John Pickard: Songs for Voice and Piano
The English composer John Pickard (b. 1963) is best known for a series of powerful orchestral works, five symphonies among them. But this album of songs – his complete output for voice and piano to date – demonstrates that he can generate drama on a smaller scale, too. These settings – of two less familiar poets of the First World War, often exploring man’s relationship with nature, and a translation of a ninth-century Anglo-Saxon phantasmagorical allegory – encompass a wide range of moods, requiring soaring vocal lines, declamatory authority and the gentlest intimacy, supported by piano textures that can are up in freewheeling virtuosity.
Roderick Williams, baritone (Tracks 1-5, 7-15)
Eve Daniell, soprano (Track 6)
Simon Lepper, piano
Listen To This Recording:
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Binyon Songs (2010–12)
- Binyon Songs: I Nature Audio Player
- Binyon Songs: II Sowing Seed Audio Player
- Binyon Songs: III Autumn Song Audio Player
- Binyon Songs: IV When all the world is hidden Audio Player
- Binyon Songs: V The Burning of the Leaves
- The Phoenix
- The Borders of Sleep: I Tall Nettles Audio Player
- The Borders of Sleep: II The Trumpet Audio Player
- The Borders of Sleep: III The Mill-Water Audio Player
- The Borders of Sleep: IV Out in the Dark Audio Player
- The Borders of Sleep: V The Gallows Audio Player
- The Borders of Sleep: VI Rain Audio Player
- The Borders of Sleep: VII No One Cares Less Than I Audio Player
- The Borders of Sleep: VIII Last Poem (The Sorrow of True Love) Audio Player
- The Borders of Sleep: IX Lights Out
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The Phoenix (1992)
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The Borders of Sleep (2000–1)
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FIRST RECORDINGS
MusicWeb International :
‘Pickard brings a sense of aching beauty to his setting of these words, matched by the emotionally charged singing of Roderick Williams and the plangent playing of Simon Lepper. […]
The recorded sound too is excellent and atmospheric, and this CD should be snapped up by all those who have an interest in the evolution of English song in the post-Britten era.’
—Paul Corfield Godfrey, MusicWeb International