Sounds and Sweet Airs – A Shakespeare Songbook

Contents

Ireland: Full fathom five /Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Roderick Williams (baritone), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Vaughan Williams: Dirge for Fidele /Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Roderick Williams (baritone), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Moeran: The Lover and his Lass /Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Roderick Williams (baritone), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Arise, “Sea Murmurs” (from 33 Shakespeare Songs, Op. 24) Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Smith, J C: You spotted snakes /Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Tippett: Songs for Ariel /Roderick Williams (baritone), Joseph Middleton (piano)

1. Come unto these Yellow Sands

2. Full Fathom Five

3. Where the Bee Sucks

Arne: Under the Greenwood Tree /Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Gurney: Under the greenwood tree /Roderick Williams (baritone), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Parry: Sonnet LXXXVII /Roderick Williams (baritone), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Ireland: When daffodils begin to peer /Roderick Williams (baritone), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Haydn: She Never Told Her Love, Hob. XXVIa:34 /Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Schubert: An Silvia, D 106 /Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Schubert: Ständchen ‘Horch! Horch! die Lerch!’, D889 Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Schubert: Trinklied D888 (Shakespeare / Mayerhofer / Bauernfeld) Roderick Williams (baritone), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Schumann: Schlusslied des Narren, Op.127 No. 5 /Roderick Williams (baritone), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Wolf, H: Lied des transferierten Zettel /Roderick Williams (baritone), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Cornelius: Komm herbei, Tod, Op.16 No. 3 /Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Roderick Williams (baritone), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Frances-Hoad: Rosalind /Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Joseph Middleton (piano), Roderick Williams (baritone)

They Bore him Barefaced on a Bier

1. Here is a space

2. all love is a lunacy

3. …no explanation is needed

4. Take my fear take my feeling

5. You do not get to dress me anymore

Poulenc: Fancy /Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Britten: Fancie /Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Honegger: Deux Chants d’Ariel /Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Joseph Middleton (piano)

1. Modéré (Venez jusqu’à ces sables d’or)

2. Un peu animé (Où butine l’abeille je butine aussi)

Bridge: Blow, blow, thou winter wind /Roderick Williams (baritone), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Dring: Take, O Take Those Lips Away /Roderick Williams (baritone), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Dankworth: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? /Roderick Williams (baritone), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Horder: Under the greenwood tree /Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Coleridge-Taylor: The Willow Song /Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Beach, A: Fairy Lullaby /Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Williams, Roderick: Sigh no More, Ladies /Roderick Williams (baritone), Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Sullivan, A: Orpheus with his Lute /Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Roderick Williams (baritone), Joseph Middleton (piano)

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 (BIS-2473), a collection of songs by Clara and Robert Schumann, A Soprano’s Schubertiade (BIS-2343) and Elysium (BIS-2573), 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.