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English Song - Pears & Britten Bennett, R R:
Tom O’Bedlam’s Song
with Joan Dickson (cello)
Berkeley, L:
How Love Came In
with Benjamin Britten (piano)
Bridge:
Tis but a week
with Benjamin Britten (piano)
Goldenhair
with Benjamin Britten (piano)
When you are old
with Benjamin Britten (piano)
So perverse
with Benjamin Britten (piano)
Journey's end
with Benjamin Britten (piano)
Go Not, Happy Day
with Benjamin Britten (piano)
Love went a-riding
with Benjamin Britten (piano)
Britten:
Folksongs (selection)
with Benjamin Britten (piano)
Let the florid music praise! (from On this Island)
with Benjamin Britten (piano)
Busch, W:
If thou wilt ease thine heart
with Viola Tunnard (piano)
Come, o come, my life's delight
with Viola Tunnard (piano)
Two Songs of William Blake
with Viola Tunnard (piano)
Bush, A:
Voices of the Prophets
with Alan Bush (piano)
Butterworth, G:
Is My Team Ploughing?
with Benjamin Britten (piano)
Delius:
To Daffodils
with Viola Tunnard (piano)
Dieren:
Dream Pedlary
with Viola Tunnard (piano)
Take, o take those lips away
with Viola Tunnard (piano)
Grainger:
Bold William Taylor
with Viola Tunnard (piano)
Holst:
Persephone (No. 1 from 12 Songs Op. 48)
with Benjamin Britten (piano)
Ireland:
The Land of Lost Content
with Benjamin Britten (piano)
The Trellis
with Benjamin Britten (piano)
Three Songs
with Benjamin Britten (piano)
I Have Twelve Oxen
with Benjamin Britten (piano)
Moeran:
The Merry Month of May
with Viola Tunnard (piano)
In youth is pleasure
with Benjamin Britten (piano)
Oldham, A:
Chinese Lyrics (3)
with Benjamin Britten (piano)
Rainier:
Cycle for Declamation
Tippett:
Songs for Ariel
with Benjamin Britten (piano)
Warlock:
Piggesnie
with Viola Tunnard (piano)
Along the Stream
with Viola Tunnard (piano)
Yarmouth Fair
Decca Eloquence: 480 1273 [2 CD - 158 mins] A generous selection of Pears & Britten in recital at their youthful prime - 1954-64. Great to have again nine of the folksong settings, which I studied intensively with my son Simon, who went on to record his LP of English Song with Tippett's Songs for Ariel & the Oldham Chinese Lyrics included here. They are mostly accompanied by Britten himself, incomparable at the piano. Pears' diction is so immaculate that you don't feel the lack of texts, most of which can be found easily on Emily Ezust's website. There is a substantial 5-page essay by Kenneth Chalmers and these recordings will give hours of pleasure. An obligatory purchase. Peter Grahame Woolf
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