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Echo / Ruby Hughes, Huw Watkins
BIS

Echo / Ruby Hughes, Huw Watkins

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Details

Composer
Traditional, Johann Sebastian Bach, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Deborah Pritchard, Henry Purcell, Errollyn
Artist
Ruby Hughes, Huw Watkins
Format
SACD
Label
BIS
Released
Nov 04, 2022
Catalog #
BIS-2568
UPC
7318599925684

About

Huw Watkins’ song cycle Echo, composed for soprano Ruby Hughes and premiered in 2017 at Carnegie Hall, is at the center of this artfully crafted recital. Setting texts by five different poets, the cycle is a work centered on melancholy – on transience, remembrance, and in the final song a numbed cry of inconceivable loss. As such it permeates the entire program, adding a new and unexpected depth to that which precedes as well as follows. Another strand of the recital is the idea of how composers across the ages have addressed and echoed one another lovingly in their music – often in the most nuanced and unconscious way. Bach’s solo keyboard works capture something of a sense of timelessness, or more accurately, inspire an emotional connection that transcends time. A similar affinity seems to inform Britten’s folksong arrangements and his realizations of Bach’s Geistliche Lieder as well as the Purcell realizations by Thomas Adès and Tippett. A different kind of echo is created by the inclusion of Britten’s version of Dafydd y Garreg Wen(David of the White Rock) – a nod to the performers’ shared Welsh heritage. Closing the disc, three songs by contemporary British composers admired by both Watkins and Hughes also resonate with the previous works, bringing the program full circle.

REVIEW:

Here, in a recital that includes two world premieres, Hughes and longtime collaborator Huw Watkins combine contemporary works with works from centuries past. Somber themes connect them: the transience of life. Loss. Grief.

Watkins’s five Echo songs are exceptionally beautiful. Listen to the falling cascades in his setting of Emily Dickinson’s “For Each Ecstatic Instant.” Admire how vocally responsive Hughes is in the Purcell, how fragile and precious she sounds in Errollyn Wallen’s “Peace on Earth,” and how much she can communicate with barely a whisper of sound. Marvelous.

-- Stereophile

Tracklist 19 tracks

  1. 1 Partita No. 4 in D Major, BWV 828: V. Sarabande 03:24
    Track
    1
    Title
    Partita No. 4 in D Major, BWV 828: V. Sarabande
    Duration
    03:24
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Huw Watkins
  2. 2 5 Spiritual Songs: No. 1. Gedenke doch, mein Geist, zurücke (after J.S. Bach's BWV 509) 01:30
    Track
    2
    Title
    5 Spiritual Songs: No. 1. Gedenke doch, mein Geist, zurücke (after J.S. Bach's BWV 509)
    Duration
    01:30
    Composer
    Benjamin Britten
    Performer
    Ruby Hughes, Huw Watkins
  3. 3 French Suite No. 3 in B Minor, BWV 814: III. Sarabande 01:44
    Track
    3
    Title
    French Suite No. 3 in B Minor, BWV 814: III. Sarabande
    Duration
    01:44
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Huw Watkins
  4. 4 5 Spiritual Songs: No. 4. Komm, süsser Tod (after J.S. Bach's BWV 478) 03:05
    Track
    4
    Title
    5 Spiritual Songs: No. 4. Komm, süsser Tod (after J.S. Bach's BWV 478)
    Duration
    03:05
    Composer
    Benjamin Britten
    Performer
    Ruby Hughes, Huw Watkins
  5. 5 Partita No. 6 in E Minor, BWV 830: III. Corrente 02:42
    Track
    5
    Title
    Partita No. 6 in E Minor, BWV 830: III. Corrente
    Duration
    02:42
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Huw Watkins
  6. 6 5 Spiritual Songs: No. 3. Liebster Herr Jesu (after J.S. Bach's BWV 484) 03:34
    Track
    6
    Title
    5 Spiritual Songs: No. 3. Liebster Herr Jesu (after J.S. Bach's BWV 484)
    Duration
    03:34
    Composer
    Benjamin Britten
    Performer
    Ruby Hughes, Huw Watkins
  7. 7 No. 1. Echo 04:20
    Track
    7
    Title
    No. 1. Echo
    Duration
    04:20
    Composer
    Huw Watkins
    Performer
    Ruby Hughes, Huw Watkins
  8. 8 No. 2. For Each Ecstatic Instant 01:42
    Track
    8
    Title
    No. 2. For Each Ecstatic Instant
    Duration
    01:42
    Composer
    Huw Watkins
    Performer
    Ruby Hughes, Huw Watkins
  9. 9 No. 3. If Grief Could Burn Out 03:29
    Track
    9
    Title
    No. 3. If Grief Could Burn Out
    Duration
    03:29
    Composer
    Huw Watkins
    Performer
    Ruby Hughes, Huw Watkins
  10. 10 No. 4. When You Are Old 02:19
    Track
    10
    Title
    No. 4. When You Are Old
    Duration
    02:19
    Composer
    Huw Watkins
    Performer
    Ruby Hughes, Huw Watkins
  11. 11 No. 5. Baby Blue 03:08
    Track
    11
    Title
    No. 5. Baby Blue
    Duration
    03:08
    Composer
    Huw Watkins
    Performer
    Ruby Hughes, Huw Watkins
  12. 12 4 Songs: No. 1. By Beauteous Softness (After H. Purcell) 04:41
    Track
    12
    Title
    4 Songs: No. 1. By Beauteous Softness (After H. Purcell)
    Duration
    04:41
    Composer
    Thomas Adès
    Performer
    Ruby Hughes, Huw Watkins
  13. 13 7 Songs, Vol. 1: No. 5. Music for a While (After H. Purcell) 04:09
    Track
    13
    Title
    7 Songs, Vol. 1: No. 5. Music for a While (After H. Purcell)
    Duration
    04:09
    Composer
    Michael Tippett, Walter Bergmann
    Performer
    Ruby Hughes, Huw Watkins
  14. 14 Tom Bowling and Other Song Arrangements: No. 6. I Wonder as I Wander 04:45
    Track
    14
    Title
    Tom Bowling and Other Song Arrangements: No. 6. I Wonder as I Wander
    Duration
    04:45
    Composer
    Benjamin Britten
    Performer
    Ruby Hughes, Huw Watkins
  15. 15 8 Folk Song Arrangements: No. 6. Dafydd y Garreg Wen (David of the White Rock) (arr. C. Matthews for voice and piano) 03:38
    Track
    15
    Title
    8 Folk Song Arrangements: No. 6. Dafydd y Garreg Wen (David of the White Rock) (arr. C. Matthews for voice and piano)
    Duration
    03:38
    Composer
    Benjamin Britten
    Performer
    Ruby Hughes, Huw Watkins
  16. 16 Folk Song Arrangements, Vol. 4, "Moore's Irish Melodies": No. 3. How Sweet the Answer (The Wren) 02:30
    Track
    16
    Title
    Folk Song Arrangements, Vol. 4, "Moore's Irish Melodies": No. 3. How Sweet the Answer (The Wren)
    Duration
    02:30
    Composer
    Benjamin Britten
    Performer
    Ruby Hughes, Huw Watkins
  17. 17 The World 04:07
    Track
    17
    Title
    The World
    Duration
    04:07
    Composer
    Deborah Pritchard
    Performer
    Ruby Hughes, Huw Watkins
  18. 18 Lament 03:23
    Track
    18
    Title
    Lament
    Duration
    03:23
    Composer
    Cheryl Frances-Hoad
    Performer
    Ruby Hughes, Huw Watkins
  19. 19 The Errollyn Wallen Songbook: No. 12. Peace on Earth 03:08
    Track
    19
    Title
    The Errollyn Wallen Songbook: No. 12. Peace on Earth
    Duration
    03:08
    Composer
    Errollyn Wallen
    Performer
    Ruby Hughes, Huw Watkins