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Home , The Last Rose of Summer

AN IRISH SONGBOOK r Avenging and Bright arr. [1.47]

t Oh Men from the Fields arr. Herbert Hughes [3.02] y 1 The Cloths of Heaven Thomas Dunhill [3.08] St Ita’s Vision Samuel Barber [3.25] u 2 Solitary Hotel Samuel Barber [2.41] The Minstrel Boy arr. Benjamin Britten [2.07] i 3 Lean out of the Window (Goldenhair) Frank Bridge [1.47] Tutto è Sciolto John [2.01] o 4 Bid adieu arr. Edmund Pendleton [3.08] The Stranger’s Grave Herbert Hamilton Harty [3.45] p 5 The Roving Dingle Boy arr. E.J. Moeran [2.15] Sail on, sail on arr. Benjamin Britten [3.00] a 6 To Eire Arnold Bax [4.19] The Desire for Hermitage Samuel Barber [3.24] s 7 The Last Rose of Summer arr. Benjamin Britten [4.20] At the mid hour of night arr. Benjamin Britten [2.43] d 8 The Tinker’s Daughter arr. E.J. Moeran [1.39] The Salley Gardens arr. Benjamin Britten [2.52]

9 The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs John Cage [2.50]

0 Flood Herbert Howells [1.52] Total timings: [62.34] q Bahnhofstrasse C.W. Orr [2.28] w Marry Me Now arr. Herbert Hughes [1.26] AILISH TYNAN SOPRANO e The Lost Lover arr. E.J. Moeran [2.34] IAIN BURNSIDE PIANO

www.signumrecords.com AN IRISH SONGBOOK Butler Yeats, who in 1898, alongside Lady composers in his teaching at London’s Royal that which has been lost’. The restoration Gregory and Edward Martyn, founded the Irish College of Music. Arthur Benjamin recalled his of national folklore and, musically, folksong, At the end of the nineteenth century there was Literary Theatre, for which Yeats wrote a series first lesson with Stanford in 1911: ‘Hardly was are therefore key elements of that spirit and a a growing movement in Ireland which sought of plays based upon Irish mythology, notably I inside the room when Stanford pointed a finger basis for the symbolism they wrought. to forge a sense of national identity; a sense around the legendary hero, Cuchulain. at me and said: “And what d’ye think of Home of self that had become diminished during Rule, me bhoy”’. Benjamin, fresh from Australia, Rather than merely introducing this mysticism centuries of English rule. In 1882 a National Ireland was not alone in its renaissance, similar knew nothing of it and found himself being into their work, as many composers did, a few Literary Society was formed, which aimed to revivals were taking place in England also, admonished: ‘Well, go home and learn about composers became thoroughly engrossed in publicise the literature and folklore of Ireland. with the rediscovery of Elizabethan and Tudor it, and ye’ll be a better composer’. This this world. In his obituary of E.J. (‘Jack’) Moeran, Two years later the Gaelic Athletic Association literature, drama and music, and a great deal encouragement, such as it was, wasn’t perhaps Arnold Bax observes that ‘During his first thirty appeared, reviving the games that were seen as of activity in the collecting of folksong. As in practised as deeply as might be by Stanford years he was an Englishman and a diligent an intrinsic feature of Irish culture; and in 1893 Ireland, this brought a generation of writers himself. Whilst he set numerous Irish poets collector of East Anglian folk tunes, whilst for the Gaelic League was convened, whose objective and composers who sought to create a purely and provided accompaniments for many Irish the remainder of his days he was almost was in part the revival of the Irish language, English identity in the arts, notably breaking folksongs, notably producing an edition of exclusively Irish’. The son of an Irish priest which was in apparently terminal decline. away from the dominant Teutonicism in Moore’s Irish Melodies in 1895, Arnold Bax serving in Norfolk at the time of Moeran’s music. However, during the process the Celtic accused him of ‘never penetrat[ing] to within birth, during the last two decades of his life Earlier in the nineteenth century, antiquarians revivalism of the Irish seeped eastwards over a thousand miles of the Hidden Ireland’. His Jack returned to Ireland regularly, seeking Edward Bunting and George Petrie had begun the Welsh Marches and into the minds of the were domestic pieces, in thrall to the German musical inspiration and solace in Kenmare to gather and publish collections of Irish Airs. English. This happened to such an extent that tradition, which didn’t touch upon the mysticism and its surrounding landscape, where he had During this time also published it is notable that on this album only two of the found in the poetry by those English composers been accepted as a native by the local people. his collections of Irish Melodies, in which he composers and arrangers represented are in on the Celtic fringe. Moeran observed that he found much similarity provided words to be sung to many Irish Airs fact Irish: Hamilton Harty and Herbert Hughes, between the Norfolk folksong he collected in which had lost their original Gaelic texts. who were born in what in 1921 became Northern Christopher Palmer has attempted to define the first half of his life and that he later However, in spite of this musical activity it Ireland. The remainder are English and American. this deeper Celticism, writing that ‘what lies at collected in County Kerry, the two counties seems to be the literary movement that lead to the root of Celtic mysticism and wonder is the being connected through the Yarmouth fishermen the emergence of a distinctly Celtic impulse. Some of this might, at least in part, be due sense of a great loss. [To those] possessed of who fished Irish waters and went ashore to the work of the Dublin born composer Sir the Celtic spirit, the material universe appears in poor weather. The three arrangements by One of the founder members of the 1882 Charles Stanford, whose greatest contribution a symbol of a lost kingdom; and art is an Moeran, The Roving Dingle Boy, The Tinker’s National Literary Society was the poet William to music was in the nurturing of so many incantation which can restore to a certain extent Daughter and the haunting setting of The

- 4 - - 5 - Lost Lover, are taken from a set of seven Songs Benjamin Britten made numerous folksong Yeats noted that the poem was an ‘attempt to a friendship perhaps cemented in music. For a from County Kerry. They were arranged towards arrangements, many of which were written for reconstruct an old song from three lines time Joyce performed as a solo tenor, notably the end of his life, whilst staying with a tinker inclusion in recitals given with Peter Pears. imperfectly remembered by an old peasant performing Hughes’s arrangement of Down by family in County Kerry, although he had However, Britten’s approach to the songs is far woman in the village of Ballysodare, Sligo, who the Salley Gardens in 1904, and is known to collected them over a number of years from from the simple, modal approach adopted by often sings them to herself’. Those few lines have admired Hughes’s Cradle Song (‘Oh men around that county. some arrangers. He breathes an extraordinary are now known to come from an Anglo-Irish from the Fields’), from the 1913 set of Songs life into the songs with often economical, highly Ballad, The Rambling Boys of Pleasure. However, of Connacht to words by . Bid Moeran’s Symphony in G (1924-37) is seen by characterful accompaniments that provide Yeats’s poem has in itself become established Adieu is based on a poem from Joyce’s Chamber some as a work that bridges his Anglo-Irish a striking canvas against which the song is as a folksong, paired with the Ulster air The Music (1907), also with an air by Joyce, for transition, spiritually. The writing of this work somehow cast into sharper relief than might Maids of Mourne Shore. which American composer Edmund Pendleton was encouraged by Hamilton Harty, to whom be with a plainer setting. His fourth published provided the accompaniment; a song that with it is dedicated. Harty is represented here with volume of arrangements is dedicated to songs This pairing of words and music was first made a tender eroticism marks the transition into The Stranger’s Grave, a setting of a poem by from Moore’s Irish Melodies; from the well by Herbert Hughes, as published in his first womanhood. Frank Bridge’s selection from Emily Lawless that commemorates a drowned known Last Rose of Summer, its unsettling volume of Irish Country Songs in 1909. Hughes Chamber Music, Goldenhair, drew from him man buried with three unbaptised babies on accompaniment heightening its evocation of was an important figure in Irish folksong, and a wonderfully fluid and uncomplicated setting, Inishmaan – one of the Aran Islands off the loneliness, to the bell-like tones of At the mid was one of the founder members of the Irish composed in 1925. coast of Galway that also inspired the work of hour of night and the purposefulness of Avenging Folksong Society in 1904. He claimed that Irish playwright J.M. Synge. and Bright, clamouring for vengeance. folk music had ‘more variety of mood than can In 1922 the publication of brought be found in any other in Europe’. Hughes Joyce both fame and notoriety, the book being Bax would have seen himself in his description Given Yeats’s centrality to the Irish cultural collected hundreds of melodies and published banned in America for a decade. Hoping to of Moeran, for he too found his spiritual home renaissance, it is perhaps unsurprising that numerous folksong arrangements, his sympathy help Joyce’s cause, in 1929 Herbert Hughes in Ireland, travelling extensively in the country his poetry has drawn many English composers, for which is exemplified in the lively and and Arthur Bliss decided to convene a musical and returning there annually during his last thirty notably in a work that epitomises the English impatient Marry me now. tribute to Joyce: a set of songs based on Joyce’s years. Bax even adopted an Irish pseudonym assimilation of the Celtic: Peter Warlock’s The Pomes Penyeach (1927), each poem taken by under which he wrote poetry: Dermot O’Byrne. Curlew. His words frame this recording, in One of the successors to the Irish Literary a different composer: The Joyce Book (1932). The 1910 song To Eire echoes his longing Thomas Dunhill’s setting of The Cloths of Heaven Revival was , who has become one Herbert Howells’s setting, Flood, supplies the for Ireland, the text also drawing on much and Britten’s arrangement of what was originally of the most important figures in modernist poem with a brooding modal torrent; and that that makes up the Celtic fascination. titled by Yeats, ‘An Old Song Re-sung’, when avant-garde literature. Born in the same year set by C.W. Orr takes its name from the famous first published:Down by the Salley Gardens. as Herbert Hughes, the two became firm friends; street in Leipzig, Bahnhofstrasse, where Joyce

- 6 - - 7 - spent some of his self-imposed exile from of eighteen springs Cage selected lines from a TEXTS He seizes solitary paper. Ireland, and where he was to die in 1941. section of Joyce’s experimental Finnegans Wake He holds it towards fire. Twilight. and set them for voice, using just three pitches, 1 The Cloths of Heaven He reads. Solitary. What? Samuel Barber had come to the poetry of Yeats and closed piano. The limited tonal range gives Thomas Dunhill In sloping, upright and backhands: and Joyce whilst exploring his own ancestry, being the melody a chant-like feel, which combines Queen’s hotel, Queen’s hotel, Queen’s ho … an American of Scots and Irish origin. In 1952 with the accompaniment of tapping and Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths, From Ulysses, James Joyce (1882 – 1941) he fulfilled a dream to visit to Ireland, visiting knocking on the closed piano lid to create an Enwrought with golden and silver light, Yeats’s grave in the shadow of Ben Bulben, extraordinarily haunting work. The blue and the dim and the dark cloths 3 Goldenhair only to find it surrounded by the graves of Of night and light and the half-light, Frank Bridge numerous Barbers – perhaps his own ancestors. Philip Lancaster, 2011 I would spread the cloths under your feet: Shortly afterwards he started work on a set of But I, being poor, have only my dreams; Lean out of the window, ten Hermit Songs: settings of medieval Irish I have spread my dreams under your feet; Goldenhair, poems that had been written as annotations Tread softly because you tread on my dreams. I heard you singing in the margins of manuscripts that were being William Butler Yeats (1865 – 1939) A merry air. illuminated or copied by scholars or monks, finding the poems ‘direct, unspoiled and often 2 Solitary Hotel My book is closed, curiously contemporaneous in feeling’. The two Samuel Barber I read no more, heard here, St. Ita’s Vision and The Desire for Watching the fire dance Hermitage, present us with an ecstatic vision Solitary hotel in a mountain pass. On the floor. of the nursing of the Christ child, attributed to Autumn. Twilight. Fire lit. St. Ita, and an intense longing for solitude to In dark corner young man seated. I have left my book, prepare for death, which journey must be Young woman enters. I have left my room, undertaken alone. Restless. Solitary. She sits. For I heard you singing She goes to window. She stands. Through the gloom. Barber’s setting of Joyce’s Solitary Hotel, from She sits. Twilight. She thinks. Singing and singing his late cycle Despite and Still, is a rather On solitary hotel paper she writes. A merry air, tongue-in-cheek affair, and a total contrast to She thinks. She writes. She sighs. Lean out of the window, the most recent work on the disc, by fellow Wheels and hoofs. She hurries out. Goldenhair. American John Cage. For The wonderful widow He comes from his dark corner. From Chamber Music, James Joyce

- 8 - - 9 - 4 Bid adieu Then the sails were hoist and the flag was flown 6 To Eire All her lovely companions arr. Edmund Pendleton And the ship began to move Arnold Bax Are faded and gone; Just as the anchor it was clear No flow’r of her kindred, Bid adieu, adieu, adieu, She cried these words I prove: To Thee, Beloved, of old there came No rosebud is nigh Bid adieu to girlish days, “A maid, a maid, I’ll always stay The sailors of a thousand ships To reflect back her blushes, Happy Love is come to woo Until the day I die, Who learned to love Thy hidden name, Or give sigh for sigh. Thee and woo thy girlish ways — For there is no other one for me And love the music on Thy lips; The zone that doth become thee fair, But my roving Dingle boy.” I’ll not leave thee, thou lone one, The snood upon thy yellow hair. But some, who thought to build Thy pyre To pine on the stem; Now he’d gone away past six months clear And on its ruin rear a throne, Since the lovely are sleeping, When thou hast heard his name upon When a letter he sent home Have loved to sit around Thy fire Go, sleep thou with them; The bugles of the cherubim Enquiring all about his friends And count Thy saddest songs their own; Thus kindly I scatter Begin thou softly to unzone And the girl he left alone Thy leaves o’er thy bed, Thy girlish bosom unto him He sent her home the passage paid And sons of Thine, who broke love’s bands Where thy mates of the garden And softly to undo the snood To comfort all her joy To seek a fabled far-off shore, Lie scentless and dead. That is the sign of maidenhood. And she’s now in Philadelphia Grope thro’ the world with aching hands,

From Chamber Music, Air & Text by James Joyce With her roving Dingle boy. And hunger for Thee evermore; So soon may I follow, When friendships decay, 5 The Roving Dingle Boy Come all you maids and maidens fair For, tho’ Thy sorrow may not cease, And from Love’s shining circle arr. E.J. Moeran The warning take mine here Tho’, blessing, Thou are still unblest, The gems drop away! Never slight your own true love Thou has for men a Gift of Peace, When true hearts lie wither’d. From the Dingle Bay he sailed away When he is on the sea O Daughter of Divine Unrest! And fond ones are flown, All in the month of May Be sure to him, prove constant Cousins (1873 – 1956) Oh! who would inhabit His true love she stood waving And he’s bound to crown your joy This bleak world alone? While waiting on the quay And carry you towards the city 7 The Last Rose of Summer From Irish Melodies, Thomas Moore (1779 – 1852) His true love she stood waving Like my roving Dingle boy. arr. Benjamin Britten So bitterly she cried Trad. Said “He’s gone and God be with him ‘Tis the last rose of summer, He’s my roving Dingle boy.” Left blooming alone;

- 10 - - 11 - 8 The Tinker’s Daughter 9 The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs 0 Flood Ah star of evil! star of pain! arr. E.J. Moeran John Cage Herbert Howells Highhearted youth comes not again

If you’re a tinker’s daughter as I took you for to be, night by silentsailing night … Goldbrown upon the sated flood Nor old heart’s wisdom yet to know Will you ride up to Kilgarvan, making buckets there Isobel … The rockvine clusters lift and sway; The signs that mock me as I go. for me? wildwoods’ eyes and primarose hair, Vast wings above the lambent waters brood From Pomes Penyeach, James Joyce quietly, Of sullen day. With my gumshilla an’ a goushilla an’ me gashilla all the woods so wild, in mauves of w Marry Me Now like a Leary-O, moss and daphnedews, A waste of waters ruthlessly arr. Herbert Hughes With my goushilla an’ me gumshilla, wallop it out how all so still she lay neath of the Sways and uplifts its weedy mane my hero. whitethorn, child of tree, Where brooding day stares down upon the sea Said brawny Bill, the sailor bold, like some losthappy leaf, In dull disdain. O marry me now! Before we went to Kenmare we hadn’t this nor that; like blowing flower stilled, Our love is nearly two days old, But now the fair is over we’ve a piebald and a flat. as fain would she anon, Uplift and sway, O golden vine, Marry me, marry me now! With my gumshilla … for soon again ‘twil be, Your clustered fruits to love’s full flood, I’ve got the parson and the ring, win me, woo me, wed me, Lambent and vast and ruthless as is thine I mean to do the proper thing; I soldered in the stable and I soldered in the hall; ah weary me! Incertitude! Marry me now! The children in the kitchen threw away my tools deeply, From Pomes Penyeach, James Joyce and all. Now evencalm lay sleeping; night You see I’ve got to sail away, q With my gumshilla … Isobel Bahnhofstrasse O marry me now! Sister Isobel C.W. Orr I’d hate to miss our wedding day; Sure I can make a bucket or I can make a pint; Saintette Isobel Marry me, marry me now! I can do a job of tinker’s work the darkest hours of night. madame Isa The eyes that mock me sign the way For life is short and love is long, With my gumshilla … Veuve La belle Whereto I pass at eve of day. And once we’re spliced we can’t go wrong; From Finnegans Wake, James Joyce Marry me now! I’ll pull out my pony and I’ll try to make a swap; Grey way whose violet signals are I’ll catch a tinker’s daughter and I’ll catch her on The trysting and the twining star. Heave to, my lass and strike your sail, the hop. O marry me now! With my gumshilla … A sailor lad will never fail, Trad. - 12 - - 13 - Marry me, marry me now! r Avenging and Bright t Oh Men from the Fields y St Ita’s Vision You may not see him once a year, arr. Benjamin Britten arr. Herbert Hughes Samuel Barber But when he’s there he’ll make good cheer: Marry me now! Avenging and bright fall the swift sword of Erin O men from the fields, “I will take nothing from my Lord,” said she, James Bernard Fagan On him who the brave sons of Usna betray’d! – Come gently within, “unless He gives me His Son from Heaven For every fond eye he hath waken’d a tear in Tread softly, softly, In the form of a Baby that I may nurse Him”. e The Lost Lover A drop from his heart-wounds shall weep o’er O men, coming in... So that Christ came down to her arr. E.J. Moeran her blade. in the form of a Baby and then she said: For m’mhurnin is going “Infant Jesus, at my breast, The summer is coming and the grass is green, By the red cloud that hung over Conor’s dark From me and from you Nothing in this world is true And the leaves are budding on every tree; dwelling, Where Mary will fold him Save, 0 tiny nursling, You. The ships are sailing upon the sea, When Ulad’s three champions lay sleeping in gore – With mantle of blue, Infant Jesus at my breast, And I’ll soon have tidings of my own Johneen. By the billows of war, which so often, high swelling, By my heart every night, Have wafted these heroes to victory’s shore – From reek of the smoke You I nurse are not a churl The night was stormy and dark and cold, And cold of the floor But were begot on Mary the Jewess When I lost my darling, my true love bold; We swear to avenge them! – no joy shall be tasted, And peering of things By Heaven’s light. I’ll range the valleys and the mountains high, The harp shall be silent, the maiden unwed, Across the half-door. Infant Jesus at my breast, And I’ll never marry until I die. Our halls shall be mute, and our fields shall lie What King is there but You who could wasted, O men from the fields, Give everlasting good? O Johnny, Johnny I love you well, Till vengeance is wreak’d on the murderer’s head. Softly, softly come through; Wherefore I give my food. I love you better than tongue can tell; Mary puts round him Sing to Him, maidens, sing your best! I love my friends and relations too, Yes, monarch! though sweet are our home Her mantle of blue. There is none that has such right But I’d leave them all, love, and go with you. recollections, Padraic Colum (1881 – 1972) To your song as Heaven’s King Though sweet are the tears that from tenderness fall; Who every night Trad. Though sweet are our friendships, our hopes, Is Infant Jesus at my breast”.

our affections, Based on 8th–9th century text Revenge on a tyrant is sweetest of all! Translation by Chester Kallman (1921 – 1975) From Irish Melodies, Thomas Moore

- 14 - - 15 - u The Minstrel Boy The clear young eyes’ soft look, the candid brow, Oh, plotting brain and restless heart of mine, a The Desire for Hermitage arr. Benjamin Britten The fragrant hair, What strange fate brought you to so strange a Samuel Barber Falling as through the silence falleth now shrine? The Minstrel Boy to the war is gone Dusk of the air. Ah! To be all alone in a little cell In the ranks of death you’ll find him; Little feet too young and soft to walk, with nobody near me; His father’s sword he has girded on, Why then, remembering those shy Little lips too young and pure to talk, beloved that pilgrimage before the last pilgrimage And his wild harp slung behnd him. Sweet lures, repine Little faded grass-tufts, root and stalk. to death. “Land of Song”, said the warrior bard, When the dear love she yielded with a sigh Emily Lawless (1845 – 1913) Singing the passing hours to cloudy Heaven; “Tho’ all the world betrays thee, Was all but thine? Feeding upon dry bread and water from the cold p One sword, at least, this rights shall guard, From Pomes Penyeach, James Joyce Sail on, sail on spring. One faithful harp shall praise thee”. arr. Benjamin Britten That will be an end to evil when I am alone o The Stranger’s Grave in a lovely little corner among tombs Sail on, sail on, thou fearless bark, The Minstrel fell! but the foeman’s chain Herbert Hamilton Harty far from the houses of the great. Could not bring that proud soul under, Wherever blows the welcome wind; Ah! To be all alone in a little cell, It cannot lead to scenes more dark, The harp he lov’d ne’er spoke again, Little feet too young and soft to walk, Alone I came into the world More sad than those we leave behind. For he tore its chords asunder; Little lips too young and pure to talk, alone I shall go from it. And said, “No chains shall sully thee, Each smiling billow seems to say Little faded grass-tufts, root and stalk. Based on 8th–9th century text Thou soul of love and brav’ry! “Though death beneath our surface be, Translation by Seán Ó Faoláin (1900 – 1991) Less cold we are, less false than they, Thy songs were made for the pure and free, I lie alone here, utterly alone, Whose smiling wrecked thy hopes and thee.” They shall never sound in slav’ry”. Amid pure ashes my wild ashes mingle; s At the mid hour of night From Irish Melodies, Thomas Moore A drowned man, with a name unknown, Sail on, sail on, through endless space, arr. Benjamin Britten A drifting waif, flung by the drifting shingle. Through calm, through tempest, stop no more; i Tutto è Sciolto Oh, plotting brain and restless heart of mine, The stormiest sea’s a resting-place At the mid hour of night, when stars are John Ireland What strange fate brought you to so strange a shrine? To him who leaves such hearts on shore. weeping, I fly Or, if some desert land we meet, To the lone vale we loved, when life shone A birdless heaven, seadusk, one lone star Sometimes a woman comes across the grass, Where never yet false-hearted men warm in thine eye; Piercing the west, Bare-footed, with pit-patterings scarcely heard, Profaned a world, that else were sweet, And I think oft, if spirits can steal from the As thou, fond heart, love’s time, so faint, so far, Sometimes the grazing cattle slowly pass, Then rest thee, bark, but not till then. regions of air Rememberest. Or on my turf sings loud some mating bird. To revisit past scenes of delight, thou wilt From Irish Melodies, Thomas Moore

- 16 - - 17 - come to me there, In a field by the river my love and I did stand, And tell me our love is remember’d even in And on my leaning shoulder she placed her BIOGRAPHIES the sky. snow-white hand. She bid me take love easy, as the grass grows Then I sing the wild song it once was rapture on the weirs; AILISH TYNAN to hear, But I was young and foolish, and now am full When our voices commingling breathed like one of tears. “Tynan is one of our brightest young stars - a Academy of Music in Dublin and the Guildhall on the ear; William Butler Yeats shining lyric soprano equally at home in the School of Music and Drama, London. She won the And as Echo far off through the vale my sad rarefied world of song as she is in opera” Rosenblatt Recital Prize at the 2003 BBC Cardiff orison rolls, The Independent Singer of the World Competition. Other awards I think, O my love! ‘tis thy voice from the include the Maggie Teyte Competition, Miriam Kingdom of Souls Ailish Tynan was born in Mullingar, Ireland, Licette Award and the RTÉ Millennium Singer of Faintly answering still the notes that once were and studied at Trinity College, the Royal Irish the Future. so dear.

From Irish Melodies, Thomas Moore d The Salley Gardens arr. Benjamin Britten

Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet; She passed the salley gardens with little snow-white feet. She bid me take life easy, as the leaves grow on the tree; But I, being young and foolish, with her did not agree. © Sussie Ahlburg

- 18 - - 19 - Her recent opera engagements have included her in Cambridge, Mahler Symphony No.8 with the IAIN BURNSIDE highly acclaimed company and role debuts of London Symphony Orchestra under Valery Gergiev, Héro Béatrice et Bénédict for Houston Grand Haydn The Creation with the City of Birmingham Iain Burnside enjoys a unique reputation as appeared with outstanding artists such as Opera and later for Opéra Comique, Sophie Der Symphony Orchestra under Andris Nelsons, pianist and broadcaster, forged through his Ekaterina Siurina, Ailyn Perez, Lawrence Brownlee, Rosenkavalier, Nanetta Falstaff and Atalanta The Seasons in Madrid with Harry Christophers, commitment to the song repertoire and his Stephen Costello and Matthew Rose. Xerses for the Royal Swedish Opera, Miss Nelson’s Mass with the RTÉ under Douglas collaborations with leading international singers. Wordsworth Albert Herring for Opéra Comique Boyd, Vaughan Williams Hodie at the Royal In recent seasons such artists have included His recording portfolio reflects his passion for and Opéra de Rouen, and Vixen The Cunning Little Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and Mahler Galina Gorchakova, Ailish Tynan, Lisa Milne, British music. For Signum he has recorded Vixen for Grange Park Opera. Whilst at the Young Symphony No.2 at the Three Choirs Festival Rebecca Evans; Susan Bickley, Ann Murray Tippett (Ainsley,) Judith Weir (Tynan/Bickley/ Artist Programme of Royal Opera House, Covent with Philharmonia under Jac van Steen. In and Sarah Connolly; John Mark Ainsley, Mark Kennedy), FG Scott (Milne/Williams) and Herbert Garden, she performed Papagena Die Zauberflöte, recitals, Ailish has collaborated with Malcolm Padmore and Andrew Kennedy; Roderick Williams Hughes (Tynan), as well as works from beyond First Niece Peter Grimes, Xenia Boris Godunov, Martineau, Graham Johnson, Julius Drake, Iain and Bryn Terfel. Through his strong association the British Isles by Beethoven (Murray/Williams/ Second Wood Nymph Rusalka and Woodbird Burnside, Roger Vignoles, Chris Glynn and Barry with the Rosenblatt Recital Series Iain has Ainsley), Korngold (Connolly/Dazeley) and Liszt Siegfried. Later she returned to sing Marzelline Douglas, giving recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Fidelio under Antonio Pappano. She also sang Edinburgh International Festival, City of London Zerlina Don Giovanni for the Seattle Opera as her Festival, Cheltenham Music Festival, West US opera debut, Valencienne The Merry Widow and Cork Music Festival, Music for Galway LSO Susanna Le nozze di Figaro for Welsh National St. Luke’s and St John’s Smith Square, London. Opera, Euridice Orfeo ed Euridice and Pamina As a former BBC New Generation Artist, she is Die Zauberflöte for Opera Ireland. frequently heard on BBC Radio 3. Her latest discography includes Gluck arias with Classical Greatly in demand on the concert platform, Ailish Opera Company for Wigmore Live, Irish Songs works frequently with British and international by Herbert Hughes for Signum Classics and orchestras. Her recent highlights include the Muriel Herbert songs for Linn Records. She opening night of the BBC Proms with the BBC recently finished recording Fauré songs with Symphony Orchestra under Jirí Belohlávek, Iain and Poulenc songs with Graham Johnson. Ludwigsburger Festspiele and concert tour with Michael Hofstetter, Messiah with the Academy of Ancient Music and the King’s College Choir © Andrew Mellor

- 20 - - 21 - (Evans/Kennedy/Rose), nominated for a BBC Music Magazine award. Naxos CDs include the complete songs of Gerald Finzi (Ainsley/ Williams), together with Vaughan Williams, Ireland and Gurney. For NMC he has recorded Richard Rodney Bennett and The NMC Songbook Sponsored by UridisC (Gramophone Award).

Acclaimed as a programmer, Iain has devised a number of innovative recitals combining Recorded at St Paul’s Church, Deptford, London on 22 – 24 April 2009. music and poetry presented with huge success Producer - Alexander Van Ingen in Brussels and Barcelona with the collaboration Recroding Engineer & Editor - Andrew Mellor of actors such as Fiona Shaw and Simon Russell Recording Assistant - Dave Rowell Beale. At the Guildhall School of Music and Session photos - Andrew Mellor Drama, he is Research Associate, staging Design and Artwork - Woven Design specially conceived programmes with student www.wovendesign.co.uk singers and pianists. He has given masterclasses P 2011 The copyright in this recording is owned by Signum Records Ltd. throughout Europe, at New York’s Juilliard © 2011 The copyright in this CD booklet, notes and design is owned by Signum Records Ltd. School and the Banff Centre, Canada. Iain’s Any unauthorised broadcasting, public performance, copying or re-recording of Signum Compact Discs constitutes an infringement of copyright and will render the infringer liable broadcasting career covers both radio and TV to an action by law. Licences for public performances or broadcasting may be obtained from Phonographic Performance Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this booklet may be reproduced, and has been honoured with a Sony Radio Award. stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission from Signum Records Ltd. SignumClassics, Signum Records Ltd., Suite 14, 21 Wadsworth Road, Perivale, Middx UB6 7JD, UK. +44 (0) 20 8997 4000 E-mail: [email protected]

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- 22 - - 23 - ALSO AVAILABLE on signumclassics

A Purse of Gold: Irish Songs by Herbert Hughes Ailish Tynan Iain Burnside SIGCD106

“The word ‘arrangement’ as Burnside suggests, doesn’t do justice to the inventive piano writing and pacing of so many of these pieces ... Soprano Ailish Tynan’s feeling for the musical idiom and, above all, the poetry of her countrymen, matched by Burnside’s delightfully poetic pianism, prove irresistible. Highly recommended” Classic FM

Available through most record stores and at www.signumrecords.com For more information call +44 (0) 20 8997 4000