End of My Days Ruby Hughes & Manchester Collective

• Brian Elias (b. 1948): Meet Me in the Green Glen:
• 1 Elias: Meet Me in the Green Glen 04:16
• Caroline Shaw (b. 1982): Valencia:
• 2 Shaw: Valencia 05:29
• Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958): Along the Field:
• 3 Williams: Along the Field 04:20
• John Tavener (1944 - 2013): Akhmatova Songs:
• 4 Tavener: Akhmatova Songs: I. Dante 02:50
• 5 Tavener: Akhmatova Songs: III. Boris Pasternak 02:17
• 6 Tavener: Akhmatova Songs: IV. Couplet 02:13
• John Dowland (1563 - 1626): Two Dowland Songs:
• 7 Dowland: Two Dowland Songs: Go Crystal Tears 03:57
• 8 Dowland: Two Dowland Songs: Flow My Tears 07:04
• Traditional: Da Day Dawn:
• 9 Traditional: Da Day Dawn 04:00
• Maurice Ravel (1875 - 1937): End of My Days:
• 10 Ravel: Kaddisch 05:47
• Errollyn Wallen (b. 1958): End of My Days:
• 11 Wallen: End of My Days 05:24
• Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918): Trois chansons de Bilitis, FL 37:
• 12 Debussy: Trois chansons de Bilitis, FL 37: I. La flûte de Pan 02:54
• 13 Debussy: Trois chansons de Bilitis, FL 37: II. La chevelure 03:56
• 14 Debussy: Trois chansons de Bilitis, FL 37: III. Le tombeau des naïades 03:05
• Gustav Mahler (1860 - 1911): Urlicht:
• 15 Mahler: Urlicht 05:15
• Deborah Pritchard (b. 1977): Peace:
• 16 Pritchard: Peace 03:13
• Total Runtime 01:06:00

Info for End of My Days

Die Idee zu diesem Album entstand während der ersten Zusammenarbeit von Ruby Hughes mit dem Manchester Collective im Frühjahr 2020. Während des ersten Corona-Lockdowns stellten sie das Programm dieses Recitals für Touren durch Großbritannien zusammen.

Ein Programm, dass in Zeiten, in denen Sterblichkeit und Isolation für alle zum Problem wurden, das Publikum wieder aufbauen sollte. Der Titel des Albums ist Errollyn Wallens Lied entnommen. Auch wenn der Titel vielleicht anderes suggeriert, ist das eine Feier des Lebens. Der Tod wird umarmt und akzeptiert ohne Bedauern oder Trauer.

Die anderen Lieder befassen sich, jedes auf seine ganz eigene Art, mit Stille und Trennung, aber auch Liebe und Hoffnung und auch mit der Zuversicht, dass wir zurückkehren werden, woher wir kamen, wenn wir in die Ewigkeit eingehen.

Ruby Hughes, Sopran
Manchester Collective

Ruby Hughes
is a former BBC New Generation Artist and was winner of both First Prize and the Audience Prize at the 2009 London Handel Singing Competition. She holds a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award and was Shortlisted for a 2014 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award.

She has become known for her interpretations of the music of the baroque and 20th and 21st Century, performed at every turn with a unique sensitivity and artistry. On the opera stage she has sung productions for Theater an der Wein (Roggiero in Rossini's Tancredi, and Fortuna in L’Incoronazione di Poppea), Aix-en-Provence Festival (EuridiceL'Orfeo), Opéra de Toulon (Rose Maurrant Street Scene) and Potsdamer Winteroper (title role, Theodora) and in the UK has performed major roles with English National Opera, Garsington Opera and for Scottish Opera.

Ruby works regularly with conductors including Rinaldo Allesandrini, Ivor Bolton, Laurence Cummings, Thierry Fischer, Pablo Heras Casado, Rene Jacobs, Juanjo Mena, Gianandrea Noseda, Marc Minkowski, HervéNiquet, Thomas Søndergård, John Storgårds, and Osmo Vänskä.

She is a passionate programmer, curator and collaborator and has forged particularly close relationships with Mime Brinkmann and Jonas Nordberg (baroque trio), Laurence Cummings, Joseph Middleton, Natalie Clein and Julius Drake, Huw Watkins, United Strings of Europe and the Manchester Collective.

Her captivating communication with the audience has resulted in invitations to give recitals at Wigmore Hall, Muziekcentrum De Bijloke, Gent, Kings Place, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Schloss Elmau, Vienna Konzerthaus, LSO St Luke’s and in the US at both the Frick Collection and Carnegie Hall, New York. Festival appearances have included the BBC Proms, Cheltenham, Edinburgh International, Newbury, Aldeburgh Festival, La Folle Journée, Gent Festival OdeGand, Göttingen, Marlboro, Spitalfields and Beaune and Namur.

She has built up an impressive discography including a tribute to Handel’s lyric muse Giulia Frasi for Chandos Records with Laurence Cummings and the OAE. She has a close partnership with BIS Records with whom she has recorded "Heroines of Love and Loss", which was released to huge critical acclaim and received a Diapason d’or award. Her debut solo recording with Symphony Orchestra ‘Clytemnestra’ (works by Mahler, Berg and Rhian Samuel) was also highly praised receiving record of the month in several publications as well as being nominated for a Gramophone Award. She has recorded Mahler Symphony No. 2 with the Minnesota Symphony under Osmo Vänskä, a solo recital disc with Joseph Middleton titled "Songs for New Life and Love" including works by Mahler, Ives and Helen Grime and most recently a programme with United Strings of Europe including Golijov’s Three Songs for Soprano and String Orchestra. Future recording projects for BIS include a baroque disc with Jonas Nordberg, and two recordings with Manchester Collective to include a commission by Edmund Finnis together with Britten’s Les Illuminations, a programme which they performed together in a UK tour to great critical acclaim.

Ruby’s passion for performing new repertoire has led to her becoming a champion of female composers having had many commissions written for her including those by Helen Grime, Deborah Pritchard Judith Weir and Errolyn Wallen.

Highlights for Ruby’s upcoming season include concerts with Bach Collegium Japan, performing Bach’s Matthew Passion under Masaaki Suzuki, Orchestre d’Auvergne (Britten’s Les Illuminations), ResidenteOrchestra (Ruckert Lieder), Orchestre National de Lille (Mozart Great Mass in C), Potsdam Kammerakademie, Aarhus Symfoniorkester and recitals at Wigmore Hall and LSO St Luke’s. 22/23 will also see the release of the disc ECHO with pianist and composer Huw Watkins on the BIS label.

Booklet for End of My Days