Somervell: A Shropshire Lad & Maud / Williams, Allan
SOMM Recordings
CD
$20.99May 15, 2020
SOMM Recordings announces an important new recording of two classic English song cycles by Sir Arthur Somervell – Maud and A Shropshire Lad – from the acclaimed partnership of baritone Roderick Williams and pianist Susie Allan. Hailed as “the English Schumann” for his mastery of song setting, song cycles in particular, Somervell’s music is marked by a distinctive blend of lyricism and harmony that makes itself indelibly felt in these two seminal works of the English song repertoire. His first cycle, Maud, setting 13 poems from Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s dark monodrama, was first performed in 1899 at the height of a fashion for recitals of songs sung in English. An intense, impassioned portrayal of infatuation, it is marked by remarkably eloquent and revealing relationships between voice and text, and voice and piano. Composed in 1904, the 10 poems from A.E. Housman’s A Shropshire Lad portray a young man wistfully contemplating nature, life and love at the age of 20 before following him through a life full of incident, the horror of the First World War and growing self-awareness. It prompted from Somervell texturally rich and varied music shot through with an aching lyricism all the more powerful and potent for its folk song-like simplicity and directness. Completing the recital are the enchanting, ever-popular lullaby Shepherd’s Cradle Song and wistful tale of childhood sweethearts with texts by Edgar Allan Poe, A Kingdom by the Sea. British music authority Jeremy Dibble provides informative booklet notes and Roderick Williams a revealing take on Somervell’s music from a singer’s perspective.
This wonderful Celebration of English Song was recorded especially for SOMM by baritone Roderick Williams deliciously partnered here by Susie Allan in a collection to gladden the hearts of all lovers of English music. This splendidly wide-ranging collection features two well-loved song cycles, Butterworth's Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad and Finzi's Let us Garlands bring. It also includes some of the best- known English songs of the periods before and after World War II - Ireland's world- famous Sea Feverand Great Things and The Kiss and Flying Crooked, from Ian Venables - now widely regarded as the finest living English composer of art songs and a true successor to Benjamin Britten, represented here by two irresistible settings of English folk-songs, The Salley Gardens and The Ploughboy. Also included are songs by Quilter, Gurney, Warlock and E.J. Moeran.
Swamp Pop is indigenous to the Acadiana region of South Louisiana as well as from the Beaumont/ Port Arthur area of neighboring East Texas. It is marked by highly emotional, ultra-romantic, plaintive style vocals. The simple, unaffected and often bilingual lyrics are backed by a honky-tonk piano, bellowing sax sections and a strong R&B backbeat. Upbeat pieces often possess the bouncy rhythms of Cajun and black Creole two-steps, and their lyrics frequently convey the local color and joie de vivre spirit pervading South Louisiana. Slow melancholic ballads with their undulating bass line and dramatic breaks exhibit the heart-broken ‘what’s-the-use-of-living’ laments common to many Cajun and black Creole compositions. The genre appeared during the mid-to late 1950s, its heyday lasting until the early 1980s.
Inner City: Songs by Helen Miller, lyrics by Eve Merriam, story by Lawrence Kasha, Joseph Kipness and Tom O'Horgan.
Linda Hopkins, Tony Award 1971 for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.
Masterworks Broadway describes Inner City as "the musical that rocked Broadway with its distinctly untraditional take on modern urban life." The raucous 1971 show was conceived and staged by Hair director Tom O’Horgan the same season he directed the Broadway premiere of Jesus Christ Superstar. Based on Eve Merriam’s best-selling book The Inner City Mother Goose, it recounts children’s tales with a contemporary urban vibe and has a lively, R&B-influenced score by Helen Miller and lyricist Eve Merriam. Inner City introduced Linda Hopkins, who took home a Tony as Best Featured Actress in a Musical, along with Delores Hall, Larry Marshall, and Allan Nichols. Historic note: one of the production’s associate producers was Harvey Milk, before he left New York for San Francisco.
Featured songs: 1. Fee Fi Fo Fum/Now I Lay Me 2. Hushaby/My Mother Said 3. Nub of the Nation 4. Urban Mary/City Life/One Misty Moisty Morning 5. If Wishes Were Horses 6. Deep in the Night 7. Jeremiah Obadiah/Riddle Song 8. Shadow of the Sun 9. Boys and Girls Come Out to Play/Lucy Locket/Wisdom/The Hooker (“You Make It Your Way”) 10. Law and Order 11. The Dealer (“You Push It Your Way”) 12. Kindness/As I Went Over/Apartment House/There Was a Little Man/Who Killed Nobody? 13. It’s My Belief 14. Street Sermon 15. The Great If/On This Rock/The Great If (Reprise)
Note: The absence of audio in the left channel for eight seconds at the beginning of Track 10 ("Law and Order") has been retained from the original LP and cassette masters of this recording.
