Ailish Tynan, Christopher Glynn, Ian Wilson, Katie Bray, Marcus Farnsworth, Mark Eden – Stephen Dodgson: The Distances Between, Songs, Vol. 2 (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Ailish Tynan, Christopher Glynn, Ian Wilson, Katie Bray, Marcus Farnsworth, Mark Eden – Stephen Dodgson: The Distances Between, Songs, Vol. 2 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:10:52 minutes | 1,12 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © SOMM Recordings

SOMM Recordings announces The Distances Between, the second volume of songs – including 17 first recordings – by Stephen Dodgson marking the 10th anniversary of his death. The Distances Between features soprano Ailish Tynan, mezzo-soprano Katie Bray and baritone Marcus Farnsworth, accompanied by Christopher Glynn (piano), Mark Eden (guitar) and Ian Wilson (recorder). All but Farnsworth are returning from Volume 1.

Son of Symbolist painter John Arthur Dodgson and a distant cousin of Lewis Carroll, Stephen Dodgson was a prolific composer with a notable focus on works for guitar, harpsichord and recorder. His more than 100 overlooked songs are a substantial and defining part of his output.

The Distances Between (1969-88), sets five poems by Louis MacNeice – “a ‘natural’ for music with his keen ear for rhyme and rhythm, his sly verbal colour”, Dodgson approvingly wrote – for soprano, baritone and piano.

Three songs for mezzo-soprano and piano from the first series of Bush Ballads (1974) are “character songs” taken from Australian poets and marked by sly wit and a rather macabre finale. Setting Charles Causley, Riley & Co. (2009) for baritone, guitar and recorder is a compendium of four pithily told but evocative ballads.

Five other solo variegated songs and four preludial piano Bagatelles make much of what Robert Matthew-Walker’s informative notes describe as Dodgson’s “inherent creative language [and] fluent expressive lines”.

Volume 1, The Peasant Poet (SOMMCD 0659) was hailed by Opera Today as “an incredibly interesting and engaging disc… done excellent service by all the performers”.

SOMM’s championing of British song includes Stanford’s Children’s Songs (SOMMCD 0655), “fairly and squarely in the great English song tradition” (MusicWeb International), and Roderick Williams and Susie Allan’s Celebrating English Song (SOMMCD 0177), lauded by Gramophone as “a treat”, and Somervell’s A Shropshire Lass and Maud (SOMMCD 0615), “performances of much beauty, empathy and sensitivity” (British Music Society).

Tracklist:
01. Ailish Tynan, Christopher Glynn, Ian Wilson, Katie Bray, Marcus Farnsworth, Mark Eden – The Distances Between: I. Prologue (To Hedli) (01:19)
02. Ailish Tynan, Christopher Glynn, Ian Wilson, Katie Bray, Marcus Farnsworth, Mark Eden – The Distances Between: II. April Fool (02:35)
03. Ailish Tynan, Christopher Glynn, Ian Wilson, Katie Bray, Marcus Farnsworth, Mark Eden – The Distances Between: III. Dreams in Middle Age (06:12)
04. Ailish Tynan, Christopher Glynn, Ian Wilson, Katie Bray, Marcus Farnsworth, Mark Eden – The Distances Between: IV. Invocation (03:15)
05. Ailish Tynan, Christopher Glynn, Ian Wilson, Katie Bray, Marcus Farnsworth, Mark Eden – The Distances Between: V. Visitation (05:59)
06. Ailish Tynan, Christopher Glynn, Ian Wilson, Katie Bray, Marcus Farnsworth, Mark Eden – Bagatelle No. 2: Serene but Sad (after Selevan’s Threnody) (03:45)
07. Ailish Tynan, Christopher Glynn, Ian Wilson, Katie Bray, Marcus Farnsworth, Mark Eden – Bagatelle No. 3: Restless and Searching (02:48)
08. Ailish Tynan, Christopher Glynn, Ian Wilson, Katie Bray, Marcus Farnsworth, Mark Eden – The Lamb (03:16)
09. Ailish Tynan, Christopher Glynn, Ian Wilson, Katie Bray, Marcus Farnsworth, Mark Eden – Song for Eve (03:20)
10. Ailish Tynan, Christopher Glynn, Ian Wilson, Katie Bray, Marcus Farnsworth, Mark Eden – Lachrymae (03:12)
11. Ailish Tynan, Christopher Glynn, Ian Wilson, Katie Bray, Marcus Farnsworth, Mark Eden – Bagatelle No. 4: Languid but Visionary (02:53)
12. Ailish Tynan, Christopher Glynn, Ian Wilson, Katie Bray, Marcus Farnsworth, Mark Eden – Bagatelle No. 5: Alert and Mischievous (01:43)
13. Ailish Tynan, Christopher Glynn, Ian Wilson, Katie Bray, Marcus Farnsworth, Mark Eden – Bush Ballads (First Series): I. The Bushranger (02:06)
14. Ailish Tynan, Christopher Glynn, Ian Wilson, Katie Bray, Marcus Farnsworth, Mark Eden – Bush Ballads (First Series): II. Christmas (03:43)
15. Ailish Tynan, Christopher Glynn, Ian Wilson, Katie Bray, Marcus Farnsworth, Mark Eden – Bush Ballads (First Series): III. Woman at the Washtub (04:19)
16. Ailish Tynan, Christopher Glynn, Ian Wilson, Katie Bray, Marcus Farnsworth, Mark Eden – The Sunflower (01:05)
17. Ailish Tynan, Christopher Glynn, Ian Wilson, Katie Bray, Marcus Farnsworth, Mark Eden – A Gypsy Prayer (01:57)
18. Ailish Tynan, Christopher Glynn, Ian Wilson, Katie Bray, Marcus Farnsworth, Mark Eden – Riley & Co.: I. Riley (03:39)
19. Ailish Tynan, Christopher Glynn, Ian Wilson, Katie Bray, Marcus Farnsworth, Mark Eden – Riley & Co.: II. Timothy Winters (04:49)
20. Ailish Tynan, Christopher Glynn, Ian Wilson, Katie Bray, Marcus Farnsworth, Mark Eden – Riley & Co.: III. Bamboo Dance (04:50)
21. Ailish Tynan, Christopher Glynn, Ian Wilson, Katie Bray, Marcus Farnsworth, Mark Eden – Riley & Co.: IV. Rocco (04:00)

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