A Countertenor Songbook
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Release Date: 19 October 2018
Label: NMC Recordings
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 5023363024327
Genres: Classical  Contemporary  
Release Date: 19 October 2018
Label: NMC Recordings
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 5023363024327
Genres: Classical  Contemporary  
Description
This album brings together the works of seven very different composers in a single songbook. Most of the pieces were written specially for countertenor Andrew Watts, who has championed contemporary music for the thirty years he has been singing professionally. He has established a reputation for being one of the foremost operatic countertenors of his generation and has appeared on opera and concert platforms throughout the world.
The two most senior composers on this recording link back to Andrew at the start of his career. His school music master Neville Bower (1934-2007) set three poems from William Blake's Songs of Innocence specially for Andrew, and when Andrew was an emerging singer, Michael Tippett (1905–1998) coached him on his song cycle Songs for Ariel, written for an Old Vic production of William Shakespeare's The Tempest.
Colin Matthews (b1946) has long been fascinated with nineteenth-century French poets and the fin-de-siècle sound and in his song cycle Un Colloque Sentimental uses poems by Paul Verlaine, Charles Baudelaire and Gerard de Nerval. Michael Finnissy (b1946) chooses German dramatist Georg Büchner as his inspiration, setting extracts from Woyzeck and Lenz.
Kings, knights and troubadours are the themes explored in the recent works written for Andrew by Joe Cutler (b1968), Tansy Davies (b1973) and Raymond Yiu (b1973), and there is an extra piece by Raymond Yiu; a piano and countertenor arrangement of the fifth movement of his Symphony for countertenor and orchestra.
Andrew Watts writes: 'I am indebted to all of the composers featured on this recording for their kindness over the years and for agreeing to be a part of this journey. From a last-minute coaching session at the Royal Academy of Music with Michael Tippett in 1986 to a random drink at Dartington in 2013 with Joe Cutler, this recording also charts the incredible serendipity and bringing together of people through music.'
Tracklisting
Lisa Illean, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, GBSR Duo, Juliet Fraser, Explore Ensemble
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins, Andrew Davis
BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, London Sinfonietta, Ryan Wigglesworth, Huw Watkins
Richard Baker
Mark Padmore, BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta
Zubin Kanga
Thomas Simaku, soloists of Ensemble Intercontemporain
Onyx Brass
Kurt Rosenwinkel
Tomasz Stanko Quartet
Jiem
Ant Law & Brigitte Beraha
Tom Green Septet
Patchwork Jazz Orchestra
Elaine Delmar
Ross McHenry