Tras los pasos de Peter Pears

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976): BEFORE LIFE & AFTER

Mark Padmore, tenor
Roger Vignoles, piano

1. The Holy Sonnets of John Donne Op.35 (1945) [John Donne]
I. Oh my blacke Soule!
II. Batter my heart
III. O might those sighes and teares
IV. Ot, to vex me
V. What if this present
VI. Since the whom I loved
VII. At the round earth's imagined corners
VIII. Thou hast made me
IX. Death, be not proud

2. A Morning Hymn (1960) [arreglo sobre un tema original de Henry Purcell]
3. Job's Curse (1950) [arreglo sobre un tema original de Henry Purcell]
4. An Evening Hymn (1947) [arreglo sobre un tema original de Henry Purcell]

5. Winter Words Op.52 (1953) [Thomas Hardy]
I. At Day-close in November
II. Midnight on the Great Western (or The Journeying Boy)
III. Wagtali and Baby (a Satire)
IV. The little old Table
V. The Choirmaster`s Burial (or The Tenor Man's Story)
VI. Proud Songsters (Thrushes, Finches and Nightingales)
VII. At the Railway Station, Upway (or The Convict and Boy with the Violin)
VIII. Before Life and after

6. I Wonder as I Wander (1934) [The Songs of the Hill Folk]
7. Sail on, sail on (1957-58) [Moore'Irish Melodies; volumen 4]
8. The Miller of Dee (1947) [Folksongs of the British Isles; volumen 3]
9. At the mid hour of night (1957-58) [Moore'Irish Melodies; volumen 4]
10. There's none to soothe (1947) [Folksongs of the British Isles; volumen 3]
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HARMONIA MUNDI HMU 907443 [72'13'']
Grabación: Junio de 2008

Espléndido recital britteniano que incluye los Holy Sonnets Op.35 (1945) sobre poemas de John Donne, Winter Words Op.52 (1953), que cuenta con textos de Thomas Hardy, además de arreglos de piezas de Henry Purcell y de canciones tradicionales. Mark Padmore, cantante vinculado fundamentalmente al mundo barroco, prolonga aquí la gran tradición de tenores británicos dedicados a este repertorio, que abrió obviamente Peter Pears, su dedicatario. Padmore combina entusiasmo, lirismo e intensidad expresiva y Roger Vignoles acompaña de forma excepcional.

[Publicado en Diario de Sevilla el sábado 20 de junio de 2009]


Britten: Before life & after. [3'14''] Mark Padmore, Roger Vignoles

A time there was - as one may guess
And as, indeed, earth's testimonies tell -
Before the birth of consciousness,
When all went well.

None suffered sickness, love, or loss,
None knew regret, starved hope, or heart-burnings;
None cared whatever crash or cross
Brought wrack to things.

If something ceased, no tongue bewailed,
If something winced and waned, no heart was wrung;
If brightness dimmed, and dark prevailed,
No sense was stung.

But the disease of feeling germed,
And primal rightness took the tinct of wrong;
Ere nescience shall be reaffirmed
How long, how long?