Starter Packs

Complete your collection with these curated titles, grouped at a special discount.

Shop Now
Smyth: Songs & Ballads / Martinez, Stevens, Marcus, Berkeley Ensemble
SOMM Recordings

Smyth: Songs & Ballads / Martinez, Stevens, Marcus, Berkeley Ensemble

$20.99

Details

Composer
SMYTH, ETHEL
Artist
Stevens, Marcus, Martinez
Format
CD
Label
SOMM Recordings
Released
Mar 20, 2020
Catalog #
SOMMCD 0611
UPC
748871061125

About

SOMM Recordings continues its acclaimed championing of neglected British composers with Dame Ethel Smyth: Songs and Ballads – 17 vocal works with piano and chamber orchestra accompaniment composed between 1886 and 1913. Contralto Lucy Stevens has a long relationship with Smyth, portraying the composer, political activist and writer in her widely admired stage show Ethel Smyth: Grasp the Nettle. She is joined by her long-time stage companion, pianist Elizabeth Marcus, and Odaline de la Martinez conducting the Berkeley Ensemble. All four are making their debuts on SOMM. Published in 1886 and receiving their first recordings in English are the five Op.3 Songs and Ballads. Dedicated to Livia Frege, the singer to whom Mendelsohn and Schumann dedicated some of their finest songs, they blend images of the natural world with themes of lost love to reveal Smyth as a songwriter of already considerable gifts. Dedicated to Smyth’s mother and exploring themes of motherhood while shot through with images drawn from troublesome dreams, the five Op.4 Lieder, settings of German texts, exalt in an emotional palette that ranges from tenderness to trenchant emotion. Three Songs from 1913, composed during the period of Smyth’s suffragette activity – which saw her jailed for two months for throwing a stone through a cabinet minister’s window – deftly combine the political and personal. With lyrics by the suffragist Ethel Carnie Holdsworth, Possession is dedicated to Emmeline Pankhurst, On the Road: a marching tune to Pankhurst’s daughter, Christabel. The Clown sets a text by Maurice Baring, whose biography Smyth wrote in 1938. Written for voice and chamber orchestra, the Four Songs from 1908 boast exquisite orchestrations that revel in Smyth’s associations with artistic circles in France and were hailed by Debussy as “tout à fait remarquables”. Stevens, who devised the album’s programme, Martinez and Christopher Wiley provide informative booklet notes.

Tracklist 17 tracks

  1. 1 No. 1. Odelette 05:51
    Track
    1
    Title
    No. 1. Odelette
    Duration
    05:51
    Composer
    Ethel Smyth
    Performer
    Lucy Stevens
    Ensemble
    Berkeley Ensemble
    Conductor
    Odaline de la Martinez
  2. 2 No. 2. La Danse 06:05
    Track
    2
    Title
    No. 2. La Danse
    Duration
    06:05
    Composer
    Ethel Smyth
    Performer
    Lucy Stevens
    Ensemble
    Berkeley Ensemble
    Conductor
    Odaline de la Martinez
  3. 3 No. 3. Chrysilla 04:21
    Track
    3
    Title
    No. 3. Chrysilla
    Duration
    04:21
    Composer
    Ethel Smyth
    Performer
    Lucy Stevens
    Ensemble
    Berkeley Ensemble
    Conductor
    Odaline de la Martinez
  4. 4 No. 4. Ode anacreontique 05:25
    Track
    4
    Title
    No. 4. Ode anacreontique
    Duration
    05:25
    Composer
    Ethel Smyth
    Performer
    Lucy Stevens
    Ensemble
    Berkeley Ensemble
    Conductor
    Odaline de la Martinez
  5. 5 No. 1. Vom berge 02:07
    Track
    5
    Title
    No. 1. Vom berge
    Duration
    02:07
    Composer
    Ethel Smyth
    Performer
    Lucy Stevens, Elizabeth Marcus
  6. 6 No. 2. Der verirrte Jager 04:23
    Track
    6
    Title
    No. 2. Der verirrte Jager
    Duration
    04:23
    Composer
    Ethel Smyth
  7. 7 No. 3. Bei einer Linde 02:41
    Track
    7
    Title
    No. 3. Bei einer Linde
    Duration
    02:41
    Composer
    Ethel Smyth
  8. 8 No. 4. Es wandelt, was wir schauen 02:00
    Track
    8
    Title
    No. 4. Es wandelt, was wir schauen
    Duration
    02:00
    Composer
    Ethel Smyth
  9. 9 No. 5. Schon Rohtraut 03:01
    Track
    9
    Title
    No. 5. Schon Rohtraut
    Duration
    03:01
    Composer
    Ethel Smyth
  10. 10 No. 1. Tanzlied 02:47
    Track
    10
    Title
    No. 1. Tanzlied
    Duration
    02:47
    Composer
    Ethel Smyth
    Performer
    Lucy Stevens, Elizabeth Marcus
  11. 11 No. 2. Schlummerlied 03:57
    Track
    11
    Title
    No. 2. Schlummerlied
    Duration
    03:57
    Composer
    Ethel Smyth
    Performer
    Lucy Stevens, Elizabeth Marcus
  12. 12 No. 3. Mittagsruh 02:13
    Track
    12
    Title
    No. 3. Mittagsruh
    Duration
    02:13
    Composer
    Ethel Smyth
    Performer
    Lucy Stevens, Elizabeth Marcus
  13. 13 No. 4. Nachtreiter 02:12
    Track
    13
    Title
    No. 4. Nachtreiter
    Duration
    02:12
    Composer
    Ethel Smyth
    Performer
    Lucy Stevens, Elizabeth Marcus
  14. 14 No. 5. Nachtgedanken 04:14
    Track
    14
    Title
    No. 5. Nachtgedanken
    Duration
    04:14
    Composer
    Ethel Smyth
    Performer
    Lucy Stevens, Elizabeth Marcus
  15. 15 No. 1. The Clown 03:28
    Track
    15
    Title
    No. 1. The Clown
    Duration
    03:28
    Composer
    Ethel Smyth
    Performer
    Lucy Stevens, Elizabeth Marcus
  16. 16 No. 2. Possession 04:39
    Track
    16
    Title
    No. 2. Possession
    Duration
    04:39
    Composer
    Ethel Smyth
    Performer
    Lucy Stevens, Elizabeth Marcus
  17. 17 No. 3. On the Road 05:28
    Track
    17
    Title
    No. 3. On the Road
    Duration
    05:28
    Composer
    Ethel Smyth
    Performer
    Lucy Stevens, Elizabeth Marcus