Britten Serenade for tenor, horn & strings - Nocturne. Finzi Dies Natalis Mark Padmore and Britten Sinfonia

• Benjamin Britten (1913–1976): Serenade For Tenor, Horn & Strings, Op. 31
• 1 I. Prologue 01:27
• 2 II. Pastoral 03:35
• 3 III. Nocturne 03:47
• 4 IV. Elegy 04:25
• 5 V. Dirge 03:33
• 6 VI. Hymn 02:08
• 7 VII. Sonnet 04:19
• 8 VIII. Epilogue 01:31
• Nocturne For Tenor, 7 Obbligato Instruments & Strings, Op. 60
• 9 I. On a poet’s lips I slept 03:26
• 10 II. Below the thunders of the upper deep 03:52
• 11 III. Encinctured with a twine of leaves 02:18
• 12 IV. Midnight’s bell goes ting, ting, ting 02:38
• 13 V. But that night when on my bed I lay 03:27
• 14 VI. She sleeps on soft, last breaths 04:43
• 15 VII. What is more gentle than a wind in summer? 03:38
• 16 VIII. When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see 04:35
• Gerald Finzi (1901–1956): Dies Natalis, Op. 8
• 17 I. Intrada 05:12
• 18 II. Rhapsody: Recitativo stromentato 06:55
• 19 III. The Rapture: Danza 04:07
• 20 IV. Wonder: Arioso 04:10
• 21 V. The Salutation: Aria 04:32
• Total Runtime 01:18:18

Info for Britten Serenade for tenor, horn & strings - Nocturne. Finzi Dies Natalis

Celebrated tenor Mark Padmore joins the Britten Sinfonia in some of the most beautiful English music for voice and orchestra. The centrepiece is Britten's magical evocation of twilight and nightfall, the 'Serenade' (with Stephen Bell, horn). In Gerald Finzi's war-time cycle 'Dies natalis', the ecstatic mood reflects a child's wide-eyed wonder at the world. Britten's poignant 'Nocturne' completes the programme.

“so tender and piercing that you really do seem to be listening to these song cycles anew...Padmore’s tenor audibly sports some family resemblances [to Pears], though he’s less precious than Pears, with a conversational ease when singing pianissimo never mastered by Britten’s love and muse. These are intensely sensitive and poetic readings, strengthened further by Stephen Bell’s clean and lyrical horn” (The Times, UK)

“the sense of the poems across with extra immediacy, as if Padmore has read the texts many times over before fitting them to the music. There is much beauty - not perhaps in the purely vocal sense...but in the marriage of words and music...Highly recommended.” (Gramophone)

“Padmore's singing is very loving indeed, but in places I can't help feeling that it's a case of 'less is more'. The Britten Sinfonia and instrumental soloists are admirably attuned to Padmore's approach...Padmore is more successful in the exquisite Dies Natalis, where a more extrovert approach really pays off.” (BBC Music Magazine)

“He sings with less of the honeyed beauty that he is famous for and more incisive bite, which works for some songs, such as the Dirge, but not so well for others, such as the opening Pastoral. However, this does have the advantage of lending his word-painting that extra edge...Both playing and singing are at their most alluring in the concluding Keats Sonnet, seductive and beautiful with a hint of danger, leading wonderfully into the softly dying horn epilogue.” (MusicWeb International)

Mark Padmore, tenor
Britten Sinfonia
Jacqueline Shave, conductor

No biography found.

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