Lotte Betts-Dean, James Girling, Ligeti Quartet - The Past & I: 100 Years of Thomas Hardy (2024) [Hi-Res]

Tracklist

01. Elegies for Emma: I. Days to Recollect (Pt. 1)
02. Elegies for Emma: II. The Walk
03. Elegies for Emma: III. Rain on a Grave
04. Elegies for Emma: Interlude: I Look into my Glass
05. Elegies for Emma: IV. The Voice
06. Elegies for Emma: V. She to Him
07. Elegies for Emma: VI. Days to Recollect (Pt. 2)
08. Three Songs for Voice and Harp: No. 1, Midnight on the Great Western (Arr. for Voice, Guitar, and String Quartet by Arthur Keegan)
09. Faintheart in a Railway Train (Arr. for Voice and String Quartet by Arthur Keegan)
10. Winter Words, Op. 52: At the Railway Station, Upway (Arr. for Voice and Guitar by Arthur Keegan)
11. Weathers (Arr. for Voice and Guitar by Arthur Keegan)
12. In the Black Winter Morning (Arr. for Voice and Guitar by Arthur Keegan)
13. Four Hardy Songs: No. 3, If It’s Ever Spring Again (Arr. for Voice and Guitar by Arthur Keegan)
14. Before and After Summer, Op. 16: No. 7, The Too Short Time (Arr. for Voice and Guitar by Arthur Keegan)
15. The Echo Elf Answers
16. A Young Man's Exhortation, Op. 14: No. 6, Shortening Days (Arr. for Voice and String Quartet by Arthur Keegan)
17. String Quartet No. 1 "Elegies for Tom": I. Delicate-filmed, as New-spun Silk
18. String Quartet No. 1 "Elegies for Tom": Interlude No. 1
19. String Quartet No. 1 "Elegies for Tom": II. An Eyelid’s Soundless Blink
20. String Quartet No. 1 "Elegies for Tom": Interlude No. 2
21. String Quartet No. 1 "Elegies for Tom": III. Nocturnal Blackness, Mothy and Warm
22. String Quartet No. 1 "Elegies for Tom": Interlude No. 3
23. String Quartet No. 1 "Elegies for Tom": IV. Full-starred Heavens that Winter Sees
24. String Quartet No. 1 "Elegies for Tom": Interlude No. 4
25. String Quartet No. 1 "Elegies for Tom": V. A New Bell’s Boom



Conceived during a residency at The Red House, Benjamin Britten’s former home, in 2019, this collection of new compositions and arrangements by Arthur Keegan – developed in close collaboration with the performers – shows the profound influence of Thomas Hardy’s poetry on composers throughout the twentieth century and into our own era. Hardy’s characteristic themes are present throughout: the relentless passing of time; nature and the changing seasons; the effects on both of the modern world, with its machines and timetables.

Keegan’s Elegies for Emma, for voice and guitar, seeks to restore the voice of Hardy’s first wife Emma alongside the regret-filled poems Hardy wrote after her death, while String Quartet No 1 ‘Elegies for Tom’ weaves instrumental meditations on Hardy’s poem ‘Afterwards’ together with interludes setting a later poem by Philip Larkin. Recently named Young Artist of the Year at the prestigious RPS Music Awards, mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean is joined by guitarist James Girling and the Ligeti Quartet in performances that linger long in the memory.

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