Elgan Llŷr Thomas – Unveiled: Britten | Tippett | Gipps | Browne | Thomas (2023) [FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

Elgan Llŷr Thomas – Unveiled: Britten | Tippett | Gipps | Browne | Thomas (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:03:56 minutes | 1,04 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Delphian Records

In Jeremy Sams’ new English-language singing version of Britten’s Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, the passionate sentiments are liberated from the safe historical distance of the Italian Renaissance and unveiled in a way that was not possible in 1940, when Britten wrote the cycle – his first for his partner Peter Pears.

Tenor Elgan Llŷr Thomas presents it alongside Michael Tippett’s equally ardent Songs for Achilles and a short item by W. Denis Browne, a close friend of the poet Rupert Brooke, as well as premiere recordings of four Brooke settings by Ruth Gipps and a new song-cycle by Thomas himself, to poems by Andrew McMillan.

Tackling themes of love, shame, acceptance, war and death, the programme traverses a history of male homosexuality from necessary discretion to the (relatively) liberated present.“I want to appeal to a new audience [with this album], with people who think ‘it’s not for me’ or that it’s elitist or boring. I want people to know that they can be comfortable at the opera just as they are.” (Elgan Llŷr Thomas)

Tracklist:

1-1. Elgan Llŷr Thomas – Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo (Translated to English by Jeremy Sams): No. 1, Sonetto XVI (02:21)
1-2. Elgan Llŷr Thomas – Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo (Translated to English by Jeremy Sams): No. 2, Sonetto XXXI (01:42)
1-3. Elgan Llŷr Thomas – Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo (Translated to English by Jeremy Sams): No. 3, Sonetto XXX (03:49)
1-4. Elgan Llŷr Thomas – Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo (Translated to English by Jeremy Sams): No. 4, Sonnetto LV (01:59)
1-5. Elgan Llŷr Thomas – Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo (Translated to English by Jeremy Sams): No. 5, Sonnetto XXXVIII (02:08)
1-6. Elgan Llŷr Thomas – Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo (Translated to English by Jeremy Sams): No. 6, Sonnetto XXXII (01:31)
1-7. Elgan Llŷr Thomas – Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo (Translated to English by Jeremy Sams): No. 7, Sonnetto XXIV (04:23)
1-8. Elgan Llŷr Thomas – Four Songs of Youth: No. 1, Failure (02:37)
1-9. Elgan Llŷr Thomas – Four Songs of Youth: No. 2, Unfortunate (02:44)
1-10. Elgan Llŷr Thomas – Four Songs of Youth: No. 3, The Dance (01:19)
1-11. Elgan Llŷr Thomas – Four Songs of Youth: No. 4, Peace 1914 (03:07)
1-12. Elgan Llŷr Thomas – To Gratiana dancing and singing (Pavan) (03:59)
1-13. Elgan Llŷr Thomas – Songs for Achilles: No. 1, In the Tent (05:15)
1-14. Elgan Llŷr Thomas – Songs for Achilles: No. 2, Across the Plain (03:43)
1-15. Elgan Llŷr Thomas – Songs for Achilles: No. 3, By the Sea (06:37)
1-16. Elgan Llŷr Thomas – Swan: I. the lake is calm tonight (02:15)
1-17. Elgan Llŷr Thomas – Swan: II. my first time in water (01:16)
1-18. Elgan Llŷr Thomas – Swan: III. then the year everything was swan (01:26)
1-19. Elgan Llŷr Thomas – Swan: IV. the black swan of debt (01:11)
1-20. Elgan Llŷr Thomas – Swan: IV. then the year everything was darkness (02:11)
1-21. Elgan Llŷr Thomas – Swan: V. ‘sing a swan of sixpence’ (01:11)
1-22. Elgan Llŷr Thomas – Swan: VI. [queen]. mother don’t eat me (03:05)
1-23. Elgan Llŷr Thomas – Swan: VII. I plucked each feather from myself (03:55)

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