Andrew Wright – Master of Music

The Bliss of Solitude

A Recital of English Songcd

Extract from Review by British Classical Music
……. The Bliss of Solitude is a little masterpiece and well-deserves to be known to British – I assume he is British? – music enthusiasts. Apparently, Wright has composed for the Church with a number of liturgical works to his credit including his Requiem of 2005. The present song-cycle is, for him, a step along a new path.

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The first time I heard RVW’s On Wenlock Edge was on 12 October 1972. It was a radio broadcast as part of the composer’s centenary celebrations and the R.F.H. concert consisted of Job, the Eighth Symphony and the orchestral incarnation of this great song-cycle. The London Philharmonic was conducted by the venerable Sir Adrian Boult. (The tenor was Richard Lewis and a recording of the Housman work was issued on a now-deleted Intaglio CD INCD7411 Ed.) I was bowled over by all three works – but was, as they say in Yorkshire, ‘gob-smacked’ by On Wenlock Edge. A wee bit later, I heard a performance of the version for piano and string quartet. I rushed out and bought a copy of Housman’s poems as well as the LP. Both have been treasures ever since.
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However, it has taken nearly forty years to (consciously) hear this work in its setting for tenor and piano only. I note that the score does suggest that the string quartet is ‘optional’: it is a case of being seriously impressed once again. Richard Dowling – a name I had not heard of before – and Joanna Smith bring a delight to this work that is sometimes lacking in better known exponents. From the opening bars of the eponymous song to the last notes of ‘Clun’ this is a beautifully stated performance. If I were to sum it up in a word it would be magical rather than histrionic. I cannot emphasise how impressed I am with this performance.

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