James Gilchrist & Anna Tilbrook - Solitude (2020) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

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!

TRACKLIST

1. James Gilchrist & Anna Tilbrook - Oh Solitude, Z. 406
2. James Gilchrist & Anna Tilbrook - Einsamkeit, D. 620: Gib mir die Fülle der Einsamkeit!
3. James Gilchrist & Anna Tilbrook - Einsamkeit, D. 620: Gib mir die Fülle der Thätigkeit!
4. James Gilchrist & Anna Tilbrook - Einsamkeit, D. 620: Gib mir das Glück der Geselligkeit!
5. James Gilchrist & Anna Tilbrook - Einsamkeit, D. 620: Gib mir die Fülle der Seligkeit!
6. James Gilchrist & Anna Tilbrook - Einsamkeit, D. 620: Gib mir die Fülle der Düsterkeit!
7. James Gilchrist & Anna Tilbrook - Einsamkeit, D. 620: Gib mir die Weihe der Einsamkeit!
8. James Gilchrist & Anna Tilbrook - Under Alter'd Skies: No. 1, Fair Ship
9. James Gilchrist & Anna Tilbrook - Under Alter'd Skies: No. 2, Calm Is the Morn
10. James Gilchrist & Anna Tilbrook - Under Alter'd Skies: No. 3, To-night the Winds Begin to Rise
11. James Gilchrist & Anna Tilbrook - Under Alter'd Skies: No. 4, With Weary Steps
12. James Gilchrist & Anna Tilbrook - Under Alter'd Skies: No. 5, Be Near Me
13. James Gilchrist & Anna Tilbrook - Under Alter'd Skies: No. 6, Peace, Come Away
14. James Gilchrist & Anna Tilbrook - Under Alter'd Skies: No. 7, Thy Voice Is on the Rolling Air
15. James Gilchrist & Anna Tilbrook - Hermit Songs, Op. 29: No. 1, At Saint Patrick's Purgatory
16. James Gilchrist & Anna Tilbrook - Hermit Songs, Op. 29: No. 2, Church Bells at Night
17. James Gilchrist & Anna Tilbrook - Hermit Songs, Op. 29: No. 3, St. Ita's Vision
18. James Gilchrist & Anna Tilbrook - Hermit Songs, Op. 29: No. 4, The Heavenly Banquet
19. James Gilchrist & Anna Tilbrook - Hermit Songs, Op. 29: No. 5, The Crucifixion
20. James Gilchrist & Anna Tilbrook - Hermit Songs, Op. 29: No. 6, Sea-Snatch
21. James Gilchrist & Anna Tilbrook - Hermit Songs, Op. 29: No. 7, Promiscuity
22. James Gilchrist & Anna Tilbrook - Hermit Songs, Op. 29: No. 8, The Monk and His Cat
23. James Gilchrist & Anna Tilbrook - Hermit Songs, Op. 29: No. 9, The Praises of God
24. James Gilchrist & Anna Tilbrook - Hermit Songs, Op. 29: No. 10, The Desire for Hermitage



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