Ruby Hughes, Huw Watkins – Echo (2022) [FLAC 24bit/192kHz]

Ruby Hughes, Huw Watkins – Echo (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:03:12 minutes | 1,85 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © BIS

Huw Watkins’ song cycle Echo, composed for soprano Ruby Hughes and premiered in 2017 at Carnegie Hall, is at the centre of this artfully crafted recital. Setting texts by five different poets, the cycle is a work centred on melancholy – on transience, remembrance, and in the final song a numbed cry of inconceivable loss. As such it permeates the entire programme, adding a new and unexpected depth to that which precedes as well as follows.Another strand of the recital is the idea of how composers across the ages have addressed and echoed one another lovingly in their music – often in the most nuanced and unconscious way. Bach’s solo keyboard works capture something of a sense of timelessness, or more accurately, inspire an emotional connection that transcends time. A similar affinity seems to inform Britten’s folksong arrangements and his realisations of Bach’s Geistliche Lieder as well as the Purcell realisations by Thomas Adès and Tippett. A different kind of echo is created by the inclusion of Britten’s version of Dafydd y Garreg Wen(David of the White Rock) – a nod to the performers’ shared Welsh heritage. Closing the disc, three songs by contemporary British composers admired by both Watkins and Hughes also resonate with the previous works, bringing the programme full circle.

Tracklist:

01. Ruby Hughes & Huw Watkins – Bach: Partita No. 4 in D Major, BWV 828: V. Sarabande (03:27)
02. Ruby Hughes & Huw Watkins – Bach: Gedenke doch, mein Geist, BWV 509 (Arr. B. Britten for Voice & Piano) (01:32)
03. Ruby Hughes & Huw Watkins – Bach: French Suite No. 3 in B Minor, BWV 814: III. Sarabande (01:48)
04. Ruby Hughes & Huw Watkins – Bach: Komm, süsser Tod, BWV 478 (Arr. B. Britten for Voice & Piano) (03:07)
05. Ruby Hughes & Huw Watkins – Bach: Partita No. 6 in E Minor, BWV 830: III. Corrente (02:44)
06. Ruby Hughes & Huw Watkins – Bach: Liebster Herr Jesu, wo bleibst du, BWV 484 (03:42)
07. Ruby Hughes & Huw Watkins – Watkins: Echo: I. Echo (04:25)
08. Ruby Hughes & Huw Watkins – Watkins: Echo: II. For Each Ecstatic Instant (01:46)
09. Ruby Hughes & Huw Watkins – Watkins: Echo: III. If Grief Could Burn Out (03:34)
10. Ruby Hughes & Huw Watkins – Watkins: Echo: IV. When You Are Old (02:23)
11. Ruby Hughes & Huw Watkins – Watkins: Echo: V. Baby Blue (03:20)
12. Ruby Hughes & Huw Watkins – Purcell: By Beauteous Softness (Arr. T. Adès for Voice & Piano) (04:45)
13. Ruby Hughes & Huw Watkins – Purcell: Music for a While, Z. 583 (Arr. Sir M. Tippett & W. Bergmann for Voice & Piano) (04:17)
14. Ruby Hughes & Huw Watkins – Traditional: I Wonder as I Wander (Arr. B. Britten & J.J. Niles for Voice) (04:50)
15. Ruby Hughes & Huw Watkins – Traditional: Dafydd y Garreg Wen (Arr. B. Britten & C. Matthews for Voice & Piano) (03:42)
16. Ruby Hughes & Huw Watkins – Traditional: Folksong Arrangements, Vol. 4: How Sweet the Answer (The Wren) (02:35)
17. Ruby Hughes & Huw Watkins – Pritchard: The World (04:12)
18. Ruby Hughes & Huw Watkins – Frances-Hoad: Lament (03:34)
19. Ruby Hughes & Huw Watkins – Wallen: Peace on Earth (03:20)

Download:

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