English Song: John Shirley-Quirk

English Song: John Shirley-Quirk

£16.25

HTGCD283/4 – 5060332661022

As a tribute to the late John Shirley-Quirk, Heritage is proud to re-issue the recordings he made of English song for the SAGA label in the 1960s. Three LPs were originally laid down – Songs of Travel, A Recital of English Song and The Songs of John Ireland – and they appear here as a double CD. The performances are considered by many to be definitive and the present collection, re-mastered from the original tapes, appears by kind permission of the SAGA Continuation Trust.

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CD 1
 
RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

Songs of Travel (Poems by Robert Louis Stephenson)

  1. The Vagabond     3.11
  2. Let Beauty Awake   1.40
  3. The Roadside Fire   2.25
  4. Youth and Love   3.02
  5. In Dreams   2.32
  6. The Infinite Shining Heaven 2.17
  7. Wither must I wander   4.16
  8. Bright is the Ring of Words   2.01
  9. I have trod the upward and the downward slope   1.49
  10. Linden Lea (Barnes)   2.52
  11. Silent Noon (Rossetti)   4.36

JOHN IRELAND

  1. Sea Fever (Masefield) 2.02

CHARLES VILLIERS STANFORD

  1. Drake’s Drum (Newbolt) 2.47
  2. The Old Superb (Newbolt)   3.25

FREDERICK KEEL

  1. Trade Winds (Masefield) 2.22

PETER WARLOCK

  1. Captain Stratton’s Fancy (Masefield) 1.39

GEORGE BUTTERWORTH

Six Songs from ‘A Shropshire Lad’ (Houseman)

  1. Loveliest of trees   2.05
  2. When I was one and twenty   1.18
  3. Look not in my eyes   1.52
  4. Think no more, lad   1.19
  5. The lads in their hundreds   1.57
  6. Is my team ploughing?   3.00

E.J. MOERAN

Three Songs from ‘Ludlow Town’ (Houseman)

  1. When smoke stood up from Ludlow   3.08
  2. Say, lad, have you things to do?     1.41
  3. Farewell to barn and stack and trees   1.58

Total time: 61.15

Tracks 1-16 – Viola Tunnerd (piano)

Tracks 17-22 – Martin Isepp (piano)
 
CD 2
 
PURCELL (Ed. Tippett and Bergmann)

  1. Man is for the woman made     1.01
  2. Music for a while   3.15
  3. ‘twas within a furlong of Edinburgh Town 1.40

PURCELL (Realisation by Benjamin Britten)

  1. Secular cantata for baritone, two violins and continuo: When night her purple veil   15.30

PELHAM HUMFREY (Ed. Tippett and Bergmann)

  1. A Hymne to God the Father     2.49

JOHN IRELAND

Five Songs to poems by Thomas Hardy

  1. Beckon to me to come     1.59
  2. In my sage moments     2.35
  3. It was what you bore with you, Woman   1.04
  4. The tragedy of that moment   1.40
  5. Dear, think not that they will forget you   1.56

Songs Sacred and Profane

  1. The Advent (Meynell)   3.13
  2. Hymn for a Child (Townsend Warner)   1.48
  3. My Fair (Meynell) 2.52
  4. The Salley Gardens (Yeats) 1.46
  5. The Soldier’s Return (Townsend Warner) 1.01
  6. The Scapegoat (Townsend Warner) 1.20
  7. Santa Chiara (Symons) 2.34
  8. The Heart’s Desire (Houseman) 1.55
  9. The merry month of May (Dekker) 1.34
  10. Spring Sorrow (Brook) 1.22
  11. The Sacred Flame (Mary Coleridge)   1.40
  12. Great Things (Hardy)   2.04
  13. Love and Friendship (Emily Bronte)   2.16
  14. Friendship in Misfortune (Anon.)   1.43
  15. I have twelve Oxen (Anon.)   1.55

Total time: 65.11

Tracks 1-5 – Martin Isepp (harpsichord and piano)

Tracks 2-5 – Ambrose Gauntlett (viola da gamba)

Track 4 – Nona Liddell and Ivor McMahon (violins)

Tracks 6 – 25 – Eric Parkin (piano)
 
ISSUED UNDER LICENCE FROM THE SAGA CONTINUATION TRUST AND CNR MUSIC B.V.

Digitally re-mastered from the original SAGA masters, using M15 Telefunken 20 bit technology.

Reviews

  1. admin –

    Performance: *****
    Recording: ****
    ‘A wide ranging collection of English song that shows the mastery of the great bass-baritone, working with some of the finest accompanists of his time.’
    – George Hall, BBC Music Magazine, September 2015

  2. admin –

    GRAMOPHONE EDITOR’S CHOICE, FEBRUARY 2015 – REISSUE/ARCHIVE
    ‘Beautifully eloquent story-telling from the fondly remembered British bass-baritone’.
    ‘A collection of English songs from three SAGA LPs, sensitively mastered, which show this wonderful singer on top form’.
    ‘Characteristically informed and affectionate notes by Tully Potter provide context and Shirley-Quirk’s immaculate diction makes texts unnecessary.’
    – James Jolly, Gramophone, February 2015

  3. admin –

    ‘Shirley-Quirke is sensitive, both as regards the vocalism per se, his use of voice and the responses to the words, treated intelligently.’
    – John T. Hughes, International Record Review, February 2015

  4. admin –

    ‘a reminder of what an asset the late baritone was to the English music scene.’
    – Barry Forshaw, CD Choice, 13th December 2014

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