A Shropshire Lad
Baritone Blake Fischer and pianist Claire Cooper, winners of the 1998 Song Recital Award, present English and American folk, traditional and art songs by Butterworth, Copland, Finzi and Britten.
George Butterworth composer
Aaron Copland composer
Gerald Finzi composer
Alfred Edward Housman songwriter
William Shakespeare songwriter
W. B. Yeats songwriter
Benjamin Britten arranger
A truly successful recital is not a collection of songs shunted together like a string of ill-matched freight cars. Given true commitment, atmosphere and concentration by artists such as the award-winning baritone Blake Fischer and pianist Claire Cooper, it can take you on both a dramatic and emotional journey.
In A Shropshire Lad, Fischer (winner of the prestigious 1998 Song Recital Award) and Cooper embark on a journey through the musical countryside of English and American folk, traditional and art songs, with music by Butterworth, Finzi, Copland and Britten.
Move Records has produced five recital CDs of the Song Recital Award winners as part of its major sponsorship of the competition, and is proud to continue its association with the award going into the new millennium.
Reviews
all presented knowingly and with superb diction ... I would hope to hear more from Fischer in the next few years ... Sound is excellent.
Artists
George Butterworth
George Butterworth (1885–1916) was an English composer best known for his song settings from A Shropshire Lad and the orchestral idyll The Banks of Green Willow.
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland wrote the open, slowly shifting harmonies many still hear as the sound of American music. His vernacular style of the 1930s and 1940s gave ballet, song and chamber works a plain-spoken clarity that reaches from folk song to fanfare.
Blake Fischer
Blake Fischer graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 1995 with a Bachelor Degree in Music. He has since appeared with the Victoria State Opera, Opera Australia, and in various musicals, including ‘My Fair Lady’ and ‘Chess’. He joined the full-time chorus of Opera Australia in 1997 and has understudied and performed lead roles.
Claire Cooper
Claire Cooper studied with John Winther at the Canberra School of Music and later at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. She spent five years as répétiteur and accompanist at the Victorian College of the Arts and joined the Faculty of Music at the University of Melbourne as an accompanist.
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten (1913–1976) was an English composer, conductor and pianist. His operas are firmly established in the international repertoire, and more of them are played worldwide than those of any other composer born in the twentieth century.
Audio preview
Tracks
- Loveliest of trees 2:29
- When I was one-and-twenty 1:16
- Look not in my eyes 1:56
- Think no more, lad 1:16
- The lads in their hundreds 2:12
- Is my team ploughing? 3:24
- Long Time Ago Aaron Copland (Traditional) 2:33
- Simple Gifts Aaron Copland (Traditional) 1:56
- At the River Aaron Copland (Traditional) 2:45
- Ching-a-Ring Chaw Aaron Copland (Traditional) 1:38
- Come away, come away, death 3:17
- Who is Silvia? 1:28
- Fear no more the heat o' the sun 5:20
- O Mistress mine 2:02
- It was a lover and his lass 2:29
- The Ploughboy Benjamin Britten (Traditional) Arr: Benjamin Britten 1:47
- The Salley Gardens Benjamin Britten (Traditional) W. B. Yeats Arr: Benjamin Britten 2:40
- The Miller of Dee Benjamin Britten (Traditional) Arr: Benjamin Britten 1:37
- O Waly Waly Benjamin Britten (Traditional) Arr: Benjamin Britten 3:29
- Oliver Cromwell Benjamin Britten (Traditional) Arr: Benjamin Britten :41
A Shropshire Lad George Butterworth Alfred Edward Housman
Let Us Garlands Bring, Op. 18 Gerald Finzi William Shakespeare
Performers
Composers
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare's sonnets and the songs embedded in his plays remain living lyric for composers. On these recordings his words surface in art song, lieder and choral settings that still carry love, wit, jealousy and foolery.
Alfred Edward Housman
Alfred Edward Housman's A Shropshire Lad gave English song its most durable pastoral texts: spare, fatalistic lyrics of youth, death and an idealised countryside that composers keep returning to for cycles of art song.
W. B. Yeats
W. B. Yeats (1865–1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist and writer, and one of the foremost figures of twentieth-century literature. His lyric verse, steeped in Irish legend and craft, has long been set for the concert platform.
Where to listen
A Shropshire Lad is available for streaming through Apple Music. It can also be purchased through the iTunes Music Store.
A Shropshire Lad is available as a CD. It can be purchased online through Buywell Music or the Australian Music Centre which both offer online ordering.
Product details
- Catalogue number
- MD 3231
- List price
- $25.00 AUD
- Total playing time
- 46 minutes 15 seconds
- Recording Engineer
- Vaughan McAlley
- Editing Engineer
- Vaughan McAlley
- Mastering Engineer
- Vaughan McAlley
- Venue
- Move Records Studio
- Thanks to
- City of Melbourne
Song Recital Award - Release date
- 18 Jul 2000
- Musical work
copyright - © 2000 Move Records
- Sound recording
copyright - ℗ 2000 Move Records
- Categories
- Classical, Vocal
- Genres
- Vocal & Opera, Folk
- Barcode
- EAN 9314574323122
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