GO, LOVELY ROSE – SONGS OF ROGER QUILTER
JAMES GILCHRIST (tenor), ANNA TILBROOK (piano)
Born in Sussex in 1877, Roger Quilter was a fellow-student of Percy Grainger, Cyril Scott, and H. Balfour Gardiner at the Hoch Conservatory, in Frankfurt, where he studied for almost five years under the guidance of the German professor of composition Iwan Knorr.
He is best known for his contribution to English art song, having composed around 150 songs, many of which remain regular recital favourites.
For this album, the tenor James Gilchrist and pianist Anna Tilbrook explore his output from early works such as ‘Now sleeps the crimson petal’ through to late examples such as ‘The Ash Grove’. All of the songs are settings of English texts, with the exception of the Four Songs of Mirza Schaffy, which set German texts by Friedrich von Bodenstedt.
The musicians have arranged their selection of twenty-seven songs into thematic groups – Shakespeare songs, songs about flowers, folksongs, songs of love etc. – which makes for a fascinating and rewarding programme.
Available from Chandos, Amazon and Spotify.
A GARDENER’S WORLD
ALESSANDRO FISHER (tenor), ANNA TILBROOK (piano)
During the period of lockdown in 2020, tenor Alessandro Fisher and his wife spent many hours in their garden. A heightened awareness of the beauty of nature, the flowers in their garden and the changes to the garden as winter moved to spring, and then to summer formed the basis of this beautifully curated recital.
All the songs are about flowers, the language of flowers, and flowers as a tokens of love. Above all, the album is about the way songs of the many composers on this album reference deep human emotions and the role of flowers in these emotions.
Where words fail, the language of flowers and nature take over. Nature regenerates, life continues, though for some composers, the short- lived glory of flowers is also an allegory for loss, or indeed the transience of romantic love.
This live recording was made by BBC Radio 3 at the Wigmore Hall in London. Alessandro was the recipient of a BBT Fellowship in 2022.
Gramophone Magazine review and Editor’s Choice – March 2024
“I’d suggest that not since Martin Isepp accompanied Janet Baker… has a British singer made a more auspicious recital debut on record.”
“..the modulations and rubato acutely judged by Fisher’s pianist, Anna Tilbrook.”
Available on Spotify and Apple Music.
LONGING
LUCY CROWE (SOPRANO), ANNA TILBROOK (piano)
Lucy Crowe makes her Linn recital debut with a programme of lieder by Berg, Richard Strauss and Schoenberg, which perfectly highlights why she is known as one of the leading lyric sopranos of her generation.
Lucy is joined by pianist Anna Tilbrook, with whom she has forged a near symbiotic connection over a twenty-year professional partnership, comprising numerous performances at Wigmore and Queen Elizabeth Halls, London, and Carnegie Hall, New York.
The programme encompasses both the beginning and end of Strauss’s prodigious songwriting career with five songs from his first published set Acht Gedichte aus Letzte Blätter plus his posthumously published swansong of sublime beauty, Vier letzte Lieder. Berg’s Sieben frühe Lieder are landmark compositions which invoke the late Romantic world of Strauss; they sit alongside Vier Lieder by Berg’s mentor Schoenberg, whose post-Wagnerian chromaticism points to the composer’s later style. Following their Wigmore Hall performance in June 2020 The Guardian stated: ‘Berg’s Seven Early Songs suits Crowe uncommonly well, with her exquisite tone, fastidious sense of line, and understated but telling way with words.’
Available from Linn and Spotify.
SOLITUDE
JAMES GILCHRIST (tenor), ANNA TILBROOK (piano)
James Gilchrist’s theme for this recital, Solitude, is reflected in varied and contrasting ways by the four works. In his booklet note, he describes solitude as ‘A state of being that we need, that perhaps we overlook too easily, that is harder to achieve and harder to endure and understand than we expect’.
Henry Purcell’s “O! Solitude, my sweetest choice” (in the arrangement by Benjamin Britten) focuses on twin themes of solitude: the peace found in the meditative state and the pain felt by being separated from loved ones.
Schubert’s “Einsamkeit” represents the importance of solitude as an important theme in the German romantic tradition: yearning for homeland, the lonely wanderer, and separated lovers appear again and again in the poetry, prose, and music of this era. In “Under Alter’d Skies”, Jonathan Dove explores the unwanted solitude of grief and loss. The cycle sets excerpts of “In Memoriam”, Alfred Lord Tennyson’s response to the sudden death of his friend Arthur Hallam.
The programme closes with Samuel Barber’s “Hermit Songs”, settings of the marginal jottings of mediaeval Irish monks as they copied or illuminated manuscripts. These extraordinary texts show the anonymous men, who chose a life of solitude and devotion to God, to be every bit as human as the rest of us!
Available from Chandos, Amazon and Spotify.
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS – SONGS OF TRAVEL
JAMES GILCHRIST (tenor), ANNA TILBROOK (piano), PHILIP DUKES (VIOLA)
Having previously recorded British repertoire on Chandos, James Gilchrist joins the pianist Anna Tilbrook nine years after their previous recording, in a lyrical journey through some of Vaughan Williams’s best songs and rarely heard chamber works. They are joined by Philip Dukes, ‘Great Britain’s most outstanding viola player’, according to The Times.
This album captures the composer’s love for both the voice and the viola, bringing together five works for tenor and piano, two for tenor, viola, and piano, and two works for viola and piano alone.
Central to the recording is the fresh, invigorating, and at times reflective cycle Songs of Travel, composed between 1901 and 1904, of special interest is also an arrangement of ‘Rhosymedre’ by the chief music critic of The Times, Richard Morrison, recorded here for the first time and performed by the same forces who gave the premiere of the arrangement in St John’s Smith Square in 2016, to critical acclaim.
Available from Chandos, Amazon, iTunes and Spotify.
SCHUMANN- SONG CYCLES
JAMES GILCHRIST (tenor), ANNA TILBROOK (piano)
James Gilchrist’s latest recording for Linn encompasses three of the greatest examples of the song cycle genre.
Moving away from English song into the core Germanic Lieder repertoire, James’s expressive tenor voice is ideally suited to showcase the emotional nuances of Schumann’s vocal writing. Liederkreis shows Schumann at his most lyrical and deeply romantic; incredibly Op. 24 was his first published vocal composition. Dichterliebe, Schumann’s best-known song cycle, is regarded as one of the finest in the German language, notable for its perfect pairing of Heinrich Heine’s poetry with Schumann’s music.
Available from Linn Records, Amazon or iTunes.
BRITTEN – MY BELOVED IS MINE
JAMES GILCHRIST (tenor), ANNA TILBROOK (piano)
The charismatic duo of James Gilchrist and Anna Tilbrook continue their exploration of English Song in My Beloved is Mine. This new recording explores the song cycles of Benjamin Britten, including ‘On This Island’, ‘The Holy Sonnets of John Donne’, ‘Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo’ and ‘Canticle I ‘My Beloved is Mine”.
Available from Linn Records, Amazon or iTunes.
SCHUBERT – WINTERREISE
JAMES GILCHRIST (tenor), ANNA TILBROOK (piano)
Third and final recording in renowned British tenor James Gilchrist’s series of Schubert song recitals for Orchid Classics. Andrew Mellor in BBC Music referred to Gilchrist’s “treasure-trove of a voice”.
Available from Orchid Classics, Amazon or iTunes.
SCHUBERT – SCHWANENGESANG
Beethoven – An die ferne Geliebte
JAMES GILCHRIST (tenor), ANNA TILBROOK (piano)
Settings of seven poems by Ludwig Rellstab and six by Heinrich Heine, with Gabriel Seidl’s Die Taubenpost.
Available from Linn Records or from Amazon.
KENNETH LEIGHTON – EARTH, SWEET EARTH
Benjamin Britten – Winter Words
JAMES GILCHRIST (tenor), ANNA TILBROOK (piano)
Leighton sets words by Ruskin and Hopkins; Britten sets words by Thomas Hardy.
Available from Linn Records or from Amazon.
SCHUBERT – DIE SCHÖNE MÜLLERIN
JAMES GILCHRIST (tenor), ANNA TILBROOK (piano)
Die Schöne Müllerin (‘The Beautiful Maid of the Mill’), Schubert’s classic setting of poems by Wilhelm Müller is generally accepted to be a masterpiece of the song genre.
Editor’s Choice in Gramophone, November 2009
Available from Orchid Classics or from Amazon.
SONGS OF LENNOX BERKELEY
JAMES GILCHRIST (tenor), ANNA TILBROOK (piano)
with ALLISON NICHOLLS (harp)
Settings of both French and English poetry. Includes premiere recordings.
Available from CHANDOS or from Amazon.
ON WENLOCK EDGE
JAMES GILCHRIST (tenor), ANNA TILBROOK (piano)
with the Fitzwilliam String Quartet
A selection of early Twentieth Century masterpieces by great English composers. Songs by Vaughan Williams, Warlock, Bliss and Gurney.
Finalist Solo Vocal Album of the Year 2008 Classic FM Gramophone Awards
Available from Linn Records or from Amazon.
THE FAR COUNTRY
JAMES GILCHRIST (tenor), ANNA TILBROOK (piano)
Twenty six English Songs by John Jeffreys.
John Jeffreys (b.1927 – d.2010) was a British composer who specialised in music for solo voice. His songs, exemplified by this fine collection, are masterworks of the genre directly in the tradition inherited from Moeran, Delius, Finzi, and especially Warlock. Beautifully performed by James Gilchrist and Anna Tilbrook these works are timeless and will have lasting appeal.
Available from Divine Art or from Amazon.
O FAIR TO SEE
JAMES GILCHRIST (tenor), ANNA TILBROOK (piano)
Songs by Gerald Finzi.
A beautiful selection of Finzi song cycles with text by Thomas Hardy and other notable English poets.
Available from Linn Records or from Amazon.