This disc is the first release from Stone Records, Mark's own CD label, recorded with his long-time collaborator, Stephen Barlow. It is a unique collection of English love songs by some of the greatest English composers including Vaughan Williams, Purcell, Britten, Dowland, Finzi and Warlock. All of the songs are firm favourites; amongst the most well known are Silent worship, Where’er you walk, If music be the food of love and The salley gardens. It also includes a world première recording of a new song by Stephen. The disc was recorded at Potton Hall in Suffolk.
The opera, in its 2-act version, was recorded during 2 concert performances at the Barbican Hall on 7th & 9th December 2007. As principal guest conductor, Daniel Harding conducts the London Symphony Orchestra. Billy Budd is one of Britten’s greatest masterpieces, containing three of his major operatic roles. Set amid the claustrophobia and cruelties of a battleship in Nelson’s time, it shows the ruthless destruction of good-hearted able seaman Budd by sadistic master-at-arms Claggart, and the mental conflicts of intellectual but weak-willed Captain Vere, who is powerless to prevent it. The music is suitably gripping, by turns intense and exciting, and full of the insights and inspirations typical of its composer.
This highly romantic melodrama, first staged at La Scala in 1829, was initially a success and only fell from grace when the bel canto style itself became unfashionable. The score points forward to Bellini’s greatest works and on its own account includes superb dramatic writing and those characteristic ‘long, long melodies of which he alone had the secret’, as Verdi put it. It was recorded at Henry Wood Hall in 2007 prior to a live concert at The Festival Hall. The 2 CD set comes with a lavishly illustrated book including a complete libretto with an English translation. Article and synopsis by Benjamin Walton – Lecturer of Music, Jesus College, Cambridge.
This double-CD set is the first release in a four-CD series which will feature all the songs by the English composer Roger Quilter (1877-1953). They were recorded with the pianist Stephen Barlow at Champs Hill in Sussex, UK. These first two CDs include settings of poems by Shakespeare and Shelley.
This double-CD was recorded by Opera Rara at Henry Wood Hall, London with the LPO conducted by David Parry. It features rare arias and ensembles from the world of Offenbach operetta and is an absolute hoot!
