GRAMOPHONE AWARD WINNER 2011

BENJAMIN BRITTEN

OF

Songs & Proverbs

William Blake

GERALD FINLEY
JULIUS DRAKE

my new publishers, whose fathers poems have meant so

much to me all through my life. (The reference was to
Richard de la Mare, who was celebrating his seventieth
birthday in that year, and who had become Chairman
of Faber Music in 1966, having previously served as
Chairman of the parent company Faber & Faber.) Brittens
punctilious attention to detail in his manuscripts meant
that all the songs could be dated fairly precisely: A Song of
Enchantment was composed in January 1929, Autumn
(originally accompanied by string quartet) on 28 January
1931, Silver on 13 June 1928, Vigil on 23 December
1930, and the concluding title song in the first two weeks
of 1929. In his preface to the published score, Britten
noted that oddly enough, the inadequacies seemed to be
more striking in the later songsnew musical styles had
appeared on the composers horizon too recently to be
assimilated At any rate, although I hold no claims
whatever for the songs importance or originality, I do feel
that the boys vision has a simplicity and clarity which
might have given a little pleasure to the great poet, with his
unique insight into a childs mind.
Four years before Shirley-Quirk gave the premiere of
Tit for Tat, the Aldeburgh Festival had also been the venue
for a more substantial and challenging baritone cycle,
the Songs and Proverbs of William Blake 5 bt.
Brittens close association with the legendary German
baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau began in the early
1960s, and the baritone parts in Brittens War Requiem
(1962) and Cantata Misericordium (1963) had been
written specifically for him to sing. Shortly afterwards the
composer embarked on the composition of a solo songcycle designed to showcase Fischer-Dieskaus unique
blend of intense lyricism and dramatic characterization,
and Britten turned for inspiration to the vivid and
sometimes visionary poetry of William Blake. Brittens
working title for the cyclewhich was based on fourteen

LTHOUGH BRITTEN is particularly celebrated for

the substantial body of music he composed for
the tenor voicealmost all of it directly inspired
by the artistry of his long-term partner and creative muse,
Peter Pearsthe composer also left an important legacy
of music for baritone. Characteristically, Brittens output
for low voice was also inspired by the talents of specific
performers with whom he was closely associated, among
them Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, John Shirley-Quirk, Owen
Brannigan and Benjamin Luxon. In addition to songcycles, individual songs and folksong arrangements,
Britten wrote challenging baritone roles in operas as
diverse as Billy Budd (1951), Owen Wingrave (1970) and
Death in Venice (1972)the title role of the second of
these made very much Gerald Finleys own in his
magnificent interpretation in Margaret Williamss 2001
television film of the opera. Even when Britten was writing
for other singers, however, Pearss influence remained
apparent in the composers choice of texts for musical
setting, which often reflected the tenors literary tastes as
well as Brittens own.
The many poems set to music by Britten when he was
a prolific schoolboy composer date from long before he
met Pears, and the composers literary choices were at
that early stage fairly conservative. Brittens favourite poet
during his youth was Walter de la Mare, and in 1968 the
mature composer assembled a set of five of his juvenile
settings of de la Mares poetry under the title Tit for Tat
bu co , which was given its first performance by John
Shirley-Quirk and the composer at the Aldeburgh Festival
in 1969. In his programme note written for the occasion,
Britten commented that he had made his selection from
songs composed between the ages of fourteen and
seventeen; he said that he had cleaned them very slightly,
and here at this first performance, offer them in gratitude
to the poets son, the wise and encouraging chairman of
2

and every Morn that frame the cycle are closely related
in their ambiguous and subtly disturbing chromaticism,
while greater tonal simplicity is reserved for natural
scenes: the bright glow of The Tyger and the lament for
The Fly. Moments of tremendous rhetorical power are
strategically located in A Poison Tree and Ah, Sun-flower.
A Poison Tree features a highly original use of simple
major and minor triads within a context of chromatic
saturation. The young Britten had previously set this same
Blake text to music on 2 March 1935; the earlier song
remained unperformed until 1986, and is also included
in the present recording (see track cq ). As in the opera The
Turn of the Screw (1954), the intense chromaticism of the
mature treatment of this gripping text serves as a graphic
symbol of cankerous evil, and forms the utterly chilling
core of the cycle.
The last of Brittens many published sets of folksong
arrangements was prepared in the summer of 1976,
shortly before his death, and featured harp rather than
piano accompaniment since the composer had for some
time been too ill to accompany Pears in public. The harpist
Osian Ellis had accordingly become one of Pearss regular
accompanists, and the 1976 folksongs were designed to
serve (as had Brittens earlier folksong settings with piano)
as popular encore items for the duo. Shes like the
swallow 2 and Bird Scarers Song do were first
performed in this capacity at the Aldeburgh Festival on 17
June 1976, and Lemady 1 was first performed at the
University of Chicago on 10 November 1977. David of the
White Rock (Dafydd y Garreg Wen) cu was a tribute to
Elliss Welsh ancestry. The Eight Folksong Arrangements
of which these songs formed part were published posthumously in two distinct editions in 1980, the original
with harp accompaniment and an alternative version with
piano accompaniment prepared by the composers music
assistant Colin Matthews.

short but striking Blake texts selected by Pearswas

Songs and Sentences of William Blake. The score was
completed on 6 April 1965, the manuscript inscribed with
the words For Dieter: the past and the future. The work,
under its slightly revised title, was first performed by its
dedicatee and composer at Aldeburghs Parish Church on
24 June 1965, and six months later the two men recorded
their powerful interpretation for Decca at Kingsway Hall,
London.
Brittens Blake cycle returns in places to the dark
intensity of his much earlier Blake setting, The Sick Rose
(Elegy) from the Serenade for tenor, horn and strings of
1943. Both the fully chromatic melody and striking image
of cankerous corruption in the earlier song look directly
ahead to the Songs and Proverbswhich are based on
texts drawn from Blakes Songs of Experience (1794), in
which The Sick Rose is also to be found. With the addition
of one poem from the Songs of Innocence (1789) and
several epigrams from the undated Proverbs of Hell,
Britten created a continuous structure in which the
Proverbs are set to recurrent but constantly reworked
ritornello material, a structural plan familiar from other
Britten works of the late 1950s and early 1960s (principally the orchestral song-cycle Nocturne, the opera A
Midsummer Nights Dream and the Cantata Misericordium). These stark Proverbs are clearly distinguished
from the songs they punctuate by their disconcerting lack
of metrical synchronization between voice and pianoa
feature retained from the Church Parable Curlew River,
composed in the previous yearand they also make
limited use of twelve-note techniques.
As so often in Brittens later music, the tension
between luminous diatonicism and elusive chromaticism
is exploited throughout the cycle as a potent symbol for the
conflict between innocence and experience at the heart of
Blakes poetry. The settings of London and Every Night
3

This Way to the Tomb, a play by Ronald Duncan, who in

the following year went on to provide the libretto for
Brittens opera The Rape of Lucretia.
Two other songs date from the 1950s, although the
date of the second remains uncertain. In 1952, Britten
prepared a comic duet arrangement of the Appalachian
folksong The Deaf Womans Courtship dn for Kathleen
Ferrier to sing as part of a national tour with Pears and
Britten conceived with the aim of raising funds for the
English Opera Group. According to Brittens memoir of
Ferrier, she sang her part in a feeble, cracked voice, the
perfect reply to Peters magisterial roar. A masterpiece of
humour, which had the audience rocking, but never broke
the style of the rest of the concert. After Ferriers untimely
death, the contralto part was taken over by Norma Procter,
though the arrangement was to remain unpublished until
2001. Brittens setting of Goethes Um Mitternacht cp
(published in 1994) was probably composed in 1959,
shortly after the composers strong interest in German
poetry had borne fruit in his tenor song-cycle Sechs
Hlderlin-Fragmente. At this time, Pears was enjoying an
enviable reputation as one of the leading exponents of
Lieder in the world, repeatedly earning ecstatic reviews in
the German press that inspired the BBC to capitalize on
this success by carefully promoting his and Brittens work
in Germany.

The other songs on the present disc also received

exposure and publication only after the composers death
in December 1976. Several date from the early 1940s
when Britten and Pears were beginning to make their
names in the USA as a recital duo: these include the setting
of Greensleeves dl and The Crocodile dm , the latter
performed on 14 December 1941 at a concert given under
the Auspices of the American Womens Hospitals Reserve
Corps at Southold High School in upstate New York, as part
of a programme that also included Charles Dibdins Tom
Bowling (1789) 4 a song of which Britten later prepared his own realization, launched at the Aldeburgh
Festival in 1959 and recorded by Pears in the same year. I
wonder as I wander 3 was frequently performed alongside Brittens folksong arrangements in his recitals with
Pears following their return to the UK in 1942, but they
never recorded or published it since they subsequently
discovered that the words and melody were not in the
public domain: the song had been published by John
Jacob Niles in 1934, and in direct consequence Brittens
version did not receive its first recording until 1995,
thanks to a belated special arrangement between Niless
publishers and the Britten Estate. The triptych Evening,
Morning and Night cr ct (first published in 1988)
originally formed part of the incidental music Britten
composed in 1945 for the Masque and Anti-Masque of

MERVYN COOKE 2010

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to send you one free of charge.
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1 Lemady

If Jesus had wanted for any wee thing,

A star in the sky, or a bird on the wing;
Or all of Gods angels in heavn for to sing,
He surely couldve had it for he was the King!

One midsummers morn as I were a-walking

The fields and the meadows were covered with green,
The birds a-sweetly singing so pleasant and so charming,
So early in the morning by the break of the day.

4 Tom Bowling

Arise, arise, go pluck your love a posy

Of the prettiest flowers that grows in yonder green,
O yes Ill arise and pluck lilies, pinks and roses
All for my dearest Lemady, the girl I adore.

Here, a sheer hulk, lies poor Tom Bowling,

the darling of our crew;
No more hell hear the tempest howling
for death has broached him to.
His form was of the manliest beauty,
his heart was kind and soft,
Faithful below Tom did his duty,
and now hes gone aloft.

O Lemady, O Lemady what a lovely lass thou art,

Thou art the fairest creature that ever my eye did see!
Ill play you a tune all on the pipes of ivory
So early in the morning by the break of the day.
MARY NEAL (18601924)

Tom never from his word departed,

his virtues were so rare,
His friends were many and true-hearted,
his Poll was kind and fair.
And then hed sing so blithe and jolly,
ah, manys the time and oft,
But mirth is turned to melancholy,
for Tom is gone aloft.

2 Shes like the swallow

Shes like the swallow that flies so high,
Shes like the river that never runs dry,
Shes like the sunshine on the lee shore,
I love my love and love is no more.
Twas out in the garden this fair maid did go,
A-picking the beautiful primerose;
The more she pluckd the more she pulled
Until she got her aperon full.

Yet shall poor Tom find pleasant weather

when he who all commands
Shall give, to call lifes crew together,
the word to pipe all hands.
Thus Death, who kings and tars despatches,
in vain Toms life hath doffed,
For though his bodys under hatches,
his soul is gone aloft.

Its out of those roses she made a bed,

A stony pillow for her head.
She laid her down, no word did say,
Until this fair maids heart did break.

3 I wonder as I wander

CHARLES DIBDIN (17451814)

I wonder as I wander out under the sky,

How Jesus our Saviour did come for to die.
For poor ornry people like you and like I,
I wonder as I wander out under the sky.

Songs and Proverbs of William Blake

5 Proverb I
The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.
The lust of the goat is the bounty of God.
The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God.
The nakedness of woman is the work of God.

When Mary birthed Jesus twas in a cow stall,

With wise men and shepherds and farmers and all.
On high from Gods heaven the stars light did fall,
And the promise of the ages it did then recall.

6 London

9 Proverb III

I wander thro each charterd street,

Near where the charterd Thames does flow
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.

bl A Poison Tree
I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.

In every cry of every Man,

In every Infants cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forgd manacles I hear.

And I waterd it in fears,

Night and morning with my tears;
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.

How the Chimney-sweepers cry

Every blackning Church appalls,
And the hapless Soldiers sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls.

And it grew both day and night,

Till it bore an apple bright.
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine.

But most thro midnight streets I hear

How the youthful Harlots curse
Blasts the new-born Infants tear
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.

And into my garden stole

When the night had veild the pole,
In the morning glad I see
My foe outstretchd beneath the tree.

7 Proverb II
Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels
with bricks of Religion.

bm Proverb IV

8 The Chimney-Sweeper

Think in the morning. Act in the noon.

Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.

A little black thing among the snow,

Crying weep weep in notes of woe!
Where are thy father and mother? say?
They are both gone up to the church to pray.

bn The Tyger
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

Because I was happy upon the heath,

And smild among the winters snow
They clothed me in the clothes of death,
And taught me to sing the notes of woe.

In what distant deeps or skies

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And because I am happy and dance and sing

They think they have done me no injury,
And are gone to praise God and his Priest and King
Who make up a heaven of our misery.

And what shoulder, and what art,

Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? and what dread feet?

bq Proverb VI

What the hammer? what the chain?

In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

The hours of folly are measurd by the clock; but of wisdom,

no clock can measure.
The busy bee has no time for sorrow.
Eternity is in love with the productions of time.

When the stars threw down their spears,

And waterd heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

br Ah, Sun-flower
Ah, Sun-flower! weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the Sun;
Seeking after that sweet golden clime,
Where the travellers journey is done:

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Where the Youth pined away with desire,

And the pale Virgin shrouded in snow,
Arise from their graves and aspire
Where my Sun-flower wishes to go.

bo Proverb V
The tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.
If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.
If others had not been foolish, we should be so.

bs Proverb VII
To see a World in a Grain of Sand,
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand,
And Eternity in an hour.

bp The Fly
Little Fly,
Thy summers play
My thoughtless hand
Has brushd away.

bt Every Night and every Morn

Every Night and every Morn
Some to Misery are Born.
Every Morn and every Night
Some are Born to sweet delight.
Some are Born to sweet delight,
Some are Born to Endless Night.
We are led to Believe a Lie
When we see not Thro the Eye,
Which was Born in a Night, to perish in a Night,
When the Soul Slept in Beams of Light.
God Appears and God is Light
To those poor Souls who dwell in Night,
But does a Human Form Display
To those who Dwell in Realms of Day.

Am not I
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?
For I dance
And drink and sing:
Till some blind hand
Shall brush my wing.
If thought is life
And strength and breath
And the want
Of thought is death;
Then am I
A happy fly,
If I live,
Or if I die.

WILLIAM BLAKE (17571827)

cm Silver

Tit for Tat

Slowly, silently, now the moon

Walks the night in her silver shoon.
This way, and that, she peers and sees
Silver fruit upon silver trees;

bu A Song of Enchantment
A Song of Enchantment I sang me there,
In a green-green wood, by waters fair,
Just as the words came up to me
I sang it under the wild wood tree.

One by one the casements catch

Her beams beneath the silvery thatch;
Couched in his kennel, like a log,
With paws of silver sleeps the dog;

Widdershins turned I, singing it low,

Watching the wild birds come and go;
No cloud in the deep dark blue to be seen
Under the thick-thatched branches green.

A harvest mouse goes scampering by,

With silvery claws, and silver eye;
And moveless fish in the water gleam,
By silver reeds in a silver stream.

Twilight came; silence came;

The planet of evenings silver flame;
By darkening paths I wandered through
Thickets trembling with drops of dew.

cn Vigil
Dark is the night,
The fire burns faint and low,
Hoursdaysyears,
Into grey ashes go;
I strive to read,
But sombre is the glow.

But the music is lost and the words are gone

Of the song I sang as I sat alone,
Ages and ages have fallen on me
On the wood and the pool and the elder tree.

cl Autumn
Theres a wind where the rose was;
Cold rain where sweet grass was;
And clouds like sheep
Stream oer the steep
Grey skies where the lark was.

Thumbed are the pages,

And the print is small;
Mocking the winds
That from the darkness call;
Feeble the fire that lends
Its light withal.

Nought gold where your hair was;

Nought warm where your hand was;
But phantom, forlorn,
Beneath the thorn,
Your ghost where your face was.

O ghost, draw nearer;

Let thy shadowy hair
Blot out the pages
That we cannot share;
Be ours the one last leaf
By Fate left bare!

Sad winds where your voice was;

Tears, tears where my heart was;
And ever with me,
Child, ever with me,
Silence where hope was.

cp Um Mitternacht

Lets Finis scrawl,

And then Lifes book put by;
Turn each to each
In all simplicity:
Ere the last flame is gone
To warm us by.

Um Mitternacht ging ich, nicht eben gerne,

Klein kleiner Knabe, jenen Kirchhof hin
Zu Vaters Haus, des Pfarrers; Stern am Sterne
Sie leuchteten doch alle gar zu schn,
Um Mitternacht.
Wenn ich dann ferner in des Lebens Weite
Zur Liebsten mute, mute, weil sie zog
Gestirn und Nordschein ber mir im Streite.
Ich gehend, kommend Seligkeiten sog;
Um Mitternacht.

co Tit for Tat

Have you been catching of fish, Tom Noddy?
Have you snared a weeping hare?
Have you whistled No Nunny and gunned a poor bunny,
Or a blinded bird of the air?

Bis dann zuletzt des vollen Mondes Helle

So klar und deutlich mir ins Finstere drang,
Auch der Gedanke willig, sinnig, schnelle
Sich ums Vergangne wie ums Knftige schlang;
Um Mitternacht.

Have you trod like a murderer through the green woods,

Through the dewy deep dingles and glooms,
While every small creature cries shrill to Dame Nature
He comesand he comes!?
Wonder I very much do, Tom Noddy,
If ever, when you are a-roam,
An ogre from space will stoop a lean face
And lug you home:

At midnight
At midnight, as a very little boy, I would walk,
Far from willingly, past that churchyard
To fathers vicarage; star on star,
How beautifully they all shone;
At midnight.

Lug you home over his fence, Tom Noddy,

Of thorn-stocks nine yards high,
With your bent knees strung round his old iron gun
And your head dan-dangling by:

When further on in life I had to go

To my beloved, had to because she drew me on,
I saw the stars and Northern Lights compete;
I came, I went, drinking in her bliss;
At midnight.

And hang you up stiff on a hook, Tom Noddy,

From a stone-cold pantry shelf,
Whence your eyes will glare in an empty stare,
Till you are cooked yourself!

Until at last the full moons radiance

Pierced my darkness so clearly and brightly,
That even my thoughts, willingly, meaningfully, swiftly
Embraced the past and the future;
At midnight.

WALTER DE LA MARE (18731956)

by permission of The Literary Trustees of Walter De La Mare
and the Society of Authors as their representative

JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE (17491832)

English translation by Richard Stokes

cq A Poison Tree

ct Night

see track bl for text

Night is no more than a cat which creeps to the saucer of

light laps, then sleeps.
Night is no more than the place waves reach with their
hands of surf seeking the beach.
Night is no more than the hounds of fear with bloody jowl
and bark bullying the year.
Night is no more than my love who lies
She dreams of a dream lives, then dies.

cr Evening
The red fox, the sun, tears the throat of the evening; makes
the light of the day bleed into the ocean.
The laced grace of gulls lift up from the corn fields; fly
across the sunset, scarlet their silhouette.
The old owl, the moon, drifts from its loose thatch of clouds,
throws an ivory glance on an enamelled sea.
Eyes of mice, the stars, from the privacy of light peep into
the darkness with the temerity of night.

RONALD DUNCAN (19141982)

The Ronald Duncan poems are taken from
This Way to the Tomb: A Masque and Anti-Masque
(London: Faber and Faber, 1946). Reproduced by kind permission of
the Ronald Duncan Literary Foundation

RONALD DUNCAN (19141982)

cs Morning

cu David of the White Rock

Morning is only
A heron rising
With great wings
Lifting day into the sky.

Life and its follies are fading away,

Love hath departed, why then should I stay?
Cold is my pale cheek and furrowed with care,
Dim is my eyesight, and snow-white my hair.

Morning is only
The white plumes of smoke
As the velvet snake
Night leaves the green valley.

Near me, in silence, my harp lies unstrung,

Weak are my fingers, and faltring my tongue!
Tuneful companion, we parted must be;
Thou canst no longer bring comfort to me.

Morning is only
A scarlet stallion
Jumping the ocean,
Its mane aflame on the sea.

Yet ere we sever, thy master would fain

Swan-like expire in a last dying strain;
And when above him the cypress bough wave,
Spirits shall murmur it over his grave.

Morning is only
Women bent at the well
Lifting their pails full
Of their hearts, too heavy.

JOHN HUGHES (16771720)

translated by THOMAS OLIPHANT (17991873)

dl Greensleeves
Alas, my love, you do me wrong,
To cast me off discourteously;
And I have loved you so long,
Rejoicing in your company.

RONALD DUNCAN (19141982)

10

Greensleeves was all my joy,

Greensleeves was my delight,
Greensleeves was my heart of gold,
And who but my lady Greensleeves?

While up aloft the wind was high,

It blew a gale from the south.
I lost my hold and away did fly
Right into the crocodiles mouth.
He quickly closed his jaws on me,
And thought hed got a victim,
But I ran down his throat, dye see?
And thats the way I tricked him.

I have been ready at your hand,

To grant whatever you did crave;
And I have waged both life and land,
Your love and good-will for to gain.

I travelled on for a month or two,

Till I got into his maw,
Where I found of rum-kegs not a few,
And a thousand fat bullocks in store.
Of life I banished all my care,
For of food I was not stinted,
And in this crocodile I lived ten years
And very well contented.

dm The Crocodile
Now listen you landsmen unto me,
To tell you the truth Im bound,
What happened to me by going to sea,
And the wonders that I found:
Shipwrecked I was once off Perouse,
And cast upon the shore,
So then I did resolve to roam,
The country to explore.

This crocodile being very old,

One day, alas he died.
He was ten long years a-getting cold,
He was so long and wide.
His skin was eight miles thick, Im sure,
Or very near about,
For I was full ten years or more
A-cutting my way out.

To my rit fal lal li bollem tit! To my rit fal lal li dee!

To my rit fal lal li bollem tit! To my rit fal lal li dee!
Twas far I had not scouted out
When close alongside the ocean
I saw something move which at first I thought
Was all the world in motion;
But steering up close alongside
I found twas a crocodile;
And from his nose to the tip of his tail
He measured five hundred mile.

And now I am once more got on earth

Ive vowed no more to roam,
In a ship that passed I got a berth,
And now Im safe at home.
And if my story you should doubt,
Should you ever travel the Nile,
Its ten to one youll find the shell
Of the wonderful crocodile.

Twas a crocodile, I plainly could see

He was not of a common race,
For I was obliged to climb a high tree
Before I could see his face;
And when he lifted up his jaw
Though perhaps you may think tis a lie,
He reached above the clouds for miles three score,
And almost touched the sky.

11

dn The Deaf Womans Courtship

do Bird Scarers Song

Old woman, old woman, are you fond of smoking?

Speak a little louder, sir, Im rather fond of hearing.

Shoo all er birds you be so black,

When I lay down to have a nap.
Shoo arlo arlo arlo arlo arlo arlo arlo arlo birds.
Hi shoo all er birds!

Old woman, old woman, are you fond of knitting?

Speak a little louder, sir, Im rather hard of hearing.

Out of masters ground into Tom Tuckers ground,

Out of Tom Tuckers ground into Luke Coless ground
Out of Luke Coless ground into Bill Veaters ground.
Shoo arlo arlo arlo arlo arlo arlo arlo arlo birds.
Ha! Ha!

Old woman, old woman, will you let me court you?

Speak a little louder, sir, I just begin to hear you.

Sim Canetty-Clarke

Old woman, old woman, dont you want to marry me?

Lawks a mercy on you, sir, I think that now I hear you.

12

Also available by Gerald Finley and Julius Drake on Hyperion

SAMUEL BARBER (19101981) Songs
(with The Aronowitz Ensemble for Dover Beach, Op 3)
Compact Disc CDA67528
In my book, Samuel Barber is one of the finest of all songwriters of the 20th
century Finley communicates with finesse every poetic nuance, his golden
baritone allied to rare poetic intelligence (The Sunday Times) Gerald Finley is
golden in tone, persuasive in phrasing, and unfailingly responsive to the sound
and sense of the words A very satisfying recital (BBC Music Magazine)
GRAMOPHONE AWARD WINNER
CHARLES IVES (18741954) A SongFor Anything
Compact Disc CDA67516
I cannot praise Gerald Finleys performance too highly The whole disc is a
revelation (The Sunday Telegraph) Absolutely brilliant (Independent on Sunday)
Gerald Finley has a voice of great beauty, but its always under the control of his
penetrating intelligence Overall, a disc offering sustained illumination and
enjoyment (BBC Music Magazine)
CHARLES IVES (18741954) Romanzo di Central Park
Compact Disc CDA67644
Gerald Finley has everything and more in his darkly full-bodied voice to match the
often formidable technical and expressive requirements of Ivess songbookreinforced
by Drakes elastic, expressive piano This is a must-buy album (The Times)
MAURICE RAVEL (18751937) Songs
Compact Disc CDA67728
It feels inadequate just to describe this enchanting new collection from Gerald
Finley and Julius Drake as the best modern recital devoted to the wonderfully varied
world of Ravels songs Julius Drakes warm-toned playing is, as ever, a perfect
foil, all captured in Hyperions wonderful sound. Riches indeed (BBC Music
Magazine) Finleys mellifluous, malleable baritone is an ideal match for this
repertoire a beguiling programme, beautifully performed (Gramophone)
ROBERT SCHUMANN (18101856) Dichterliebe & other Heine settings
Compact Disc CDA67676
In close collusion with the ever-sentient Julius Drake, Gerald Finley gives one of the most
beautifully sung and intensely experienced performances on disc of Schumanns cycle of
rapture, disillusion and tender regret A glorious Schumann recital (Gramophone)
Gerald Finleys burnished baritone is one of the most beautiful voices to have recorded
the cycle (The Daily Telegraph) GRAMOPHONE AWARD WINNER

13

GERALD

Finley

Sim Canetty-Clarke

The Canadian baritone Gerald Finley has become one of

the leading singers and dramatic interpreters of his
generation, performing at the major opera and concert
venues in a wide variety of repertoire, all to critical
acclaim. His Hyperion recordings with Julius Drake have
won three Gramophone awards, the Editors Choice Award
in 2006 being followed by awards for the best solo vocal
recording in 2008 (songs by Samuel Barber) and in 2009
(Schumanns Dichterliebe and other Heine settings). His
relationships with leading conductors including Nikolaus
Harnoncourt, Sir Roger Norrington, Antonio Pappano and
Sir Simon Rattle have been part of a flourishing career.
Gerald Finleys work in opera has been founded on
Mozart (Glyndebourne, Salzburg, Met, Covent Garden), as
well as championing new repertoire, most notably J Robert
Oppenheimer in John Adamss Dr Atomic. Further critical
successes include Eugene Onegin, and Golaud in Pellas
et Mlisande at Covent Garden. His concert and recording
work is equally prestigious, including Brittens War
Requiem and Vaughan Williamss A Sea Symphony. He
has also premiered new works by Turnage, Saariaho,
Philips, Picker and Lieberson.
Gerald Finley works regularly as a recitalist with Julius
Drake, appearing throughout Europe and North America,
and is a frequent guest at Londons Wigmore Hall. His
recordings with Julius Drake of songs by Ives, Barber,
Ravel and Schumanns Dichterliebe have all been widely
acclaimed. He began singing as a chorister in Ottawa,
Canada, and continued his musical studies in the United
Kingdom at the Royal College of Music, King's College,
Cambridge, and the National Opera Studio. He currently
works with Gary Coward in London.

14

JULIUS

Drake

Marco Borggreve

The pianist Julius Drake lives in London and specializes

in chamber and vocal music, working with many of the
worlds leading artists, both in recital and on disc. He
appears at all the major music centres, including the
Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, Munich, Schubertiade, and Salzburg Music Festivals; Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center,
New York; Concertgebouw, Amsterdam; Philarmonie,
Cologne; Chtelet and Muse de Louvre, Paris; La Scala,
Milan; Liceu, Barcelona; Musikverein and Konzerthaus,
Vienna; and Wigmore Hall and the BBC Proms in London.
Director of the Perth International Chamber Music
Festival in Australia from 2000 to 2003, his duo with oboist
Nicholas Daniel has been described by The Independent
as one of the most satisfying in British chamber music:
vital, thoughtful and confirmed in musical integrity of the
highest order. Among the many outstanding vocal artists
he has partnered are Victoria de los Angeles, Sir Thomas
Allen, Barbara Bonney, Ian Bostridge, Gerald Finley,
Matthias Goerne, Dame Felicity Lott, Simon Keenlyside,
Angelika Kirchschlager and Willard White. Professor at the
Royal Academy of Music in London and visiting professor
at the Royal Northern College of Music he gives regular
masterclasses.
Julius Drakes many recordings include live recitals for
the Wigmore Hall Live label, with among other artists the
late Lorraine Hunt Liebersen; award-winning recordings
with Ian Bostridge for EMI; and his recent widely
acclaimed series with Gerald Finley for Hyperion,
including discs of Barber Songs and Schumanns Dichterliebe that won Gramophone Awards in 2008 and 2009
respectively. Julius Drake now embarks on a major project
for Hyperion to record the complete songs of Franz Liszt.

15

BENJAMIN BRITTEN

uvres pour baryton

vie . (Une rfrence Richard de la Mare, qui ftait cette

anne-l ses soixante-dix ans et qui dirigeait Faber Music
depuis 1966, aprs avoir tenu les rnes de la maison mre
Faber & Faber.) Grce au pointilleux souci du dtail des
manuscrits britteniens, tous ces chants sont datables avec
une assez grande prcision : A Song of Enchantment
fut compos en janvier 1929, Autumn (originellement
accompagn par un quatuor cordes) le 28 janvier 1931,
Silver le 13 juin 1928, Vigil le 23 dcembre 1930
et la mlodie-titre conclusive dans les deux premires
semaines de 1929. Dans sa prface la partition publie,
Britten constata : assez curieusement, les insuffisances
me parurent plus frappantes dans les chants tardifsde
nouveaux styles avaient point lhorizon du compositeur,
trop rcemment pour tre assimils En tout cas,
mme si je ne prtends pas que ces chants soient importants ou originaux, il me semble vraiment que cette vision
juvnile a une simplicit et une clart qui auraient
pu plaire un peu au grand pote, avec sa comprhension
unique de lme enfantine.
Quatre ans avant que Shirley-Quirk crt Tit for Tat, le
Festival dAldeburgh avait accueilli un cycle pour baryton,
plus substantiel et plus ardu, les Songs and Proverbs of
William Blake 5 bt . Au dbut des annes 1960, Britten
commena collaborer troitement avec le lgendaire
baryton allemand Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, pour lequel
il conut les parties de baryton du War Requiem (1962)
et de la Cantata Misericordium (1963). Peu aprs, il
entreprit dcrire un cycle de chants solo pour mettre
en lumire la fusion unique, chez Fischer-Dieskau, entre
lyrisme intense et caractrisation dramatique. Il puisa
son inspiration dans la posie trs vivante, et parfois
visionnaire, de William Blake, dont Pears choisit quatorze
textes, courts mais saisissants, pour servir de base
ce cycle provisoirement intitul Songs and Sentences of

IL EST PARTICULIREMENT clbre pour son

substantiel corpus duvres ddies la voix de
tnorpresque tout entier inspir par le talent
artistique de Peter Pears, son partenaire au long cours et
sa muse, Britten nous lgua aussi de nombreuses
pices pour baryton. Cette production pour voix grave
lui fut, l encore, inspire par le talent dinterprtes
avec lesquels il entretenait une troite collaboration,
notamment Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, John Shirley-Quirk,
Owen Brannigan et Benjamin Luxon. Outre des cycles de
mlodies, des chants et des arrangements de chansons
traditionnelles, il conut de stimulants rles de baryton
pour des opras aussi divers que Billy Budd (1951), Owen
Wingrave (1970) et Death in Venice (1972)Gerald
Finley fit magnifiquement sien le rle-titre dOwen
Wingrave dans la version tlevise ralise par Margaret
Williams en 2001. Mais mme lorsque Britten crivait
pour dautres chanteurs, linfluence de Pears transparaissait dans le choix des textes mettre en musique, reflet
des gots littraires de lun autant que de lautre.
Bien avant de rencontrer Pears, quand il tait un
prolifique colier-compositeur, Britten mit en musique
quantit de pomes et ses choix littraires taient alors
plutt conservateurs. Dans sa jeunesse, son pote favori
tait Walter de la Mare et, en 1968, sa maturit, il runit
cinq de ses juvenilia consacres ce pote en un corpus
intitul Tit for Tat bu co quil cra avec John ShirleyQuirk au Festival dAldeburgh, en 1969. Dans les notes de
programme quil rdigea pour la circonstance, il dclara
avoir puis dans des chants crits de quatorze dix-sept
ans ; il les avait un tout petit peu dpoussirs pour les
offrir ici, pour cette premire excution, en tmoignage
de gratitude au fils du pote, le sage et encourageant directeur de mes nouveaux diteurs, dont le pre crivit des
pomes qui comptrent tant pour moi, tout au long de ma
16

apparents par leur chromatisme ambigu et subtilement

troublant, cependant quune plus grande simplicit tonale
est rserve aux scnes de nature : la lueur tincelante
de The Tyger et la lamentation pour The Fly . Des
moments dimmense puissance rhtorique marquent
stratgiquement A Poison Tree et Ah, Sun-flower , le
premier prsentant un usage fort original de simples
accords parfaits majeurs et mineurs dans un contexte de
saturation chromatique. Ce texte de Blake, Britten lavait
dj mis en musique dans sa jeunesse, le 2 mars 1935 ;
cette version, qui ne fut pas excute avant 1986, figure
galement sur le prsent enregistrement (cf. piste cq ).
Comme dans lopra The Turn of the Screw (1954),
lintense chromatisme du traitement abouti de ce texte
captivant symbolise le mal dvorateur et constitue le
noyau absolument glaant du cycle.
lt de 1976, peu avant sa mort, Britten prpara
le dernier de ses nombreux corpus darrangements de
chants traditionnels mais, trop malade depuis quelque
temps pour accompagner Pears en public, il remplaa
le piano par la harpe. Pears et le harpiste Osian Ellis
formrent donc un duo rgulier et les chants traditionnels
de 1976 furent conus (comme lavaient t ceux avec
piano) pour leur servir de bis populaires. Viol comment
Shes like the swallow 2 et Bird Scarers Song do
furent crs au Festival dAldeburgh le 17 juin 1976 ;
Lemady 1 fut interprt pour la premire fois
lUniversit de Chicago le 10 novembre 1977. David of
the White Rock ( Dafydd y Garreg Wen ) cu fut, lui, un
hommage aux anctres gallois de Ellis. Les Eight Folksong
Arrangements, dont ces chants sont issus, furent publis
posthumement (1980) en deux ditions distinctes :
loriginal avec accompagnement de harpe et une version
alternative avec accompagnement pianistique prpare
par Colin Matthews, lassistant musical de Britten.

William Blake. La partition fut acheve le 6 avril 1965

et Britten en ddia ainsi le manuscrit : Pour Dieter : le
pass et lavenir. Le 24 juin 1965, Fischer-Dieskau et lui
crrent cette uvre, sous son titre lgrement modifi,
la Parish Church dAldeburgh ; six mois plus tard, ils
en gravrent une puissante interprtation pour Decca,
Kingsway Hall (Londres).
Par endroits, ce cycle renoue avec la sombre intensit
dune autre mise en musique brittenienne de Blake, The
Sick Rose ( Elegy ), tire de la Srnade pour tnor,
cor et cordes de 1943. Avec sa mlodie entirement chromatique et sa saisissante image de corruption chancreuse,
The Sick Rose regarde directement vers les Songs
and Proverbsemprunts, comme elle, aux Songs of
Experience (1794) de Blake. Ajouter un pome tir des
Songs of Innocence (1789) et plusieurs pigrammes
extraites des Proverbs of Hell (non dats) permit Britten
de crer une structure continue o les Proverbes sont
exprims sur un matriel de ritornello rcurrent mais
sans cesse retravaillun plan structurel prsent dans
plusieurs uvres de la fin des annes 1950 et du dbut
des annes 1960 (notamment le cycle de mlodies orchestrales Nocturne, lopra A Midsummer Nights Dream et
la Cantata Misericordium). Ces austres Proverbes se
distinguent nettement des chants quils ponctuent par
leur dconcertante absence de synchronisation mtrique
entre la voix et le pianocomme dans Curlew River, une
Church Parable compose lanne prcdente, tout en
faisant un usage limit des techniques dodcaphoniques.
Comme si souvent chez le Britten tardif, la tension
entre diatonisme lumineux et chromatisme insaisissable
est exploite tout au long du cycle comme un symbole fort
du conflit, au cur de la posie de Blake, entre innocence
et exprience. Aux deux extrmits du cycle, London
et Every Night and every Morn sont troitement
17

lAnti-Masque de This Way to the Tomb, une pice de

Ronald Duncanlequel lui fournira, lanne suivante, le
livret de son opra The Rape of Lucretia.
Deux autres chants remontent aux annes 1950,
mme si la date du second demeure incertaine. En
1952, Britten arrangea pour duo comique le folksong
appalachien The Deaf Womans Courtship dn afin que
Kathleen Ferrier le chantt, avec Pears et lui, lors dune
tourne nationale visant lever des fonds pour lEnglish
Opera Group. Ferrier, se souvint-il, chanta sa partie
dune voix faiblarde, casse, parfaite rplique au magistral rugissement de Peter. Un chef-duvre dhumour, qui
branlait lauditoire, mais sans jamais briser le style du
reste du concert. Aprs la mort prmature de Ferrier, la
partie de contralto fut confie Norma Procter, mme si
cet arrangement demeura indit jusquen 2001. La mise
en musique du goethen Um Mitternacht cp (publie
en 1994) date probablement de 1959, peu aprs que le vif
intrt de Britten pour la posie allemande eut port ses
fruits dans un cycle de lieder pour tnor, Sechs HlderlinFragmente. cette poque, Pears avait lenviable
rputation de compter parmi les plus grands aptres
mondiaux du lied, sattirant plusieurs reprises les
critiques extatiques de la presse allemandedo lide
de la BBC dexploiter ce succs en se faisant le promoteur
attentif de son travail et de celui de Britten en Allemagne.

Les autres chants de ce disque furent, eux aussi,

dvoils et publis aprs la mort de Britten, survenue en
dcembre 1976. Plusieurs datent du dbut des annes
1940, quand le duo de rcital Pears/Britten commena
se faire un nom aux tats-Unis. Tel est le cas de
Greensleeves dl et de The Crocodile dm , lequel fut
jou le 14 dcembre 1941 la Southold High School (dans
le nord de New York), sous les auspices de lAmerican
Womens Hospitals Reserve Corps et dans le cadre dun
programme o figurait aussi Tom Bowling (1789) 4
de Charles Dibdinun chant dont Britten prpara
plus tard sa propre version, qui fut cre au Festival
dAldeburgh en 1959 et enregistre par Pears la mme
anne. Souvent jou aux cts des arrangements de
chants traditionnels lors des rcitals que Pears et Britten
donnrent une fois rentrs au Royaume-Uni, en 1942, I
wonder as I wander 3 ne fut jamais enregistr ni publi,
les deux hommes ayant dcouvert, aprs coup, que ni
ses paroles, ni sa musique ntaient dans le domaine
publicce chant avait t publi par John Jacob Niles en
1934. Aussi la version brittenienne ne fut-elle enregistre
quen 1995, grce un arrangement tardif entre les diteurs de Niles et le Britten Estate. lorigine, le triptyque
Evening , Morning et Night cr ct (paru pour
la premire fois en 1988) faisait partie de la musique
de scne que Britten composa en 1945 pour le Masque et

MERVYN COOKE 2010

Traduction HYPERION

Si vous souhaitez de plus amples dtails sur ces enregistrements, et sur les nombreuses autres publications du label Hyperion, veuillez nous crire
Hyperion Records Ltd, PO Box 25, London SE9 1AX, England, ou nous contacter par courrier lectronique info@hyperion-records.co.uk, et nous
serons ravis de vous faire parvenir notre catalogue gratuitement.
Le catalogue Hyprion est galement accessible sur Internet : www.hyperion-records.co.uk

18

BENJAMIN BRITTEN

Werke fr Bariton

er im Alter von vierzehn bis sechzehn Jahren komponiert

und nun sehr geringfgig bereinigt habe, und ich stelle
sie mit dieser Urauffhrung in Dankbarkeit fr den weisen
und ermutigenden Vorsitzenden meines neuen Verlags
und Sohn des Mannes vor, dessen Gedichte mein ganzes
Leben lang so viel fr mich bedeutet haben. Damit
meinte er Richard de la Mare, Vorsitzender des Musikverlags Faber Music seit 1966 und zuvor Vorsitzender des
Mutterverlags Faber & Faber. Brittens Sorgfalt in der
Bearbeitung seiner Manuskripte ermglicht die ziemlich
genaue Datierung aller Lieder: A Song of Enchantment
entstand im Januar 1929, Autumn (ursprnglich fr
Streichquartettbegleitung) am 28. Januar 1931, Silver
am 13. Juni 1928, Vigil am 23. Dezember 1930 und
das abschlieende Titellied Tit for Tat in den beiden
ersten Wochen des Jahres 1929. Neue musikalische Stilrichtungen hatten sich noch nicht ausreichend etabliert,
um von Britten assimiliert zu werden, und so schrieb er
in seinem Vorwort zur verffentlichten Partitur, dass die
Mngel merkwrdigerweise in den spteren Liedern
aufflliger sind Auf jeden Fall, und ohne jegliche
Bedeutung oder Originalitt dieser Lieder fr mich in
Anspruch zu nehmen, habe ich das Gefhl, dass der junge
Mann eine einfache und klare Vision hatte, die dem
groen Dichter mit seinem einzigartigen Einblick in
die kindliche Gedankenwelt vielleicht ein wenig Freude
gemacht hat.
Vier Jahre vor der Urauffhrung von Tit for Tat mit
Shirley-Quirk war das Aldeburgh-Festival bereits Schauplatz des gehalt- und anspruchsvolleren Baritonzyklus
Songs and Proverbs of William Blake 5 bt gewesen.
Brittens enge Beziehungen zu dem deutschen Bariton
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau begannen Anfang der 1960-er
Jahre, und er komponierte den Baritonpart im War
Requiem (1962) und in der Cantata Misericordium

BWOHL BRITTEN in erster Linie gerhmt wird

fr sein umfangreichen Schaffen fr die Tenorstimme, das fast ausschlielich von der Kunst
seines langjhrigen Lebensgefhrten Peter Pears und
dessen Kreativitt inspiriert wurde, hinterlie er auch
ein bedeutendes Vermchtnis fr die Baritonstimme. Auch
diese Werke waren bezeichnenderweise inspiriert vom
Talent der Interpreten, mit denen er eng verbunden war,
wie zum Beispiel Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, John ShirleyQuirk, Owen Brannigan und Benjamin Luxon. Britten
schrieb nicht nur Liederzyklen, einzelne Lieder und
Arrangements von Volksliedern, sondern auch anspruchsvolle Baritonrollen fr so unterschiedliche Opern wie Billy
Budd (1951), Owen Wingrave (1970) und Death in
Venice (1972). Gerald Finley machte sich im Jahr 2001 in
der TV-Verfilmung von Owen Wingrave der Regisseurin
Margaret Williams mit seiner berzeugenden Interpretation die Titelrolle zueigen, doch selbst wenn Britten
fr andere Snger komponierte, war stets der Einfluss
von Peter Pears auf Brittens Wahl der Texte fr seine
Vertonungen und hufig die bereinstimmung ihres
literarischen Geschmacks sprbar.
Der Schler Britten vertonte zahlreiche Gedichte,
lange bevor er die Bekanntschaft von Pears machte, als
sein literarischer Geschmack noch recht konservativ war.
In seiner Jugend schtzte er vor allem Walter de la
Mare (18731956), englischer Dichter, Autor von Kurzgeschichten, Romanen und Kinderbchern, und im
Jahr 1968 stellte der reifere Komponist einen Satz von
fnf seiner jugendlichen Vertonungen von de la Mares
Gedichten unter dem Titel Tit for Tat bu co zusammen,
der 1969 von John Shirley-Quirk und dem Komponisten
am Klavier beim Aldeburgh-Festival in England uraufgefhrt wurde. Im Programmheft zum Konzert schrieb
Britten, es handle sich um eine Auswahl von Liedern, die
19

Arbeitstitel Songs and Sentences of William Blake. Er

vollendete die Partitur am 6. April 1965, und das Manuskript trgt die Widmung Fr Dieter: die Vergangenheit
und die Zukunft. Britten und Fischer-Dieskau fhrten
das Werk erstmals am 24. Juni 1965 in der Gemeindekirche von Aldeburgh auf und spielten ihre kraftvolle
Interpretation unter dem leicht genderten Titel sechs
Monate spter fr Decca Records in der Londoner
Kingsway Hall ein.
Mit diesem Blake-Zyklus kehrte Britten stellenweise zu
seiner sehr viel frheren Blake-Vertonung The Sick Rose
(Elegy) aus der Serenade fr Tenor, Horn und Streicher
von 1943 zurck. Sowohl die voll chromatische Melodie
als auch das eindrucksvolle Bild zersetzender Korruption
im frheren Lied blicken unmittelbar voraus auf die Songs
and Proverbs mit Texten aus Blakes Songs of Experience
(1794), die auch The Sick Rose enthalten. Mit einem
zustzlichen Gedicht aus den Songs of Innocence (1789)
und mehreren Epigrammen aus den undatierten Proverbs
of Hell gestaltete Britten eine durchgngige Struktur, in
der die Sprichwrter mit wiederkehrendem, aber stndig
variiertem Ritornello-Material vertont sind. Solche
Strukturplanung findet sich auch in anderen Werken
von Britten aus den spten 1950-er und frhen 1960-er
Jahren und vor allem im Orchesterliedzyklus Nocturne,
der Oper A Midsummer Nights Dream und der Cantata
Misericordium. Diese knappen Proverbs unterscheiden
sich deutlich von den sie umgebenden Liedern durch
ihre verstrende Abwesenheit metrischer Synchronisation
zwischen Singstimme und Klavier, ein von der im Jahr
zuvor komponierten Kirchenparabel Curlew River bernommenes Merkmal, sowie durch begrenzte Verwendung
von Zwlftontechnik.
Wie so oft in Brittens spteren Werken wird die
Spannung zwischen brillanter Diatonik und flchtiger
Chromatik im gesamten Zyklus als ausdrucksstarkes

BENJAMIN BRITTEN

(1963) speziell fr diesen Snger. Kurz darauf begann

Britten mit der Arbeit an einem Sololiederzyklus, der
Fischer-Dieskaus einzigartige Mischung einfhlsamer
Lyrik und dramatischer Charakterisierung zur vollen
Geltung bringen sollte. Dazu lie sich Britten von der
lebendigen und bisweilen visionren Dichtung von William
Blake inspirieren und vertonte vierzehn von Pears
ausgewhlte kurze, aber prgnante Texte unter dem
20

wurden 1980 posthum in zwei verschiedenen Ausgaben

verffentlicht, und zwar in der Originalfassung fr Harfenbegleitung und in einer von Brittens Assistent Colin
Matthews besorgten Fassung fr Klavierbegleitung.
Die anderen Lieder in dieser Einspielung wurde
ebenfalls erst nach Brittens Tod im Dezember 1976
aufgefhrt und verffentlicht. Verschiedentlich stammen
sie aus den frhen 1940-er Jahren, als Britten und Pears
sich in den USA einen Namen als Vortragsduo zu machen
begannen, und zwar die Vertonungen von Greensleeves
dl und The Crocodile dm . Letztere wurde am 14. Dezember 1941 in einem vom American Womens Hospitals
Reserve Corps an der Southold High School bei New York
veranstalteten Konzert im Rahmen eines Programms aufgefhrt, das auch das Lied Tom Bowling 4 von Charles
Dibdin aus dem Jahr 1789 umfasste und das Britten
spter fr seine eigene, 1959 beim Aldeburgh-Festival
aufgefhrte und von Pears noch im selben Jahr eingespielte Vertonung verwendete. I wonder as I wander 3
wurde von Pears und Britten nach ihrer Rckkehr nach
England im Jahr 1942 hufig zusammen mit Brittens
Volksliedarrangements aufgefhrt, jedoch niemals eingespielt oder verffentlicht, da sie mittlerweile festgestellt
hatten, dass Text und Melodie von John Jacob Niles
1934 verffentlicht worden und somit urheberrechtlich
geschtzt waren. Demzufolge erschien die Einspielung
von Brittens Fassung erst 1995 dank einer verspteten
bereinkunft zwischen dem Verlag von Niles und Brittens
Nachlassverwaltern, dem Britten Estate. Das zuerst 1988
verffentlichte Triptychon von Evening, Morning und
Night cr ct gehrte ursprnglich zu der von Britten
1945 komponierten Zwischenmusik fr die Masque und
Anti-Masque des Theaterstcks This Way to the Tomb von
Ronald Duncan, der im folgenden Jahr das Libretto fr
Brittens Oper The Rape of Lucretia lieferte.
Zwei weitere Lieder stammen aus den 1950-er Jahren,

Symbol fr den Konflikt zwischen Unschuld und

Erfahrung im Kern von Blakes Dichtung ausgeschpft. Die
den Zyklus umrahmenden Vertonungen von London
und Every Night and every Morn stehen durch Mehrdeutigkeit und leicht verstrende Chromatik in Beziehung
zueinander, whrend grere tonale Einfachheit den
Naturszenen vorbehalten bleibt: dem hellen Glanz von
The Tyger und der Klage um The Fly. An strategischen
Stellen in A Poison Tree und Ah, Sun-flower finden
sich Augenblicke strkster rhetorischer Ausdruckskraft.
A Poison Tree arbeitet mit hchst originellen, einfachen
Dur- und Molldreiklngen in Zusammenhang mit chromatischer Sttigung. Der junge Britten hatte den BlakeText bereits am 2. Mrz 1935 vertont, doch dieses Lied
blieb bis 1986 unaufgefhrt und ist in diese Einspielung
(siehe cq aufgenommen). Wie in der Oper The Turn of the
Screw (1954) dient die intensive Chromatik der reifen
Behandlung dieses ergreifenden Textes als berzeugendes
Symbol zerstrerischen bels und bildet den durch und
durch frsteln machenden Kern des Zyklus.
Im Sommer 1976, kurz vor seinem Tod, bereitete
Britten das letzte seiner zahlreichen verffentlichten
Volksliedarrangements vor, und zwar fr Harfen- statt
Klavierbegleitung, da er schon seit einiger Zeit zu krank
war, um Pears bei ffentlichen Auftritten zu begleiten,
weshalb der Harfenist Osian Ellis diese Aufgabe bernommen hatte. Die Volkslieder des Jahres 1976 waren,
wie schon frhere Volksliedarrangements fr Klavier, als
populre Zugaben gedacht. Shes like the swallow 2
und Bird Scarers Song do erlebten ihre Urauffhrung
in dieser Funktion beim Aldeburgh-Festival am 17. June
1976, und Lemady 1 wurde am 10. November 1977 an
der Universitt von Chicago uraufgefhrt. David of the
White Rock (Dafydd y Garreg Wen) cu ist ein Tribut
an die walisische Herkunft von Ellis. Die Eight Folksong
Arrangements, denen diese Lieder entnommen sind,
21

wenngleich das genaue Datum des zweiten Lieds unklar

bleibt. 1952 komponierte Britten das Arrangement fr
ein komisches Duett auf Grundlage eines AppalachenVolkslieds namens The Deaf Womans Courtship dn fr
Kathleen Ferrier anlsslich einer britischen Tournee mit
Britten und Pears zur Beschaffung von Mitteln fr die
English Opera Group. Britten erinnerte sich, dass Kathleen
Ferrier ihren Part mit schwchlich-brchiger Stimme im
perfekten Kontrast zu Peters bombastischem Drhnen
sang. Ein Meisterstck an Humor, der das Publikum in
Lachkrmpfe versetzte, aber niemals den Stil des brigen
Konzerts beeintrchtigte. Nach Kathleen Ferriers frhem
Tod wurde ihr Part von Norma Procter bernommen,

wenngleich das Arrangement erst 2001 verffentlicht

wurde. Brittens 1994 verffentlichte Vertonung von
Goethes Um Mitternacht cp entstand wahrscheinlich
1959, kurz nachdem Brittens starkes Interesse an
deutscher Lyrik seinen Ausdruck in dem Tenorliederzyklus Sechs Hlderlin-Fragmente gefunden hatte. Zu
dieser Zeit war Pears als fhrender Liederinterpret
weltberhmt und erhielt regelmig die lobendsten
Kritiken in der deutschen Presse, was die BBC veranlasste,
diesen Erfolg durch sorgfltige Frderung des Schaffens
von Britten und Pears in Deutschland nutzbar zu machen.
MERVYN COOKE 2010
bersetzung HENNING WEBER

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22

Recorded in All Saints, Durham Road, East Finchley, London, on 1113 December 2008
Recording Engineer JULIAN MILLARD
Recording Producer MARK BROWN
Piano STEINWAY & SONS
Booklet Editor TIM PARRY
Executive Producer SIMON PERRY
P & C Hyperion Records Ltd, London, MMX
Front illustration: The Tyger (plate 42 from Songs of Innocence and of Experience, copy AA, P.1251950.pt42) (c181526)
by William Blake (17571827)
Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge / The Bridgeman Art Library, London

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where you can also listen to extracts of all recordings and browse an up-to-date catalogue

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permission from the copyright holder, Hyperion Records Ltd, PO Box 25, London SE9 1AX, England. Any unauthorized copying
or re-recording, broadcasting, or public performance of this or any other Hyperion recording will constitute an infringement of
copyright. Applications for a public performance licence should be sent to Phonographic Performance Ltd, 1 Upper James Street,
London W1F 9DE

23

CDA67778

BENJAMIN

BRITTEN
(19131976)

1
2
3
4

Lemady [1'21]
Shes like the swallow [2'43]
I wonder as I wander [3'29]
Tom Bowling [5'29]

Songs and Proverbs

of William Blake [25'44]
5
6
7
8
9
bl
bm
bn
bo
bp
bq
br
bs
bt

Proverb I [1'06]
London [2'04]
Proverb II [0'33]
The Chimney-Sweeper [2'14]
Proverb III [0'42]
A Poison Tree [4'52]
Proverb IV [0'57]
The Tyger [2'00]
Proverb V [0'51]
The Fly [1'57]
Proverb VI [1'30]
Ah, Sun-flower [2'56]
Proverb VII [0'44]
Every Night and every Morn [3'04]

Tit for Tat

bu
cl
cm
cn
co

[10'07]

A Song of Enchantment [2'41]

Autumn [1'09]
Silver [2'02]
Vigil [1'58]
Tit for Tat [2'05]

cp Um Mitternacht [3'41]
cq A Poison Tree [3'06]
cr Evening [1'45]
cs Morning [1'06]
ct Night [1'44]
cu
dl
dm
dn
do

David of the White Rock [3'33]

Greensleeves [2'11]
The Crocodile [5'21]
The Deaf Womans Courtship [1'31]
Bird Scarers Song [1'02]

GERALD FINLEY baritone

JULIUS DRAKE piano

BENJAMIN

CDA67778
Duration 74'21

BRITTEN

DDD

1 Lemady [1'21] 2 Shes like the swallow [2'43]

3 I wonder as I wander [3'29] 4 Tom Bowling [5'29]
5

Songs and Proverbs of William Blake

bu

Tit for Tat

[25'44]

[10'07]

cp Um Mitternacht [3'41] cq A Poison Tree [3'06]

cr Evening [1'45] cs Morning [1'06] ct Night [1'44]
cu David of the White Rock [3'33] dl Greensleeves [2'11] dm The Crocodile
dn The Deaf Womans Courtship [1'31] do Bird Scarers Song [1'02]

[5'21]

If you want to know, or simply need reminding, why Gerald Finley is up there in the Premier League of baritone recitalists
then strike out for the final five songs on this magnificent new recording Originally written for Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau,
Finley proves himself the equal of his noble predecessor, both in expressivity and emotional weight.
How good it is to have this difficult music available in such a fine modern performance it is a mark of the quality of these two fine artists
that everything on this new release should sound newly minted (International Record Review)

GERALD FINLEY baritone

JULIUS DRAKE piano
MADE IN FRANCE

www.hyperion-records.co.uk
HYPERION RECORDS LIMITED . LONDON . ENGLAND

Hyperion
CDA67778

BRITTEN SONGS AND PROVERBS OF WILLIAM BLAKE and other songs

GERALD FINLEY baritone JULIUS DRAKE piano

(19131976)

BRITTEN SONGS AND PROVERBS OF WILLIAM BLAKE and other songs

GERALD FINLEY baritone JULIUS DRAKE piano

Hyperion
CDA67778

NOTES EN FRANAIS + MIT DEUTSCHEM KOMMENTAR