Martyn Hill - English Song Series 1 - Music & Performance - CD

Three songs were drawn in 1932 from a 1923 group of five settings of poems by Edith Sitwell from Façade, under the projected title Bucolic Comedies, Edith Sitwell's title for a set of poems. The three songs are dedicated to Walton's publisher, Hubert Foss, and to the latter's wife Dora, who gave the first performance. Daphne and Through gilded trellises lack that wilder element of fantasy that marks the poems eventually included in Façade itself. The first of the set, Daphne is a lyrical reflection on the myth of Daphne, and her metamorphosis into a laurel. Through gilded trellises has the necessary Spanish flavor, skillfully handled, and Old Sir Faulk, which finally retained a place in Façade in spoken form, is a true Foxtrot. The six settings of poems from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for tenor and guitar, Anon in Love, were commissioned by Peter Pears and Julian Bream and first performed at the Aldeburgh Festival in 1960. Walton later arranged them for tenor and small orchestra. The poems, chosen for the composer by Christopher Hassall, are set in a style well suited to Pears and echo in some ways the writing of Britten, a reflection of Walton's underlying respect for the achievement of his younger contemporary. The cycle starts with Fain would I change that note, marked Lento amiable and offering a characteristic melodic line, exploiting the instrumental quality of Pears's voice and technique. O stay, sweet love, marked Allegretto, offers a lively contrast of mood, followed by the beauty of Lady, when I behold the roses, marked Lento sostenuto, with it's subtle cross-rhythms. The Allegro leggiero fourth song, My love in her attire, is light-hearted in text and mood, matched with the more robust I gave her cakes and I gave her ale, an Andantino. The group ends with the insistent jocular Allegro giocoso of To couple is custom. Façade, poems by Edith Sitwell, recited with a musical accompaniment, was first heard in a private concert in the drawing-room of the Sitwells' London house in January 1922 and created something of a sensation at it's public airing at the Aeolian Hall the following year. The work grew and changed, as items were removed and added, reaching a final revision in the 1940s, for eventual publication in 1951. Christopher Palmer transcribed three of the items for singer and piano, the original declamation replaced by a vocal line derived from the instrumental score. Long steel grass (Noche espagnola), which for a time became Trio for Two Cats and a Trombone, is followed by the Tango-Pasodoble, with it's transformation of I do like to be beside the seaside. The well known Popular Song ends the group.