John Joubert: Song-Cycles and Chamber Music
The music of John Joubert – born in 1927 in Cape Town, a student at the Royal Academy of Music in London in the 1940s and ’50s, and Birmingham-based since 1962 – has a strong sense of melody, his beguiling lyricism combining with an acute sensitivity to words to produce songs that are both colourful and evocative. These four song-cycles pay tribute to the places and poets that inspired them. And his chamberworks, drawing on a rich instrumental palette and haunting melodic lines, are memorable and dramatically effective.
Lesley-Jane Rogers, soprano
John Turner, recorder
Richard Tunnicliffe, cello
John McCabe, piano
Listen To This Recording:
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The Hour Hand, Op. 101, for soprano and recorder (1982)
- The Hour Hand
- Cock ’round the Clock
- Horizontal Beams
- Low Tide
- Winter Sun
- Shropshire Hills
- Early Spring in the Marches
- Clun Forest
- Improvisation, Op. 120, for recorder and piano (1982)
- Kontakion, Op. 69, for cello and piano (1982)
- Spring Day in Arrowtown
- Tombstone Song
- The Gardener’s Song
- The Rose is Shaken in the Wind
- Harp
- Sleep
- Oracle
- Storm
- Caged Bird
- Immortality
Shropshire Hills, Op. 155, for high voice and piano (1982)
The Rose is Shaken in the Wind, Op. 137, for soprano and recorder (1982)
Six Poems by Emily Brontë, Op. 63, for soprano and piano (1982)
The Observer :
‘They burst with his characteristic melodic inventiveness and vivid word setting and are beautifully captured here by Lesley-Jane Rogers. Chamber pieces are also included, with John McCabe, who has long championed Joubert’s work, in fine form at the keyboard.’
—Stephen Pritchard, The Observer
MusicWeb International :
‘The result in short is that each poem is enhanced as is a jewel by a fine setting, which of course is ultimately what the art song is all about. Inevitably this demands an uncompromising standard of technical as well as artistic ability, which from these executants is a sine qua non.’
—Roger Carpenter, MusicWeb International
MusicWeb International :
‘As expected, this majestically confident collection is matched by a booklet that includes the complete texts.
This is a crucial disc in the advocacy and appreciation of Joubert’s music.’
—Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International