Barber: Complete Songs

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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...

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Most of the lesser-known and unpublished songs on CD3 date back to Barber’s student years, but he took up composing young, and was always inclined towards writing for voices and responding to poetry.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.



Product Description:

  • Release Date: March 24, 2023


  • UPC: 5028421965147


  • Catalog Number: BRI96514


  • Label: Brilliant Classics


  • Number of Discs: 3


  • Period: Late Romantic


  • Composer: Samuel Barber


  • Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra, Elisabetta Lombardi, Mauro Borgioni, Filippo Farinelli



Works:

  1. Songs (3), Op. 2

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Mauro Borgioni (Baritone), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)


  2. Songs (3), Op. 10

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Mauro Borgioni (Baritone), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)


  3. Songs (4), Op. 13

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Mauro Borgioni (Baritone), Leilah Dione Ezra (Soprano), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)


  4. Songs (2), Op. 18

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra (Soprano), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)


  5. Nuvoletta, Op. 25

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra (Soprano), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)


  6. Mélodies passagères, Op. 27

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Elisabetta Lombardi (Mezzo-Soprano), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)


  7. Hermit Songs, Op. 29

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra (Soprano), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)


  8. Despite and Still, Op. 41

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra (Soprano), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)


  9. Songs (3), Op. 45

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Mauro Borgioni (Baritone), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)


  10. 2 Poems of the Wind

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra (Soprano), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)


  11. 2 Songs of Youth

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra (Soprano), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)


  12. Fantasy in Purple

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Mauro Borgioni (Baritone), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)


  13. Music, when soft voices die

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra (Soprano), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)


  14. La nuit

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Elisabetta Lombardi (Mezzo-Soprano), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)


  15. A Slumber Song of the Madonna

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra (Soprano), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)


  16. Lady When I Behold the Roses

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Mauro Borgioni (Baritone), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)


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

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Mauro Borgioni (Baritone), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)


  18. Hey Nonny No

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Mauro Borgioni (Baritone), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)


  19. Ask me to Rest

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra (Soprano), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)


  20. Au clair de la lune

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Elisabetta Lombardi (Mezzo-Soprano), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)


  21. Man

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra (Soprano), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)


  22. Thy Love

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra (Soprano), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)


  23. Watchers

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra (Soprano), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)


  24. There's Nae Lark

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Mauro Borgioni (Baritone), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)


  25. Mother I Cannot Mind My Wheel

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra (Soprano), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)


  26. Love at the Door

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Mauro Borgioni (Baritone), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)


  27. Serenader

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Mauro Borgioni (Baritone), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)


  28. Love's Caution

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Mauro Borgioni (Baritone), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)


  29. Night Wanderers

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Mauro Borgioni (Baritone), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)


  30. Of that so sweet imprisonment

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Mauro Borgioni (Baritone), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)


  31. Peace

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Mauro Borgioni (Baritone), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)


  32. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Mauro Borgioni (Baritone), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)


  33. Strings in the earth and air

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Mauro Borgioni (Baritone), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)


  34. The Beggar's Song

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Mauro Borgioni (Baritone), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)


  35. In the dark pinewood

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Mauro Borgioni (Baritone), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)


  36. Who Carries Corn and Crown

    Composer: Samuel Barber

    Performer: Leilah Dione Ezra (Soprano), Filippo Farinelli (Piano)