I Wonder As I Wander: Beethoven, Schubert, Mahler & Britten

Listen on Presto Music. Free thirty day trial. Find out more.

These are songs for the still grey skies of winter, filled with yearning for the other – whether a love unrequited or lost, a life that falls bitterly short, a homeland viewed from exile – coloured... — BBC Music Magazine, March 2021, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 8th Jan 2021
Catalogue No: BIS2475
Label: BIS
Length: 75 minutes

Presto Recordings of the Year

Finalist 2021

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Britten: I wonder as I wander

Work length4:31

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

James Newby (baritone), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Britten: There's none to soothe

Work length1:54

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

James Newby (baritone), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Schubert: Der Wanderer, D489

Work length5:42

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

James Newby (baritone), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Schubert: Der Wanderer, D649 (Friedrich von Schlegel)

Work length3:04

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

James Newby (baritone), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Schubert: Auf der Donau, D553 (Mayrhofer)

Work length3:11

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

James Newby (baritone), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Schubert: Im Freien D880

Work length5:38

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

James Newby (baritone), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Schubert: Abendstern, D806

Work length2:57

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

James Newby (baritone), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Beethoven: Adelaide, Op. 46

Work length5:25

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

James Newby (baritone), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Excerpt, Beethoven: Lieder (8), Op. 52

Work length2:10

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

James Newby (baritone), Joseph Middleton (piano)

No. 4, Maigesang

Track length2:10

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Beethoven: An die ferne Geliebte (To the distant beloved), Op. 98

Work length13:31

$6.00

$7.80

$10.50

James Newby (baritone), Joseph Middleton (piano)

No. 1, Auf dem Hügel sitz ich spähend

Track length2:35

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 2, Wo die Berge so blau

Track length1:33

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 3, Leichte Segler in den Höhen

Track length1:31

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 4, Diese Wolken in den Höhen

Track length0:57

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 5, Es kehret der Maien, es blühet die Au

Track length2:33

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 6, Nimm sie hin denn, diese Lieder

Track length4:22

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Mahler: Zu Strassburg auf der Schanz (Lieder und Gesänge aus der Jugendzeit)

Work length4:26

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

James Newby (baritone), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Mahler: Revelge (Des Knaben Wunderhorn)

Work length6:51

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

James Newby (baritone), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Mahler: Urlicht (Des Knaben Wunderhorn)

Work length5:22

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Britten: Folksongs Volume 4: Moore's Irish Melodies

Work length10:18

$3.00

$3.90

$5.25

James Newby (baritone), Joseph Middleton (piano)

No. 5, At the Mid Hour of Night

Track length2:45

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 9, The Last Rose of Summer

Track length4:23

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 2, Sail On, Sail On

Track length3:10

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

About
Reviews
Explore

About

Interview, James Newby on I Wonder as I Wander

9th March 2021

The young British baritone talks to Katherine about his career to date, and his debut recording of songs by Beethoven, Schubert, Mahler and Britten on BIS.

When deciding on the repertoire for his début disc, James Newby’s first choice fell on An die ferne Geliebte, songs that he had been performing ever since the beginning of his career. But Beethoven’s song cycle – and perhaps even more so the quasioperatic Adelaide – also sets a tone for the entire disc, that of longing and of wanting to be elsewhere, near the distant beloved. These are emotions that Schubert, perhaps more than any other composer, has plumbed in depth, and Newby went on to select five of his songs that in various ways depict the restlessness and loneliness of the eternal wanderer. Mahler is another composer who knew something about longing – for instance that it can be deadly, which he demonstrated with his Zu Straßburg auf der Schanz, in which a soldier awaits execution after trying to desert to his homeland while the piano imitates the muffled rolling of drums. The military theme continues in the high-strung Revelge, as a young soldier marches towards his death, thinking about his sweetheart with ever-greater desperation. The final song by Mahler, Urlicht, expresses the anguish and pain of earthly life, and the longing for Heaven and, in effect, death. Framing this programme with five folk song arrangements by Benjamin Britten, James Newby and Joseph Middleton, his partner at the piano, explore Man’s never-ending search (geographical or psychological) for that distant object of desire: who, what or wherever it may be.

Reviews

March 2021

These are songs for the still grey skies of winter, filled with yearning for the other – whether a love unrequited or lost, a life that falls bitterly short, a homeland viewed from exile – coloured with Newby’s elastic vocal tone, sense of drama and attentive articulation…This is a fine debut disc, its repertoire giving Newby ample chance to demonstrate his expressive and dramatic range.

17th January 2021

The lieder are arranged round Beethoven’s cycle of distant love, with two of Schubert’s Wanderer Songs and a Mahler group that combines rare communicative zeal with nuanced insights, in a notable debut.

7th January 2021

Newby’s voice has plenty of weight and richness but can be surprisingly light on its feet; he and Middleton together hold Schubert’s Abendstern in rapt suspension, and in Im Freien Middleton’s gently pulsing piano conjures up the vastness of the starry sky.

I Wonder As I Wander

SACD

Downloads

Contents

Interview, James Newby on I Wonder as I Wander

Download queue