WILLIAMS, BELINDA/WILDE, MARK/NORRIS… - Songs & Sonnets - From The Reign Of Queen Victoria (Sealed) (CD)

Vivid performances of songs and sonnets by Hubert Parry, Sterndale Bennett and Walter Battison Haynes, including world premiere recordings by the latter two, in both English and German from the reign of Queen Victoria, are given here by mezzo soprano Belinda Williams and tenor Mark Wilde, with accompaniment by David Owen Norris. For more than a century, vocal music was sung in translation as a matter of routine. Constant Lambert's "Rio Grande" has a splendid German translation of Sacheverell Sitwell, and Benjamin Britten's "On this island" an even better French translation of W.H. Auden. Richard Strauss's songs were published in Germany with English words, while Elgar's songs were provided with German words. The man who started all this intelligibility was William Sterndale Bennett, who in the 1840s and 50s published in Leipzig and London 12 songs with English & German words, some of them composed originally in German. Sterndale Bennett's lyrical gift makes them a delicious addition to the song repertoire. The CD presents all his songs. Em Records hav