Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Shakespeare Sonnets

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Shakespeare Sonnets

$16.84
Total playing time [55:26]

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Ashley Riches (baritone)
Emma Abbate (piano)

Former Royal Opera House Jette Parker Young Artist baritone Ashley Riches, and rising star pianist Emma Abbate, perform a ravishing selection of previously unrecorded Shakespeare Sonnets by Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco.

Composed after his migration to the USA in 1939, these songs contain all the wistful atmsophere of, and his obvious warmth for, his native Florence as well as his life-long obsession with William Shakespeare. Making his solo album debut with this album, Ashley Riches, along with the superbly eloquent pianist Emma Abbate, wonderfully capture the mood of each of Shakespeare's masterpieces in miniature.

Album Booklet (PDF)

Tracklist

1. Sonnet VIII: Music to hear, why hear’st thou music sadly?
2. Sonnet XXX: When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
3. Sonnet XCVII: How like a winter hath my absence been from thee
4. Sonnet CV: Let not my love be called idolatry
5. Sonnet LXXIII: That time of year thou may’st in me behold
6. Sonnet CIX: O never say that I was false of heart
7. Sonnet XVIII: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
8. Sonnet CXLVI: Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth
9. Sonnet XXVII: Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed
10. Sonnet CVI: When in the chronicle of wasted time
11. Sonnet XC: Then hate me when thou wilt; if ever, now
12. Sonnet CII: My love is strengthen’d, though more weak in seeming
13. Sonnet XXXII: If thou survive my well-contented day
14. Sonnet LIII: What is your substance, whereof are you made
15. Sonnet XXXV: No more be grieved at that which thou hast done
16. Sonnet LX: Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore
17. Sonnet CXXVIII: How oft, when thou, my music, music play’st
18. Sonnet LVII: Being your slave
19. Sonnet XXIX: When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes
20. Sonnet LXIV: When I have seen by time’s fell hand defaced
21. Sonnet LXV: Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea
22. Sonnet LXXXVII: Farewell! Thou art too dear for my possessing
23. Sonnet CIV: To me, fair friend, you never can be old

“

'[...] this fine collection of Shakespeare Sonnets is doubly welcome [...] Baritone Ashley Riches is an ideal interpreter of this music, with a richness of timbre and a clarity of enunciation that is absolutely essential. He is sensitively accompanied by Emma Abbate.'

- International Record Review

'[...] this fine collection of Shakespeare Sonnets is doubly welcome [...] Baritone Ashley Riches is an ideal interpreter of this music, with a richness of timbre and a clarity of enunciation that is absolutely essential. He is sensitively accompanied by Emma Abbate.'
International Record Review

'There is a very good partnership between singer and pianist in these performances, creating an easy and enjoyable listening experience.'
Lark Reviews

'Ashley Riches and Emma Abbate are very fine indeed. Riches produces a lovely flexible yet firm line with gorgeous dark hints in the tone quality. He shapes Castelnuovo-Tedesco's sometimes diffuse vocal lines into things of really expressive beauty. Abbate is equally impressive, highly supportive of Riches in the richly chromatic piano part.'
Planet Hugill

Credits
© 2014 Resonus Limited
Ⓟ 2014 Resonus Limited
Catalogue No. RES10141
Producer & engineer: Michael Ponder
Executive producer & editor: Adam Binks
Cover image: Lonely church (Val d'Orcia, Italy) by michelealfieri - Fotolia.com