Benjamin Godard
Benjamin Godard wrote Romantic operas, songs and chamber music in a lyrical vein close to Mendelssohn and Schumann. The Berceuse from his opera Jocelyn remains his best-known piece, and his smaller works travel easily to flute, harp and the salon.
His output was large: eight operas, five symphonies, violin and piano concertos, quartets, sonatas and more than a hundred songs. The music that lasts is often the intimate side of that list, from salon piano pieces and song settings such as Florian’s Song to the tender cradle song that made Jocelyn famous. The writing is melodic and direct rather than grandly dramatic, closer to domestic performance than to Wagnerian scale, which is why arrangements for mixed duo and early recorded song still carry his name.
Compositions by Benjamin Godard appear on
Amy Castles: Court Singer
Amy Castles, the Australian dramatic soprano once hailed as the “Australian nightingale”, left landmark gramophone sides from London and Australian sessions in the early twentieth century. This disc gathers eighteen restored arias, salon songs and ballads.
Miscellany for Flute and Harp
Throughout history composers have been drawn to the flute and harp pairing, from the shepherd’s pan-pipes and Orphean lyre of ancient Arcadia to the French court of Marie-Antoinette and Mozart’s duo concerto for the two instruments.