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Volume I of ‘100 Years of British Song’, a three-CD project with tenor James Gilchrist for SOMM Recordings, is released today, 16 October 2020. 

You can now listen to the tracks on Spotify and Apple Music. It is an Apple Music featured new release in their #Modernism category. You can find further information to purchase the CD on the SOMM website.

100 Years of British Song Volume I playlist:

Gustav Holst:
A Vigil of Pentecost (Alice M. Buckton) (1914)
The Ballad of Hunting Knowe (E. A. Ramsden) (1920s)
From Twelve Humbert Wolfe Songs (1929):
Persephone
A Little Music
The Dream-City
The Floral Bandit
Betelgeuse

Rebecca Clarke:
June Twilight (John Masefield) (1925)
The Seal Man (John Masefield, from ‘A Mainsail Haul’) (1922)
A Dream (W. B. Yeats) (1926)
Eight O’Clock (A. E. Housman) (1927)

Ivor Gurney:
Down by the Salley Gardens (W. B. Yeats) (1920)
Snow (Edward Thomas) (1912)
Lights Out (Edward Thomas) (1919)
Sleep (John Fletcher) (1913)

Frank Bridge:
Four Songs (1925)

The first volume of ‘100 Years of British Song’, a three CD project with tenor James Gilchrist for SOMM Recordings is due to be released on Friday, 16 October 2020. It has been chosen as the pick of the best new classical releases on BBC Radio 3. Click here and scroll through to about 8:15, when they begin a very generous playing of three of the tracks from the CD.

Photo above was taken during rehearsals at Sophie’s Barn in preparation for the recording of ‘100 Years of British Song’.

Following their popular musical evenings on Southwold’s South Green, Magnus and Marije Johnston (two violinists from the distinguished Navarra Quartet, currently living in Southwold) and Nathan Williamson gave a concert for the children at Southwold Primary School on 1st October. It was fantastic to see the children having a wonderful time and experiencing live music, and understanding more about how violins work, what they are made of, and the wonderful variety of sounds they can make! This tied in very nicely with the children’s science project for the term which is all about the nature of sound and how it is made. Magnus, Marije and Nathan hope that it will be the first concert of many in local schools, although as the concert had to be held outdoors it might have to evolve into a music and movement class so the children don’t get too chilly come November!

Homecoming was originally written for solo violin in 2008 for Piotr Szewczyk’s Violin Futura project, in which he commissioned a ton of new violin pieces. This arrangement was made especially for Magnus and Marije Johnston, to play in the South Green Soirees in Southwold during lockdown.

Homecoming is exactly what it says. In the original for solo violin it was a two-voice duet. Not that this necessarily means the homecoming is an interaction between two characters as such – a return someplace is as often an inner working out as much as an external one – but in this new arrangement the dialogue between two instruments (as opposed to two voices within one instrument) casts the expression in a different way. Its more romantic, and the two voices intertwine more obviously.

Nonetheless, its not as simple and peaceful a piece as you might expect, to my mind anyway – but it does find a resolution and, above all, a cohesion between the two parts. Coming home is not necessarily a straightforward process – if it were, the piece could just be a perfect cadence. 

A performance of the piece can be found on the media page.

Throughout September, Southwold music-lovers have continued to enjoy the South Green Soirees in balmy late summer sun.

We plan to move these events indoors when the weather finally turns, but we haven’t yet found a way around the various issues surrounding gatherings indoors… yet… But if we can find a way to make this work, we will be able to continue providing live music for Southwold throughout the autumn and winter months, both in person and via online streamings.

To be kept informed of news on this please email [email protected] and we shall add you to our mailing list. We also post regularly on social media, including Next Door.

The South Green events are very informal and anyone is welcome to come along – several children under the age of 10 enjoyed the last one! There is no charge or ticketing, but a collection is taken to support the performers.

On 16th October, SOMM Recordings will launch the first in a revealing three-volume survey of One Hundred Years of British Song with tenor James Gilchrist and pianist Nathan Williamson. Compiled to reflect the rich variety of British song, Volume 1 throws a spotlight on composers who made a considerable contribution to the song repertoire, although this is often highly neglected on account of their extraordinary success in other genres.

All four featured composers – Gustav Holst, Rebecca Clarke, Ivor Gurney and Frank Bridge – were born in the late 1800s and lived through the horrors of the First World War and the extraordinary social, cultural and political upheaval that followed.

More information can be found on the SOMM Recordings website here.