Coming Soon,
Shakespeare settings from Bostridge and Pappano
As preparations get underway to commemorate the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's death this weekend, we hear that the tenor Ian Bostridge and his frequent recital-partner Antonio Pappano will be paying homage to The Bard in the autumn with a disc celebrating his musical legacy across four centuries (and including works by Dowland, Finzi and Stravinsky); a single track from the recording will be previewed on television and in cinemas on Saturday evening (20:30 UK time) as part of the BBC's Shakespeare Live! From the RSC broadcast from Shakespeare's resting-place, the Church of the Holy Trinity in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Bostridge and Pappano have collaborated regularly in the opera-house, concert-hall and recording studio over the past 15 years or so, with previous recording projects including a disc of Britten songs to mark the composer's centenary in 2013, a much-praised collection of Hugo Wolf's Eichendorff and Goethe settings in 2007, and Schubert's Schwanengesang the following year. For this recording (and for their Wigmore Hall recital of the programme in November) they will be joined on selected tracks by lutenist Elizabeth Kenny, flautist Adam Walker, clarinettist Michael Collins, and violist Lawrence Power.
Bostridge writes: “Shakespeare has been a part of my life as a performer from the very start: Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Adès's The Tempest have been milestones for me as a singer. It has been a great joy to rediscover the music in Shakespeare's incomparable texts and the music that has been written over the past four centuries to clothe them, from the simplest songs of his own contemporaries, through the melodic delights of the likes of Haydn, Britten and Finzi to the matchless complexity of the late Stravinsky. Working again with Tony Pappano has been a joy; and making my first recording with a long term musical partner, lutenist Liz Kenny, a particular pleasure.”
Shakespeare Songs will be released in September on Warner Classics - more details as soon as we have them.
A single track from the album, Roger Quilter's setting of 'Come away, death', was released on the anniversary of Shakespeare's death and is available to download.
You can view Ian Bostridge's complete available discography here.
Bostridge sings a 'wonderfully weird' (The Guardian) Caliban on this premiere recording of Thomas Adès's 2004 opera, conducted by the composer and also starring Simon Keenlyside as Prospero, Kate Royal as Miranda, and Cyndia Sieden as Ariel.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
Song recital discs from Ian Bostridge and Antonio Pappano
'Bostridge's choice of songs is typically fastidious, his interpretation of them full of the intelligence, understanding and musicality we expect from him. With Antonio Pappano in wonderfully supportive, positive form, they rise to inspired heights in the central group of Mörike settings'. (Gramophone)
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
'[Bostridge] has surely done nothing finer than this immaculately recorded new release. He is superbly partnered by Antonio Pappano, whose balancing of textures and beauty of touch sometimes surpass - dare it be said? - Britten's own recordings'. (BBC Music Magazine)
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
'Bostridge has, in the pallor of voice and expression, the haunting that pervades these songs...Pappano plays with imagination as verbally attuned as Bostridge’s. (Gramophone)'
Available Format: 3 CDs + DVD Video
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
