Album Description

What would singing be without words? When you combine wonderful poetry with exquisite music, the result is magical. In a rare break from the sacred collections they are famed for, this album from The Sixteen features a whole programme of secular music devoted to English partsongs. From Stanford’s cycle of Eight Partsongs based on the sparing yet infectious poetry of Mary Elizabeth Coleridge to Bridges’ lyrically descriptive writing in Finzi’s Seven Poems of Robert Bridges and Imogen Holst’s idyllic Six Part-Songs Welcome Joy and Welcome Sorrow using verses by John Keats, each setting captures the mood of the poem brilliantly.

Artists

The Sixteen
Harry Christophers

Track Listing

Charles Villiers STANFORD
1-8. Eight Partsongs, Op. 119

Elizabeth MACONCHY
9. Sirens' Song

Imogen HOLST
10-15. Welcome Joy and Welcome Sorrow

Ralph VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
16. Silence and Music

Gerald FINZI
17-23. Seven Poems of Robert Bridges

Arthur SULLIVAN
14. The Long Day Closes

Total running time: 63.01