The English Song Series 19

 

IVOR GURNEY

 

Songs

 

On the downs

Ha’nacker Mill

The bonnie Earl of Murray

The cherry trees (first recording)

By a bierside

Five Elizabethan Songs

The apple orchard

All night under the moon

The Latmian Shepherd

I will go with my father a-ploughing

Last Hours

Cathleen ni Houlihan

A cradle song

The fiddler of Dooney

Snow

The singer

Nine of the clock oh!

Epitaph in old mode

The Ship

The Scribe

Fain would I change that note

Thou didst delight my eyes

The boat is chafing

Lights out

 

Susan Bickley – mezzo-soprano

Iain Burnside – piano

 

Described by his teacher, Stanford, as “the one who most fulfilled the accepted ideas of genius”, the poet and composer Ivor Gurney composed more than 300 songs despite suffering from bipolar disorder and tuberculosis. The Five Elizabethan Songs show the young composer’s astonishing limpid fluency, while Tears and Sleep rank among his most exquisite creations. Comedy, heavenly rapture, tender urgency and lovelorn longing all touch the music of this ‘lover and maker of beauty’, whose songs find ideal interpreters in Susan Bickley and Iain Burnside.

 

“Susan Bickley’s sensitivity and vocal allure confirm her among the finest mezzos of her generation.” Classical Source

 

Naxos 8572151