PRESIDENT: SIR ANDREW DAVIS CBE
Sing Willow
Shakespeare Songs
Sing Willow is a celebration, pairing some of Shakespeare’s finest texts with settings by the best choral composers of present and recent times in a recording where every song is a world première. This combination has produced a recording that is exciting and fresh, bringing new life and perspective to these stunning texts.
CRITICAL REVIEWS
Fanfare Magazine
The choir of 31 students and graduates of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, sings less than 10 minutes of music by Vaughan Williams, and all of that in arrangement. Those ten minutes are, it should be noted, quite marvelous, and the arrangements for women’s voices by Douglas Guest and William Pasfield suit the music perfectly.
Central to the program are two collections, for one of which it is barely creditable that it is only now receiving first recording. That is a 1998 compilation of upper-voice settings, several written for specific boy choirs, by the dean of British choir masters, David Willcocks. They are as marvelously endearing as the man reportedly was himself. The other is a more recent publication (2015) by Bob Chilcott, entitled collectively Hark, Hark the Lark, and commissioned to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.
Andrew Nunn’s program notes are as lucid and stylish as is his conducting. In all, this release is a delight for the ear and for the heart and is warmly recommended.
Ronald E Grames
Postage is fixed at £3 per order – to anywhere in the world – irrespective of the number of CDs in the order.
- Over Hill, Over Dale
Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) 1’14
arr. Douglas Guest (1916-1996) - The Cloud-capp’d Towers
Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) 1’59
arr. Douglas Guest (1916-1996) - The Willow Song
Vaughan Williams
arr. William Pasfield (1909-1994) 1’574 - Dirge for Fidele
Vaughan Williams - Sonnet
James MacMillan 2’436 - Canon
Kenneth Leighton (1929-1988) 1’14
FIVE SHAKESPEARE SONGS
David Willcocks(1919-2015)
- Who is Silvia? 2’43
- Under the Greenwood Tree 1’45
- Full Fathom Five 2’54
- Fear no more the Heat o’ the Sun 4’54
- It was a Lover and his Lass 2’20
compiled and edited Bob Chilcott
- And will he not Come Again?
Paul Jarman 4’03 - Blow, Blow, thou Winter Wind
Sarah Quartel 2’37 - Come unto these Yellow Sands
Bob Chilcott 1’28 - Hark, Hark, the Lark
Alan Bullard 2’23 - Our Revels now are Ended
Bob Chilcott 2’59 - Over Hill, Over Dale
Andrea Ramsay 3’09 - When Icicles Hang by the Wall
Stephen Hatfield 2’46 - You Spotted Snakes with Double Tongue
Jussi Chydenius 3’42 - Full Fathom Five
Michael Neaum 1’36 - Come Away, Come Away, Death Christopher Delp 3’44
- Music to Hear Bob
Chilcott 3’48 - It was a Lover and his Lass
John Rutter 2’24 - When Daisies Pied
John Rutter 3’21
Total playing time: 67’55
Les Sirènes Female Chamber Choir
Andrew Nunn ~ Musical Director
Fionnuala Ward ~ Accompanist
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