Michael Chance | Tim Mead | Lawrence Zazzo
Ruairi Bowen | James Gilchrist | Andrew Staples
Gerald Finley | Ashley Riches | Mark Stone
Simon Lepper piano
Released 19 March 2021
CD
Proud Songsters: English Solo Song
£12.00
“A luxury CD of infinite delights, which I cannot recommend highly enough.” – Opera Today
“a sonorous example of both the best of English art song and the impeccable musical traditions of King’s College” – British Music Society
Proud Songsters is a journey through the distinctive musical genre of English Song. This collection of 20 songs – familiar and lesser known – are performed by some of the finest former members of the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge with one of this generation’s most exceptional pianists.
Each of the nine alumni featured on this album sang as young adults at King’s, alongside pianist Simon Lepper, a graduate of King’s. The songs included on the album span settings of Shakespeare songs, those of prominent 20th Century composers Vaughan Williams, Britten, Finzi, Clarke and Howells through to contemporary works by Jonathan Dove, Iain Bell and Celia Harper. The album includes a specially-commissioned essay on the works by Stephen Banfield, and the CD includes a special bonus track sung by Gerald Finley and Christopher Keyte.
| 1 | To Gratiana Dancing and Singing | William Denis Browne | Ashley Riches |
| 2 | The Salley Gardens | arr. Benjamin Britten | Tim Mead |
| 3 | Linden Lea | Ralph Vaughan Williams | Ashley Riches |
| 4 | The Sigh | Gerald Finzi | Andrew Staples |
| 5 | My love gave me an apple | Celia Harper | Michael Chance |
| 6 | Fear no more the heat o’ the sun | Roger Quilter | James Gilchrist |
| 7 | Come to me in my dreams | Frank Bridge | Mark Stone |
| 8 | I wandered lonely as a cloud | Eric Thiman | Ruairi Bowen |
| All You Who Sleep Tonight | Jonathan Dove | ||
| 9 | VII. God’s love | Lawrence Zazzo | |
| 10 | XII. Soon | Lawrence Zazzo | |
| 11 | XIII. All you who sleep tonight | Lawrence Zazzo | |
| 12 | The Seal Man | Rebecca Clarke | James Gilchrist |
| 13 | I will go with my father a-ploughing | Ivor Gurney | Ashley Riches |
| 14 | Proud Songsters | Gerald Finzi | Gerald Finley |
| 15 | King David | Herbert Howells | Tim Mead |
| 16 | Since she whom I loved | Benjamin Britten | Andrew Staples |
| 17 | Sleep | Peter Warlock | Mark Stone |
| 18 | Feste (Come away, death) | Iain Bell | Lawrence Zazzo |
| 19 | Go, lovely rose | Roger Quilter | Mark Stone |
| 20 | Silent Noon | Ralph Vaughan Williams | Gerald Finley |
| Total playing time – 65:59 |
Recorded at 192kHz 24-bit PCM at All Saints’ Church, East Finchley, London, on 29 October 2019 and 10 February 2020.
Producer & Editor Benjamin Sheen
Engineer Dave Rowell
Mixing Benjamin Sheen
Mastering Simon Gibson
Consultant Claire Long
Label management Benjamin Sheen