As You Like It: Shakespeare Songs

As You Like It: Shakespeare Songs

Regular price £12.99
Total playing time [57:17]

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Nicky Spence (tenor)
Malcolm Martineau (piano)

Resonus is proud to welcome internationally celebrated artists Nicky Spence (tenor) and Malcolm Martineau (piano) with a recital album consisting of a musical journey of Shakespeare Songs set by a diverse and eclectic range of composers from Purcell and Haydn, through to Britten, Quilter, Tippett and John Dankworth, via Chausson and Schubert.

Entitled As You Like It: Shakespeare Songs, the album shows the supreme versatility of Spence's voice and abilities from Romantic lieder to jazz-inspired works, all superbly accompanied by the universally acclaimed pianist Malcolm Martineau.

Also included on the album is the world premiere recording of Three Tempestuous Tunes by young composer Alex Woolf. Born in 1995, and an award-winning composer, Woolf is a principal composer with the National Youth Orchestra and a recipient of the BBC Young Composer Award.

Album Booklet (PDF)

Tracklist

Franz Schubert
1. Horch, horch, die Lerch’

Roger Quilter
Three Shakespeare Songs
2. Come away, Death
3. O mistress mine
4. Blow, blow, thou winter wind

Benjamin Britten
5. Fancie

Francis Poulenc
6. Fancy

Ernest Chausson
Trois Chansons de Shakespeare
7. Chanson de clown
8. Chanson d'amour
9. Chanson d’Ophélie

Franz Schubert
10. An Sylvia

Henry Purcell
11. If music be the food of love
12. An Epithalamium

Michael Tippett
Songs for Ariel
13. Come unto these yellow sands
14. Full fathom five
15. Where the bee sucks

Joseph Haydn
16. She never told her love

Franz Schubert
17. Trinklied

Hugo Wolf
18. Lied des transferierten Zettel

Geoffrey Bush
19. It was a Lover and his Lass

Alex Woolf
Three Tempestuous Tunes
20. This is a very scurvy tune
21. Scout 'em and flout 'em
22. No more dams I'll make for fish

Dominick Argento
Six Elizabethan Songs
23. Winter
24. Dirge

Mervyn Horder
25. Under the greenwood tree

John Dankworth
26. Shall I compare thee to a summer's day
27. The Compleat Works
28. Dunsinane Blues

Peter Dickinson
29. Schubert in Blue: Hark, hark, the lark

'Spence’s voice is naturally thrilling, radiant and luminescent in just about every second of this programme, crossing stylistic boundaries with the silvery ease of a born entertainer.'

- The Scotsman (5 stars)

'Spence’s voice is naturally thrilling, radiant and luminescent in just about every second of this programme, crossing stylistic boundaries with the silvery ease of a born entertainer.'
The Scotsman (5 stars)

'A major presence in this starry company is the young composer Alex Woolf, whose Three Tempestuous Tunes strike out in many musical and dramatic directions in a matter of seconds, allowing the Shakespearean characters of his choice to address the listener with first-person immediacy.'
Gramophone

'[Nicky Spence] has the true singer’s gift of communication, without which these works would just be pretty but dull sounds. Instead - with the help of some superb accompanying from Malcolm Martineau - he brings them alive with joy, pain, love, despair and wit.'
Sinfini

'This recording by young UK tenor Nicky Spence, presently a Harwood Young Artist at English National Opera, and seasoned accompanist Malcolm Martineau affords not only an opportunity to sample the breadth and variety of Shakespeare settings through the centuries [...] but also the interpretative range of both artists. It's also a lot of fun'
International Record Review

'[...] I can’t think of any collection comparable with this. [...] There’s a large variety of periods of composition and of moods here. [...] I enjoyed [Spence's] performances here, expertly partnered by Malcolm Martineau and well recorded.'
MusicWeb International

'[...] it is a pleasure to find so wide a range of styles in response to the same texts [...] Worth investigating and enjoying'
Lark Reviews

'This is a delightful disc, with Spence showing both his versatility and his care with both music and with text. His performance is constantly engaging.'
Planet Hugill

Credits
© 2013 Resonus Limited
Ⓟ 2013 Resonus Limited
Catalogue No. RES10116
Producer, engineer & editor: Adam Binks
EAN: 5060262790151