Sounds and Sweet Airs - A Shakespeare Songbook Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton

• John Ireland (1879 - 1962): Full Fathom Five:
• 1 Ireland: Full Fathom Five 01:20
• Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958): Dirge for Fidele:
• 2 Williams: Dirge for Fidele 04:01
• Ernest John Moeran (1894 - 1950): The Lover and his Lass:
• 3 Moeran: The Lover and his Lass 01:47
• Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895 - 1968): Arise:
• 4 Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Arise 01:29
• John Christopher Smith (1712 - 1795): You Spotted Snakes:
• 5 Smith: You Spotted Snakes 01:58
• Michael Tippett (1905 - 1998): Three Songs for Ariel:
• 6 Tippett: Three Songs for Ariel: 1. Come unto these Yellow Sands 01:58
• 7 Tippett: Three Songs for Ariel: 2. Full Fathom Five 01:57
• 8 Tippett: Three Songs for Ariel: 3. Where the Bee Sucks 01:15
• Thomas Arne (1710 - 1778): Under the Greenwood Tree:
• 9 Arne: Under the Greenwood Tree 02:20
• Ivor Gurney (1890 - 1937): Under the Greenwood Tree:
• 10 Gurney: Under the Greenwood Tree 01:46
• Hubert Parry (1848 - 1918): Sonnet LXXXVII:
• 11 Parry: Sonnet LXXXVII 03:35
• John Ireland: When Daffodils Begin to Peer:
• 12 Ireland: When Daffodils Begin to Peer 02:09
• Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809): She never told her love, Hob. XXVIa/34:
• 13 Haydn: She never told her love, Hob. XXVIa/34 04:03
• Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828): An Silvia, D 106:
• 14 Schubert: An Silvia, D 106 02:48
• Ständchen (Horch, horch! die Lerch), D 889:
• 15 Schubert: Ständchen (Horch, horch! die Lerch), D 889 01:52
• Trinklied, D 888:
• 16 Schubert: Trinklied, D 888 01:19
• Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856): Schlusslied des Narren, Op.127 No. 5:
• 17 Schumann: Schlusslied des Narren, Op.127 No. 5 01:01
• Hugo Wolf (1860 - 1903): Lied des transferierten Zettel:
• 18 Wolf: Lied des transferierten Zettel 00:56
• Peter Cornelius (1824 - 1874): Komm herbei, Tod, Op.16 No. 3:
• 19 Cornelius: Komm herbei, Tod, Op.16 No. 3 03:06
• Cheryl Frances-Hoad (b. 1980): They Bore him Barefaced on a Bier:
• 20 Frances-Hoad: They Bore him Barefaced on a Bier 03:29
• Hannah Kendall (b. 1984): Rosalind:
• 21 Kendall: Rosalind: 1. Here is a space 03:32
• 22 Kendall: Rosalind: 2. all love is a lunacy 03:01
• 23 Kendall: Rosalind: 3. ...no explanation is needed 02:14
• 24 Kendall: Rosalind: 4. Take my fear take my feeling 04:03
• 25 Kendall: Rosalind: 5. You do not get to dress me anymore 01:36
• Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963): Fancy:
• 26 Poulenc: Fancy 02:19
• Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976): Fancie:
• 27 Britten: Fancie 00:58
• Arthur Honegger (1892 - 1955): Deux chants d'Ariel:
• 28 Honegger: Deux chants d'Ariel: 1. Modéré (Venez jusqu'à ces sables d'or) 02:53
• 29 Honegger: Deux chants d'Ariel: 2. Un peu animé (Où butine l'abeille je butine aussi) 00:46
• Frank Bridge (1879 - 1941): Blow, Blow thou Winter Wind:
• 30 Bridge: Blow, Blow thou Winter Wind 01:53
• Madeleine Dring (1923 - 1977): Take, o take those lips away:
• 31 Dring: Take, o take those lips away 03:53
• John Dankworth (1927 - 2010): Shall I Compare thee to a Summer's day?:
• 32 Dankworth: Shall I Compare thee to a Summer's day? 02:42
• Mervyn Horder (1910 - 1997): Under the Greenwood Tree:
• 33 Horder: Under the Greenwood Tree 01:24
• Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875 - 1912): The Willow Song:
• 34 Coleridge-Taylor: The Willow Song 02:33
• Amy Beach (1867 - 1944): Fairy Lullaby:
• 35 Beach: Fairy Lullaby 02:11
• Roderick Williams (b. 1965): Sigh no More, Ladies:
• 36 Williams: Sigh no More, Ladies 01:07
• Arthur Sullivan (b. 1842 - 1900): Orpheus with his Lute:
• 37 Sullivan: Orpheus with his Lute 03:21
• Total Runtime 01:24:35

Info for Sounds and Sweet Airs - A Shakespeare Songbook

The 37 songs in this recital, written by 27 composers – male, female, English, French, Swiss, German, Romantic, modern and contemporary – bear witness to the richness of Shakespeare’s works to which this recital is dedicated.

Organised in the form of a play in five acts, including prologue and epilogue, the songs, which include several duets, are in turn cheerful and sad, light and profound, classical and jazzy – thus allowing, in Carolyn Sampson’s words, ‘a breadth of responses to these great texts’. Alongside well-known melodies, such as those by Schubert, there are musical adaptations by different composers of the same texts, as well as a contemporary reflection for the two voices by Hannah Kendall exploring the question of gender fluidity and identity through the elusive character of Rosalind from As You Like It.

After many acclaimed releases on BIS, including Album für die Frau, a collection of songs by Clara and Robert Schumann, A Soprano’s Schubertiade and Elysium, two Schubert recitals, as well as a number of themed recitals, some of which were named ‘Recording of the Month’ by MusicWeb International and ‘CD-Tipp’ by BR Klassik, Carolyn Sampson and Joseph Middleton are joined here by renowned British baritone Roderick Williams.

Carolyn Sampson, soprano
Roderick Williams, baritone
Joseph Middleton, piano

Carolyn Sampson
has enjoyed notable successes worldwide in repertoire ranging from early baroque to the present day. On the opera stage she has appeared with English Na tional Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Scottish Opera, Opéra de Paris, Opéra de Lille, Opéra de Montpellier and Opéra National du Rhin. In concert she performs regularly at the BBC Proms and with orchestras including the Bach Collegium Japan, Concert gebouw orkest, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Vienna Symphony Orchestra and with numerous orchestras in the USA. She has worked with conductors such as Harry Bicket, Ivor Bolton, Riccardo Chailly, William Christie, Harry Christophers, Sir Mark Elder, Philippe Herre weghe, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Trevor Pinnock. In recital, Carolyn Sampson is a regular guest at Wigmore Hall, and has performed at the Amsterdam Con cert gebouw, Carnegie Hall and in San Francisco, Frankfurt, Berlin, Vienna, Barcelona and Freiburg, as well as a recital tour of Japan. An extensive disco graphy has earned her accolades including the recital award in the 2015 Gramophone Awards, a Diapason d’or and nomination for Artist of the Year in the 2017 Gramophone Awards. For BIS she has recorded a series of acclaimed recital discs with Joseph Middle ton, her regular partner, as well as Trennung, an 18th-century programme with Kristian Bezuidenhout at the forte piano.

Joseph Middleton
The highly acclaimed pianist Joseph Middleton specialises in the repertoire of chamber music and song. Alongside the world’s finest singers, he appears at major venues including Wigmore Hall, New York’s Lincoln Centre, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Wiener Musik verein, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, Kölner Philharmonie, Musée d’Orsay, Oji Hall Tokyo and festivals in Aix-en-Provence, Aldeburgh, BBC Proms, Edinburgh, San Francisco, Heidelberger Frühling, Schubertiade Hohenems and Schwarzen berg, Seoul and Vancouver.

He has enjoyed partnerships not only with Carolyn Sampson but also with such artists as Sir Thomas Allen, Ian Bostridge, Marianne Crebassa, Dame Sarah Connolly, Iestyn Davies, Angelika Kirchschlager, Dame Felicity Lott and Dorothea Röschmann. Joseph Middleton is director of Leeds Lieder, musician in residence and a bye-fellow at Pembroke College Cambridge and a fellow of and professor at his alma mater, the Royal Academy of Music. He has a fast-growing and award-winning discography and is heard frequently in his own series on BBC Radio 3. He was the recipient of the Royal Philhar monic Society’s Young Artist of the Year Award in 2017.

Roderick Williams
is one of the most sought-after baritones of his generation with a wide repertoire spanning baroque to contemporary music, which he performs in opera, concert and recital. He enjoys relationships with all the major UK opera houses and has sung opera world premières by David Sawer, Sally Beamish, Michel van der Aa, Robert Saxton and Alexander Knaifel as well as performing major roles including Papageno, Don Alfonso, Eugene Onegin and Billy Budd. He performs regularly with leading conductors and orchestras throughout the UK, Europe, North America and Australia, and his many festival appearances include the BBC Proms, Edinburgh, Cheltenham, Aldeburgh and Melbourne.

As a composer he has had works premièred at Wigmore Hall, the Barbican, the Purcell Room and on national radio. In December 2016 he won the prize for Best Choral Com position at the British Composer Awards. In the 2022/23 season he assumed the position of composer in association with the BBC Singers.

Roderick Williams was awarded an OBE in June 2017 and was nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Opera in both the 2018 Olivier Awards for his performance in the title role of the Royal Opera House production of Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria and in 2019 for his role in ENO’s production of Britten’s War Requiem. He was artist in residence with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra from 2020 until 2023 and artist in residence at the 2023 Aldeburgh Festival.

Booklet for Sounds and Sweet Airs - A Shakespeare Songbook