder”. In contrast, nothing could be more perfectly suited to Bostridge’s gifts than this generous and beautiful collection of traditional English songs by Britten, Finzi, Grainger, Warlock and others.
Bostridge brings more than just a beautiful tone and a subtle musical phrasing to these songs. In contrast with the pure vowel sounds of most continental languages, as Ian says in his sleeve-notes, the complex vowels of “Southern British English” are formidably difficult to render attractively in song. (It’s not just a question of singing them prettily. Think how accurately the pronunciation of a word like “house” or “bath” can betray someone’s geographical and social background – our vowels are a caste-mark as well as a means of communication). But somehow Bostridge himself, in his fruitful partnership with Julius Drake, manages to transcend the divisions and deliver these songs in a way that places no barrier between the listener and the music.
It is impossible in a written review to describe the sense of exhilaration that comes with these lilting pastoral airs and occasional boisterous ditties. They are at one and the same time ancient and modern, embracing at once the mutual cross-fertilisation between classical and “pop” sensibilities that has always underpinned the best of English music. Even the most trivial of these songs (e.g. “Jillian of Berry”) are memorable, and some of them (notably Sir Charles Stanford’s chilling musical setting of the Keats’ poem, “La Belle Dame Sans Merci”) would not have been beneath the great Schubert himself.
This is a wonderful album.
Rating: - Perfectly Enjoyable
I already liked Ian Bostridge, but I thought "English songs" would be rather light and without substance. But I have fallen in love with this CD and never tire of it! I was already an admirer of Vaughan Williams, Britten, Finzi, Warlock and Delius, and I'm glad for this introduction to other composers as well. Also, much beautiful poetry is chosen, from Shakespeare, Yeats, Rossetti, Keats, and others, and each is treated with careful consideration by the composer, *partnering* music with poetry rather than simply enhancing or overshadowing the lyric. Bostridge seems to have the perfect voice for this music, light and charming when appropriate, heart-breaking at other times, always an engaging storyteller. He obviously understands intimately each word and note that he sings. The listener can hear his facial expressions and body language! The English Songbook is a beautiful collection of excellent craftsmanship, and one of the best CDs I have.
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