Ann Murray: The complete "3 songs from William Shakespeare" (Stravinsky)

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3 songs from William Shakespeare (1953):
I. Musick to hear 00:00
II. Full fadom five 02:52
III. Spring 04:50

Stravinsky, Igor (1882-1971) -composer
Ann Murray -mezzosoprano
Pierre Boulez -conductor
Ensemble Intercontemporain

Playlist: The art of Russian song: Glinka, Mussorgsky, Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky...: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdM8VSWYvcWEFAIPSACJP3UM0xNDdnl-R

Stravinsky's Three Songs from William Shakespeare, for mezzo soprano, flute, clarinet, and viola (1953) were his first songs since the Four Russian Songs of 1919. While he had set texts in English before, most recently in his opera The Rake's Progress (1948 - 1951) and in his Cantata (1951 - 1953), the Shakespeare settings were the first art song settings Stravinsky had made in English. The first song, "Musick to heare," uses the text of the Eighth Sonnet; the second, "Full Fathom Five," is Ariel's song from The Tempest, and the third, "When Dasies Pied," is the cuckoo's song from Love's Labour's Lost.
The harmonic language of the Shakespeare Songs balances tonal implications with limited serial techniques. Thus while the melodic line of "When Dasies Pied" implies first A flat major and then C major, the accompaniment lines describe a series of four-note tone rows and their permutations. The music itself is dry to the point of aridity and nowhere near as effective as Stravinsky's moving setting of Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" of only a few months later, from In Memoriam Dylan Thomas (1954).

Source: http://www.allmusic.com/composition/songs-3-from-william-shakespeare-for-voice-flute-clarinet-amp-viola-mc0002367455

Buy the CD here: http://www.deccaclassics.com/en/cat/4317512