Barber: Complete Songs

$18.99
Label
Brilliant Classics
Release Date
March 24, 2023
Format
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    Featuring ⌄
    • COMPOSER
      Samuel Barber
    • PERFORMER
      Leilah Dione Ezra, Elisabetta Lombardi, Mauro Borgioni, Filippo Farinelli
    Product Details ⌄
    • RELEASE DATE
      March 24, 2023
    • UPC
      5028421965147
    • CATALOG NUMBER
      BRI96514
    • LABEL
      Brilliant Classics
    • NUMBER OF DISCS
      3
    • GENRE
      Classical
    Works ⌄

    1. No. 1. The Daisies

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Mauro Borgioni, Filippo Farinelli

    2. No. 2. With Rue my Heart is Laden

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Mauro Borgioni, Filippo Farinelli

    3. No. 3. Bessie Bobtail

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Mauro Borgioni, Filippo Farinelli

    4. No. 1. Rain has Fallen

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Mauro Borgioni, Filippo Farinelli

    5. No. 2. Sleep now

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Mauro Borgioni, Filippo Farinelli

    6. No. 3. I hear an army

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Mauro Borgioni, Filippo Farinelli

    7. No. 1. A nun takes the veil

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Mauro Borgioni, Filippo Farinelli

    8. No. 2. The secrets of the old

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Mauro Borgioni, Filippo Farinelli

    9. No. 3. Sure on this shining night

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Mauro Borgioni, Filippo Farinelli

    10. No. 4. Nocturne

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra, Filippo Farinelli

    11. No. 1. The Queen's Face on a Summery Coin

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra, Filippo Farinelli

    12. No. 2. Monks and Raisins

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra, Filippo Farinelli

    13. Nuvoletta, Op. 25

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra, Filippo Farinelli

    14. No. 1. Puisque tout passe

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Elisabetta Lombardi, Filippo Farinelli

    15. No. 2. Un cygne

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Elisabetta Lombardi, Filippo Farinelli

    16. No. 3. Tombeau dans un parc

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Elisabetta Lombardi, Filippo Farinelli

    17. No. 4. Le clocher chante

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Elisabetta Lombardi, Filippo Farinelli

    18. No. 5. Départ

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Elisabetta Lombardi, Filippo Farinelli

    19. No. 1. At Saint Patrick's Purgatory

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra, Filippo Farinelli

    20. No. 2. Church Bells at Night

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra, Filippo Farinelli

    21. No. 3. Saint Ita's Vision

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra, Filippo Farinelli

    22. No. 4. The Heavenly Banquet

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra, Filippo Farinelli

    23. No. 5. The Crucifixion

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra, Filippo Farinelli

    24. No. 6. Sea-Snatch

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra, Filippo Farinelli

    25. No. 7. Promiscuity

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra, Filippo Farinelli

    26. No. 8. The Monk and his Cat

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra, Filippo Farinelli

    27. No. 9. The Praises of God

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra, Filippo Farinelli

    28. No. 10. The Desire for Hermitage

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra, Filippo Farinelli

    29. No. 1. A Last Song

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra, Filippo Farinelli

    30. No. 2. My Lizard

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra, Filippo Farinelli

    31. No. 3. In the Wilderness

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra, Filippo Farinelli

    32. No. 4. Solitary Hotel

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra, Filippo Farinelli

    33. No. 5. Despite and Still

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra, Filippo Farinelli

    34. No. 1. Now have I fed and eaten up the rose

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Mauro Borgioni, Filippo Farinelli

    35. No. 2. A Green Lowland of Pianos

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Mauro Borgioni, Filippo Farinelli

    36. No. 3. O Boundless, Boundless Evening

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Mauro Borgioni, Filippo Farinelli

    37. No. 1. Little Children of the Wind

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra, Filippo Farinelli

    38. No. 2. Longing

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra, Filippo Farinelli

    39. No. 1. Invocation to Youth

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra, Filippo Farinelli

    40. No. 2. I Never Thought That Youth Would Go

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra, Filippo Farinelli

    41. Fantasy in Purple

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Mauro Borgioni, Filippo Farinelli

    42. Music, when soft voices die

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra, Filippo Farinelli

    43. La nuit

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Elisabetta Lombardi, Filippo Farinelli

    44. A Slumber Song of the Madonna

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra, Filippo Farinelli

    45. Lady When I Behold the Roses

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Mauro Borgioni, Filippo Farinelli

    46. An Earnest Suit to his Unkind Mistress not to Forsake him

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Mauro Borgioni, Filippo Farinelli

    47. Hey Nonny No

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Mauro Borgioni, Filippo Farinelli

    48. Ask me to Rest

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra, Filippo Farinelli

    49. Au clair de la lune

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Elisabetta Lombardi, Filippo Farinelli

    50. Man

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra, Filippo Farinelli

    51. Thy Love

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra, Filippo Farinelli

    52. Watchers

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra, Filippo Farinelli

    53. There's Nae Lark

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Mauro Borgioni, Filippo Farinelli

    54. Mother I Cannot Mind My Wheel

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra, Filippo Farinelli

    55. Love at the Door

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Mauro Borgioni, Filippo Farinelli

    56. Serenader

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Mauro Borgioni, Filippo Farinelli

    57. Love's Caution

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Mauro Borgioni, Filippo Farinelli

    58. Night Wanderers

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Mauro Borgioni, Filippo Farinelli

    59. Of that so sweet imprisonment

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Mauro Borgioni, Filippo Farinelli

    60. Peace

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Mauro Borgioni, Filippo Farinelli

    61. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Mauro Borgioni, Filippo Farinelli

    62. Strings in the earth and air

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Mauro Borgioni, Filippo Farinelli

    63. The Beggar's Song

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Mauro Borgioni, Filippo Farinelli

    64. In the dark pinewood

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Mauro Borgioni, Filippo Farinelli

    65. Who Carries Corn and Crown

      Composer: Samuel Barber

      Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra, Filippo Farinelli


The songs of Samuel Barber offer the beauty of his output in microcosm. ‘Complete’ in this context used to mean the 47 songs gathered in a Deutsche Grammophon 2CD set from 1994, but there are 65 songs here, making it the most complete survey yet recorded.

Most of the lesser-known and unpublished songs on CD3 date back to Barber’s student years, but he took up composing young, and was always inclined towards writing for voices and responding to poetry. He made his matchlessly evocative setting of Matthew Arnold’s Dover Beach when he was just 21 years old. However, by the time of the Op. 10 Songs, Barber’s harmonies have thickened in texture and expressionist harmony: these are heroic numbers demanding an interpreter of heroic projection, another world away from the almost painfully confessional mood of the music which has made his name such as Knoxville: Summer of 1915. Nevertheless, they paint a vivid portrait of Barber himself, who had a fine baritone voice and would delight in performing his songs while accompanying himself at the piano. 

Barber could read Proust in French, Goethe in German, Dante in Italian and Neruda in Spanish, and his erudite choice of poets and poems reflected facets of his complex character: a restless melancholy on the one hand, and an impish wit on the other. His part-Irish ancestry drew him towards Joyce, Yeats and James Stephens, and his interest in his Celtic heritage prompted the writing of his best-known song-prompted the writing of his best-known song-cycle, the Hermit Songs Op. 29. Much later in life, he returned to song (and to Joyce) with Despite and Still Op. 41 and the Three Songs Op. 45. Both collections are coloured by introspection and resignation, but they are masterpieces of the song-writer’s art. 

Few composers in the history of “art song” can compare to the figure of Samuel Barber (1910-1981), whose innate gift for lyricism found expression in his exceptional baritone voice, and who would perform any number of his songs accompanying himself at the piano.

Performed by three excellent Italian singers, Mauro Borgioni (baritone), Leilah Dione Ezra (soprano) and Elisabetta Lombardi (mezzo soprano), who won their spurs on the most important international stages. This project is another triumph of Filippo Farinelli, indefatigable pianist and promotor of prestigious recording projects, such as the complete songs by Jolivet, Berg, Dallapiccola and Ravel, and instrumental projects by Koechlin, Jolivet, Hindemith and Debussy.

Among his many recordings for Brilliant Classics, the pianist Filippo Farinelli has made complete surveys of the song output of Berg, Ravel, Dallapiccola and Jolivet, in conjunction with colleagues who have immersed themselves in the idiom. Here he is likewise joined by a trio of Italian singers who show themselves at home with the wistful, changeable moods of Barber the song-composer.