Laetitia Grimaldi, Bruce O'Neil, Orchestra of the Swan - Echoes of Nature (Live from Shakespeare's Church) (2024) [Hi-Res]

Tracklist

01. Echoes of Nature: I. Un bimbo cammina in un meleto (Live from Shakespeare's Church)
02. Echoes of Nature: II. Lune d’argent (Live from Shakespeare's Church)
03. Echoes of Nature: III. Aube d’automne (Live from Shakespeare's Church)
04. Echoes of Nature: IV. Un cielo vuoto (Live from Shakespeare's Church)
05. Echoes of Nature: V. Une ribambelle d’oiseaux (Live from Shakespeare's Church)
06. Nine Shakespeare Songs: I. Titania’s Lullaby (Live from Shakespeare's Church)
07. Nine Shakespeare Songs: II. When Daffodils Begin to Peer (Live from Shakespeare's Church)
08. Nine Shakespeare Songs: III. Double, Double Toil and Trouble (Live from Shakespeare's Church)
09. Nine Shakespeare Songs: IV. Willow Song (Live from Shakespeare's Church)
10. Nine Shakespeare Songs: V. Sigh No More (Live from Shakespeare's Church)
11. Nine Shakespeare Songs: VI. Ophelia’s Madness (Live from Shakespeare's Church)
12. Nine Shakespeare Songs: VII. Pardon, Goddess of the Night (Live from Shakespeare's Church)
13. Nine Shakespeare Songs: VIII. O Mistress Mine (Live from Shakespeare's Church)
14. Nine Shakespeare Songs: IX. Ariel’s Song (Live from Shakespeare's Church)

Echoes of Nature features two world premiere symphonic song cycles by Lucía Caruso & Pedro H. da Silva recorded live from Shakespeare’s church in Stratford-upon-Avon. The album features soprano Laetitia Grimaldi and composers Lucía Caruso on piano and celesta, and Pedro H. da Silva on Portuguese guitar, joined by the Royal Shakespeare Company music director Bruce O’Neil conducting the Orchestra & Choir of the Swan.

The music draws on classical techniques, improvisation, and elements from various cultures and eras. Echoes from the Renaissance, Baroque, Romantic opera, and Impressionism pervade the two cycles, as well as new sonorities created by celesta and Portuguese guitar with choir and orchestra. The first song cycle, “Echoes of Nature,” is based on poems by Korean polymath Ahae translated into Italian and French, ranging from a child discovering the world, to the silvery moon at a lake, an autumn dawn, a sunset over the mountains, to all of creation singing glory to the eternal. The “Nine Shakespeare Songs” were selected from different plays—comedies, tragedies, and fantasies— which the Stratford-upon-Avon Herald dubbed “a major new work."

Laetitia Grimaldi, soprano
Lucía Caruso, celesta
Pedro H. da Silva, Portuguese guitar
Orchestra of the Swan
Bruce O'Neil, conductor

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