Camilla Harris and Natalie Burch - Songs of Love and Longing (The Royal Academy of Music Bicentenary Series) (2022) [Hi-Res]

As part of the Royal Academy of Music Bicentenary Series, lyric soprano Camilla Harris makes her recording debut with a programme which interweaves the themes of love, longing and the female muse. Taking Rachmaninov’s melancholic Six Songs, Op. 38 – inspired by the composer’s duo partner and lover, soprano Nina Koshetz – as the initial catalyst, Camilla performs four settings by Liszt on the poetry of Victor Hugo, each redolent of love and longing and with several allusions to a female muse; she also treats us to two little gems: Chère nuit by the French post-Romantic composer Alfred Bachelet and Grieg’s irresistible Ein Traum from Sechs Lieder, Op. 48.

In 2022, four exceptional recipients of the Academy’s 2020/21 Bicentenary Scholarships scheme – Julie Park, Camilla Harris, Ossian Huskinson and Charlie Lovell-Jones – will each release a new album to coincide with the Royal Academy of Music Bicentenary celebrations.