BRUCKNER

PROUD SONGSTERS
MASS IN E MINOR
ENGLISH
MOTETS SOLO SONG

Chance | Mead | Zazzo

Bowen | Gilchrist | Staples
Finley
Academy| Riches
of St|Martin
Stone in the Fields
Sir Stephen
Simon Cleobury
Lepper
KING’S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE

For more than half a millennium, King’s College Chapel has been
the home to one of the world’s most loved and renowned choirs.
Since its foundation in 1441 by the 19-year-old King Henry VI,
choral services in the Chapel, sung by this choir, have been a
fundamental part of life in the College. Through the centuries,
people from across Cambridge, the UK and, more recently, the
world have listened to the Choir of King’s College at these services.

Despite its deep roots in musical history, King’s has always been
at the forefront of technological innovation. In 2012 it created its
‘impeccable’ record label to capture some of the rich heritage of
the College, to feature not only the Choir and other resident
musicians, but also its prestigious alumni.

This recording features nine alumni who sang as young adults at

King’s, alongside Simon Lepper, a graduate of King’s.

2
PROUD SONGSTERS
ENGLISH SOLO SONG
Michael Chance | Tim Mead | Lawrence Zazzo
Ruairi Bowen | James Gilchrist | Andrew Staples
Gerald Finley | Ashley Riches | Mark Stone

Simon Lepper piano

3
CD 61:44

1 To Gratiana Dancing and Singing | William Denis Browne Ashley Riches 3:54

2 The Salley Gardens | arr. Benjamin Britten Tim Mead 2:39

3 Linden Lea | Ralph Vaughan Williams Ashley Riches 2:34

4 The Sigh | Gerald Finzi Andrew Staples 3:28

5 My love gave me an apple | Celia Harper Michael Chance 1:27

6 Fear no more the heat o’ the sun | Roger Quilter James Gilchrist 3:41

7 Come to me in my dreams | Frank Bridge Mark Stone 3:43

8 I wandered lonely as a cloud | Eric Thiman Ruairi Bowen 3:07

All You Who Sleep Tonight | Jonathan Dove

9 VII. God’s love Lawrence Zazzo 0:49
10 XII. Soon Lawrence Zazzo 2:33
11 XIII. All you who sleep tonight Lawrence Zazzo 1:46

12 The Seal Man | Rebecca Clarke James Gilchrist 5:28

13 I will go with my father a-ploughing | Ivor Gurney Ashley Riches 2:26

14 Proud Songsters | Gerald Finzi Gerald Finley 3:18

15 King David | Herbert Howells Tim Mead 4:33

16 Since she whom I loved | Benjamin Britten Andrew Staples 3:29

17 Sleep | Peter Warlock Mark Stone 2:42

4
18 Feste (Come away, death) | Iain Bell Lawrence Zazzo 3:06

19 Go, lovely rose | Roger Quilter Mark Stone 2:48

20 Silent Noon | Ralph Vaughan Williams Gerald Finley 4:13

5
PROUD SONGSTERS simply and presumptuously as ‘English song’.
Not that this distilled genre has been entirely
sealed off from some of the other types of song
indicated above. Both of the Shakespeare songs
on this album, Quilter’s Fear no more the heat o’
the sun (6) and Iain Bell’s Feste (18), deploy poems
sung by characters within his plays, Cymbeline
and Twelfth Night respectively, which therefore
need their musical settings every time the play
is performed. Iain Bell’s song cycle These Motley
Much of the world’s music consists of songs, Fools, commissioned by the countertenor Lawrence
predominantly short entities of maybe two to four Zazzo who sings ‘Feste’ (18) here, puts together
minutes’ duration with words enunciated to a tune utterances from four different Shakespearean
by one or more singers. Indeed, your computer is fools, the two Dromios and Launcelot Gobbo
likely to label even a long symphony movement as well as Feste – though only Feste’s is a song,
or the entire act of an opera a ‘song’. Across the as opposed to a prose speech. Eric Thiman’s I
globe songs vary greatly: unaccompanied or with wandered lonely as a cloud (8) crosses another
instruments, sung by a group or a soloist or both, boundary: it was first published as a ‘unison song’,
part of a larger presentation such as a stage play a designation most commonly implying a school
or self-sufficient, sung statically or danced as choir or a whole class of schoolchildren tasked
well, the tune added to prior words or the words with learning it. The solo and choral duet versions
added to a prior tune, composed by the performer came later. Even Peter Warlock’s magically evocative
(words, tune, or both) or by a third party, performed Sleep (17) first appeared as a unison song.
in private or in public, in content religious or secular, A 20th-century song ‘recital’ (the term rarefied
of the moment or using an ancient component, the genre in preference to ‘concert’) would entail
commercially disseminated or passed on orally, a formal programme sung typically by a single
circulated by amateurs or professionals, the words professional singer, accompanied by a pianist,
verse or prose, the tune strophic (repeated for perhaps ranging in chronological order from the
each stanza) or not; and so on. renaissance to the present and geographically from
Within such an ethnography, the sphere of France and Austro-Germany to the British Isles.
classical music occupies only a tiny space; within Schubert set the standard, Fauré and Debussy
that in turn, an even tinier but highly distinctive added the modern, the lute songs of Dowland
solo repertoire emerged in Britain at the end of and the continuo songs of his baroque successors
the 19th century that has since tended to be known provided the ancient, and the rural folksongs just

6
rediscovered by urban collectors were often it is often difficult to know which was the original
incorporated, arranged for bourgeois consumption key. Finzi had a struggle with Boosey and Hawkes
with piano accompaniment. English composers to get them to publish the ten songs of Earth
of the time looked to all four of these components and Air and Rain, of which Proud Songsters (14)
for their stance when providing new material, and is the final and most haunting one, as a volume,
have continued to do so. Indeed, Celia Harper’s and probably had to put his own money into it.
My love gave me an apple (5), one of the most But a market for the classier type there certainly
recent songs here, peels the genre right back to was, primed early on when Vaughan Williams
that of an unaccompanied folk artefact, though published Linden Lea (3) in the very first issue of
the words and tune are her own and the impulse The Vocalist, a short-lived periodical aimed at
religious (in its version with three additional vocal developing the genre through its singers. Warlock
parts it is subtitled ‘Celtic blessing’). wrote most of his songs as single entities, possibly
The Wigmore Hall in London became when he needed the money, though to the listener
the acme of English song culture, but such a thoughts of lucre make strange bedfellows with
restricted habitat would not explain why so many the exquisite intimacies of ‘Sleep’ (17).
composers, especially in the first half of the 20th My own initial exposure to the repertoire was
century, contributed to the genre, some of them reading through songs and cycles with fellow
voluminously (one composer, John Raynor, may musicians from my university college chapel,
have written as many songs as Schubert). Two and this will have been typical. Something in it
salient reasons have a bearing on how we might chimed with the church music we knew and loved:
listen to the repertoire now: composers could Herbert Howells’s King David (15), for instance,
earn money by publishing their songs as sheet starts with an alternation of two mysterious
music, and they could fashion a vehicle for hushed chords that can be imagined emanating
intimate self-expression. improvisationally from the organ bench before
The sheet music sold because people sang, Evensong. The wayward modulations in stanza
played and taught the songs in their homes and three of Ivor Gurney’s I will go with my father
at school or college. They also sang, played and a-ploughing (13), a tendency on which Howells
taught a multitude of popular ballads; these himself commented, have something of the
were promoted as vocal interludes in orchestral same lineage. Howells and Gurney were trained
concerts, the songs themselves often with in the cathedral organ loft, as, up to a point, was
orchestral accompaniment. Publishers preferred Finzi, whose gently archaic counterpoint and
to issue both types of song singly, printing them pacing bass octaves heard in the piano part of
at different pitches for high, medium or low voice The Sigh (4) were both learnt there. No surprise,
and discarding the manuscripts after use, so that then, that a whole generation of prominent

7
English song artists, or at least the men among ‘The Sigh’ (4) is taken A Young Man’s Exhortation.
them represented on this album, can be found who The most common topic was love. We should
all sang in King’s College Chapel Choir in Cambridge not of course assume that composers were always
at one time or another. Latterly, singers crossing voicing their own desires. Frank Bridge chose
over from chapel to recital hall have included the particularly fervid poems, such as Matthew Arnold’s
countertenors, three of them singing on this album, Come to me in my dreams (7), for many of his
whose nurturing nowadays is as often as not early songs, but he was professional enough
a sign of the Anglican tradition, though song to be able to create bonds with his performers
composers with a church background have by and listeners as though their feelings were his,
no means all come from the Church of England: whether or not they really were. Often the love
Eric Thiman was for many years organist of the was transgressive, going as far as inter-species
Congregationalist City Temple in central London. romance (and doom) in ‘The Seal Man’ (12).
English song as a vehicle for self-expression King David (15) may have had no cause for his
presupposed a culture in which the reading of melancholy, but his restless sex drive is there for
poetry was central. With the exception of the two all to read about in the Bible. And any consumer
songs by women, ‘My love gave me an apple’ (5) in the know will have felt the frisson of Rossetti’s
and Rebecca Clarke’s The Seal Man (12), the latter love scene in Silent Noon (20), one of six sonnets
setting to music an old crone’s prose narration from the poet’s enormous total of 101 chosen for
from a book of short stories, A Mainsail Haul, by Vaughan Williams’s intensely pre-Raphaelite
John Masefield, we can assume that every song cycle The House of Life. Gay love undoubtedly
on the disc was created because the composer drove Quilter’s, Britten’s, and Browne’s expressive
had a published volume of poetry (or the plays urge, intimate music no doubt an invaluable
of Shakespeare) open on his desk. Something safety-valve for secrecy in that legally restrictive
drew him to add instrumental accompaniment age. Britten was however able to enjoy the more
and vocal melody to a particular poem, or a number open pleasure of accompanying his life partner
of poems selected from a group. Finzi identified Peter Pears in inspired performances by them
strongly with Thomas Hardy and set more than both of songs such as Since she whom I loved (16),
50 of his poems to music for solo voice, sketching its poem a vivid and complex weft of elegiac and
another two dozen fragmentarily. Young men in religious eroticism that the music’s intricately
particular seem to have wanted to validate their plotted lines of flow more than complement, and
feelings, philosophical or romantic, through The Salley Gardens (2), the very first and still
stamping a poem with their music: half the tracks possibly the most popular of his 75 folksong
on this disc were composed by men aged 30 or arrangements in nine volumes (some of them
less. Finzi even entitled the cycle from which posthumous). The most egregious love song on

8
the disc is surely Browne’s To Gratiana Dancing permutated ostinato, has as folk-like a simplicity
and Singing (1). An exercise in erotic voyeurism, as that of ‘My love gave me an apple’ (5), and no
it keeps the observer and the dancer on such musical tricks are played on Seth’s epigrammatically
separate planes that the 17th-century tune to brief poem. Satire was not a common theme in
which the latter dances is in a metre quite different English song, and it seems a new ingredient in
from that of the poem, enunciated through the God’s love (9). But there is already self-satire in
singer’s less continuous countermelody. Here the ‘The Sigh’ (4), and one realises that tight poetic
self-referential dimension can hardly be questioned. wit flourishes in many modes, can be squared up
Browne had first encountered the anonymous to by song composers in many stylistic traditions,
tune in Cambridge University’s 1908 production and is no less an attribute of Edmund Waller, who
of Milton’s Comus, in which Rupert Brooke acted wrote 350 years earlier, than of Seth. Waller’s Go,
and presumably danced the Attendant Spirit and lovely rose (19), with its vicious command ‘Then
Browne was musically involved. It is well known die—’, has been found by some commentators
how the young Brooke’s path was in general paved the perfect lyrical poem; I have long considered
with broken hearts, and there is every reason to Quilter’s setting of it, cosy and feline in its musical
believe that Browne’s was probably one of them. language but unerringly constructed, the perfect
He in the end was the one to tend Brooke’s body English song.
for burial (they both died in the Gallipoli campaign).
Even so, we should remember that it was a full © Stephen Banfield
five years after Comus that Browne set Lovelace’s
poem to music.
More recent composers have been able to take
comparable themes to very different places. In
their different media, Vikram Seth and Jonathan
Dove recreate with terrifying immediacy in Soon
(10) what young men in particular, both sufferers
and their lovers, were facing in the earlier years
of the AIDS crisis; its fear, indeed depiction of
dying alone resonates with new force in this era
of COVID-19. Love always was as much about
separation as about fulfilment, but rarely can that
have been so sparely and perfectly expressed
by poet and composer as in All you who sleep
tonight (11). Dove’s tune, aslant an artlessly

9
TEXTS

1 To Gratiana Dancing and Singing

William Denis Browne (1888–1915)

See! With what constant motion So did she move; so did she sing
Even, and glorious, as the sun, Like the harmonious spheres that bring
Gratiana steers that noble frame, Unto their rounds their music’s aid;
Soft as her breast, sweet as her voice Which she performèd such a way,
That gave each winding law and poise, As all th’enamoured world will say:
And swifter than the wings of Fame. The Graces danced, and Apollo play’d.

Each step trod out a lover’s thought Richard Lovelace (1617–1657)

And the ambitious hopes he brought,
Chain’d to her brave feet with such arts;
Such sweet command, and gentle awe,
As when she ceas’d, we sighing saw
The floor lay pav’d with broken hearts.

10
2 The Salley Gardens
arr. Benjamin Britten (1913–1976)

Down by the salley gardens In a field by the river

my love and I did meet; my love and I did stand,
She passed the salley gardens And on my leaning shoulder
with little snow-white feet. she laid her snow-white hand.
She bid me take love easy, She bid me take life easy,
as the leaves grow on the tree; as the grass grows on the weirs;
But I, being young and foolish, But I was young and foolish,
with her did not agree. and now am full of tears.

William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

3 Linden Lea
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)

Within the woodlands, flow’ry gladed, With fruit for me, the apple tree
By the oak tree’s mossy moot, Do lean down low in Linden Lea.
The shining grass-blades, timber-shaded,
Now do quiver underfoot; Let other folk make money faster,
And birds do whistle overhead, In the air of dark-roomed towns;
And water’s bubbling in its bed; I don’t dread a peevish master,
And there for me the apple tree Though no man may heed my frowns.
Do lean down low in Linden Lea. I be free to go abroad,
Or take again my homeward road
When leaves that lately were a-springing To where, for me, the apple tree
Now do fade within the copse, Do lean down low in Linden Lea.
And painted birds do hush their singing
Up upon the timber-tops; William Barnes (1801–1886)
And brown-leaved fruit’s a-turning red,
In cloudless sunshine overhead,

11
4 The Sigh
(No. 7 of A Young Man’s Exhortation)
Gerald Finzi (1901–1956)

Little head against my shoulder, Afterwards I knew her throughly,

Shy at first, then somewhat bolder, And she loved me staunchly, truly,
And up-eyed; Till she died;
Till she, with a timid quaver, But she never made confession
Yielded to the kiss I gave her; Why, at that first sweet concession,
But, she sighed. She had sighed.

That there mingled with her feeling It was in our May, remember;
Some sad thought she was concealing And though now I near November,
It implied. And abide
– Not that she had ceased to love me, Till my appointed change, unfretting,
None on earth she set above me; Sometimes I sit half regretting
But she sighed. That she sighed.

She could not disguise a passion, Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)

Dread, or doubt, in weakest fashion
If she tried:
Nothing seemed to hold us sundered,
Hearts were victors; so I wondered
Why she sighed.

12
5 My love gave me an apple
Celia Harper (b. 1945)

My love gave me an apple from a golden tree He gave me cool water from the morning dew,
And a pure white rose for all to see, And a sky full of starlight the whote night through,
He gave me sweet honey from the humming bee, He gave me heartsease and violets blue,
With the apple from a golden tree. And thee love He gave me, I give to you.

Celia Harper (b. 1945)

6 Fear no more the heat o’ the sun

(No. 1 of Five Shakespeare Songs, Op. 23)
Roger Quilter (1877–1953)

Fear no more the heat o’ the sun, Fear no more the lightning flash,
Nor the furious winter’s rages; Nor th’all-dreaded thunder-stone;
Thou thy worldly task hast done, Fear not slander, censure rash;
Home art gone, and ta’en thy wages: Thou hast finish’d joy and moan:
Golden lads and girls all must, All lovers young, all lovers must
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust. Consign to thee, and come to dust.

Fear no more the frown o’ the great, No exorciser harm thee!

Thou art past the tyrant’s stroke; Nor no witchcraft charm thee!
Care no more to clothe and eat; Ghost unlaid forbear thee!
To thee the reed is as the oak: Nothing ill come near thee!
The sceptre, learning, physic, must Quiet consummation have;
All follow this, and come to dust. And renownèd be thy grave!

William Shakespeare (c. 1564–1616)

13
7 Come to me in my dreams
Frank Bridge (1879–1941)

Come to me in my dreams, and then Or, as thou never cam’st in sooth,

By day I shall be well again! Come now, and let me dream it truth;
For then the night will more than pay And part my hair, and kiss my brow,
The hopeless longing of the day. And say, My love! why suff’rest thou?

Come! as thou cam’st a thousand times, Come to me in my dreams, and then

A messenger from radiant climes, By day I shall be well again!
And smile on thy new world, and be For then the night will more than pay
As kind to all the rest as me. The hopeless longing of the day.

Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)

8 I wandered lonely as a cloud

Eric Thiman (1900–1975)

I wandered lonely as a cloud The waves beside them danced; but they
That floats on high o’er vales and hills, Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
When all at once I saw a crowd, A poet could not be but gay
A host of golden daffodils; In such a jocund company;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees, I gazed, and gazed, but little thought
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. What wealth the show to me had brought:

Continuous as the stars that shine For oft, when on my couch I lie
And twinkle on the Milky Way, In vacant or in pensive mood,
They stretched in never-ending line They flash upon that inward eye
Along the margin of a bay: Which is the bliss of solitude;
Ten thousand saw I at a glance, And then my heart with pleasure fills,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. And dances with the daffodils.

William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

14
From All You Who Sleep Tonight
Music Jonathan Dove (b. 1959)
Words Vikram Seth (b. 1952)

9 VII. God’s love

God loves us all, I’m pleased to say –

Or those who love him anyway –
Or those who love him and are good –
Or so they say. Or so he should.

10 XII. Soon

I shall die soon, I know. He knows what I have read

This thing is in my blood. And will not bring me lies.
It will not let me go. He sees that I am dead.
It saps my cells for food. I read it in his eyes.

It soaks my nights in sweat How am I to go on?

And breaks my days in pain. How will I bear this taste,
No hand or drug can treat My throat cased in white spawn,
These limbs for love or gain. These hands that shake and waste?

Love was the strange first cause Stay by my steel ward bed
That bred grief in its seed, And hold me where I lie.
And gain knew its own laws: Love me when I am dead
To fix its place and breed. And do not let me die.

He whom I love, thank God,

Won’t speak of hope or cure.
It would not do me good.
He sees that I am sure.

15
11 XIII. All you who sleep tonight

All you who sleep tonight

Far from the ones you love,
No hand to left or right,
And emptiness above:

Know that you aren’t alone.

The whole world shares your tears,
Some for two nights or one,
And some for all their years.

12 The Seal Man

Rebecca Clarke (1886–1979)

And he came by her cabin to the west of the road, calling.

There was a strong love came up in her at that,
and she put down her sewing on the table, and “Mother,” she says,
“There’s no lock, and no key, and no bolt, and no door.
There’s no iron, nor no stone, nor anything at all
will keep me this night from the man I love.”

And she went out into the moonlight to him,

there by the bush where the flow’rs is pretty, beyond the river.
And he says to her: “You are all of the beauty of the world,
will you come where I go, over the waves of the sea?”
And she says to him: “My treasure and my strength,” she says,
“I would follow you on the frozen hills, my feet bleeding.”

Then they went down into the sea together,

and the moon made a track on the sea, and they walked down it;
it was like a flame before them. There was no fear at all on her;
only a great love like the love of the Old Ones,

16
that was stronger than the touch of the fool.
She had a little white throat, and little cheeks like flowers,
and she went down into the sea with her man,
who wasn’t a man at all.
She was drowned, of course.
It’s like he never thought that she wouldn’t bear the sea like himself.
She was drowned, drowned.

from ‘A Mainsail Haul’ by John Masefield (1878–1967)

13 I will go with my father a-ploughing

Ivor Gurney (1890–1937)

I will go with my father a-ploughing I will go with my father a-reaping

To the green field by the sea, To the brown field by the sea,
And the rooks and crows and seagulls And the geese and the crows and the children
Will come flocking after me. Will come flocking after me.
I will sing to the patient horses I will sing to the tan-faced reapers
With the lark in the white of the air, With the wren in the heat of the sun,
And my father will sing the plough-song And my father will sing the scythe song
That blesses the cleaving share. That joys for the harvest done.

I will go with my father a-sowing Seosamh Mac Cathmhaoil (Joseph Campbell)

To the red field by the sea, (1879–1944)
And the rooks and the gulls and the starlings
Will come flocking after me.
I will sing to the striding sowers
With the finch on the greening sloe,
And my father will sing the seed song
That only the wise men know.

17
14 Proud Songsters
(No. 10 of Earth and Air and Rain)
Gerald Finzi (1901–1956)

The thrushes sing as the sun is going, These are brand-new birds of twelve-months’
And the finches whistle in ones and pairs, growing,
And as it gets dark loud nightingales Which a year ago, or less than twain,
In bushes No finches were, nor nightingales,
Pipe, as they can when April wears, Nor thrushes,
As if all Time were theirs. But only particles of grain,
And earth, and air, and rain.

Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)

15 King David
Herbert Howells (1892–1983)

King David was a sorrowful man: King David lifted his sad eyes
No cause for his sorrow had he; Into the dark-boughed tree –
And he called for the music of a hundred harps, “Tell me, thou little bird that singest,
To ease his melancholy. Who taught my grief to thee?”

They played till they all fell silent: But the bird in no-wise heeded;
Played and play sweet did they; And the King in the cool of the moon
But the sorrow that haunted the heart of King David Hearkened to the nightingale’s sorrowfulness,
They could not charm away. Till all his own was gone.

He rose; and in his garden Walter de la Mare (1873–1956)

Walked by the moon alone,
A nightingale hidden in a cypress tree,
Jargoned on and on.

18
16 Since she whom I loved
(No. 6 of The Holy Sonnets of John Donne)
Benjamin Britten (1913–1976)

Since she whom I lov’d hath payd her last debt

To Nature, and to hers, and my good is dead,
And her Soule early into Heaven ravished,
Wholly on heavenly things my mind is sett.
Here the admyring her my mind did whett
To seeke thee, God; so streams do show their head;
But though I have found thee, and thou my thirst hast fed,
A holy thirsty dropsy melts mee yett.
But why should I begg more love, when as thou
Dost wooe my soul, for hers: off’ring all thine:
And dost not only feare least I allow
My love to Saints and Angels, things divine,
But in thy tender jealousy dost doubt
Lest the world, Fleshe, yea Devill putt thee out.

John Donne (1572–1631)

17 Sleep
Peter Warlock (1894–1930)

Come, Sleep, and with thy sweet deceiving Tho’ but a shadow, but a sliding,
Lock me in delight awhile; Let me know some little joy.
Let some pleasing dreams beguile We that suffer long annoy
All my fancies, that from thence Are contented with a thought
There may steal an influence, Thro’ an idle fancy wrought:
All my powers of care bereaving. O let my joys have some abiding.

John Fletcher (1579–1625)

19
18 Feste (Come away, death)
(No. 2 of These Motley Fools)
Iain Bell (b. 1980)

Come away, come away, death, Not a flower, not a flower sweet
And in sad cypress let me be laid. On my black coffin let there be strown.
Fly away, fly away breath, Not a friend, not a friend greet
I am slain by a fair cruel maid. My poor corpse, where my bones shall be thrown.
My shroud of white, stuck all with yew, A thousand thousand sighs to save,
O, prepare it! Lay me, O, where
My part of death, no one so true Sad true lover never find my grave,
Did share it. To weep there!

William Shakespeare (c. 1564–1616)

19 Go, lovely rose

(No. 3 of Five English Love Lyrics)
Roger Quilter (1877–1953)

Go, lovely rose! Small is the worth

Tell her that wastes her time and me, Of beauty from the light retired;
That now she knows, Bid her come forth,
When I resemble her to thee, Suffer herself to be desired,
How sweet and fair she seems to be. And not blush so to be admired.

Tell her that’s young, Then die! that she

And shuns to have her graces spied, The common fate of all things rare
That hadst thou sprung May read in thee;
In deserts, where no men abide, How small a part of time they share
Thou must have uncommended died. That are so wondrous sweet and fair!

Edmund Waller (1606–1687)

20
20 Silent Noon
(No. 2 of The House of Life)
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)

Your hands lie open in the long fresh grass,

The finger-points look through like rosy blooms:
Your eyes smile peace. The pasture gleams and glooms
’Neath billowing skies that scatter and amass.
All round our nest, far as the eye can pass,
Are golden kingcup-fields with silver edge
Where the cow-parsley skirts the hawthorn-hedge.
’Tis visible silence, still as the hour glass.

Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragon-fly

Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky:
So this wing’d hour is dropt to us from above.
Oh! clasp we to our hearts, for deathless dower,
This close-companioned inarticulate hour
When twofold silence was the song of love.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882)

21
RUAIRI BOWEN
Tenor

Ruairi Bowen was a chorister at St David’s and On the operatic stage, he debuted Prologue/
St Paul’s Cathedrals, later taking up a choral Quint in Britten’s Turn of the Screw at Barnes
scholarship at King’s College, Cambridge under Music Festival. In autumn 2019, he took on multiple
the direction of Sir Stephen Cleobury. roles in Purcell’s The Indian Queen at l’Opera de
A finalist in the 2020 International Handel Lille with Le Concert d’Astrée and Emanuelle
Singing Competition, he is increasingly in demand Haïm, with whom he will take on the role of Sailor
as an interpreter of Baroque repertoire, recently in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas in 2021.
making his debut at the Wigmore Hall and Bachfest Growing up in the Welsh Marches, Ruairi has
Leipzig, performing Bach’s St John Passion 1725 developed a keen interest in exploring the integrated
with Solomon’s Knot. Other engagements have relationship between poetry and nature through
included Septimius in Handel’s Theodora with pastoral song. Recent highlights include a recital
The Hampstead Collective, Bach’s Mass in B Minor on Innocence & Experience with Anna Tilbrook,
with English Touring Opera and Monteverdi’s Vespro performing Tippett’s cantata Boyhood’s End and
della Beata Vergine at the Three Choirs Festival. Finzi’s A Young Man's Exhortation for Finzi Friends
Equally at home with larger-scale symphonic at Ashmansworth.
works, he sang in the world premiere and During the live music hiatus left in the wake
recording of Stanford’s Mass ‘Via Victrix’ with the of the Covid-19 Pandemic, Ruairi was a Support
BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales Worker for the Children’s Section of the British
and Adrian Partington. Other engagements Refugee Council and has volunteered as a coach
have included Mendelssohn’s Elijah in Worcester for their Cricket Project since 2015. Where time
Cathedral, Beethoven’s Missa solemnis with Ben allows, he returns to Herefordshire to play cricket
Palmer and the Covent Garden Sinfonia, and for Brockhampton CC.
Vaughan Williams’ A Cotswold Romance with
the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra. www.ruairibowen.com

24
MICHAEL CHANCE
Counter-tenor

Over some 40 years, Michael Chance has Amongst many international awards for his
established an international reputation as recordings is a Grammy for his performance in
performer, teacher and director across a broad Handel’s Semele (with Kathleen Battle and Marilyn
spectrum of opera, recital, oratorio and recordings. Horne). He was appointed a CBE in 2009.
He has embraced old and new music with equal Michael teaches at the Royal Academy of
passion, having notable roles and songs cycles Music, the Royal Conservatorium in The Hague,
written for him by composers from Harrison in his own Siena Summer Academy in Italy, and
Birtwistle, Judith Weir and John Tavener, to in masterclasses all over the world.
Richard Rodney Bennett, Tan Dun and Elvis He accepted the invitation to be artistic
Costello. His range has helped develop both the director of The Grange Festival in October 2015.
possibilities for the counter-tenor voice and the He created from scratch a new opera company
interest in, and passion for, earlier repertoire. and its first season in 2017, after the unexpected
His operatic career identifies him with parts departure of Grange Park Opera from The Grange.
such as Gluck’s Orfeo, Britten’s Oberon and It is rare for a singer to be given the top job in an
Apollo, Handel’s Giulio Cesare, Rinaldo, Bertarido opera company and The Grange Festival is the
and Ottone, a host of gods and heroes, and the only opera company in the UK to be led by one
occasional villain, throughout the Baroque and of international renown.
early Classical eras. He has performed in most of
the great opera houses and concert halls. www.michaelchancecountertenor.co.uk
His discography numbers over 150 recordings,
with solo albums devoted to composers such as
Purcell, Dowland, Bach, Tavener and Vivaldi. His
recording of Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater was recently
chosen in BBC Radio 3’s Building a Library.

25
GERALD FINLEY
Bass-baritone

Grammy-award winning Canadian bass-baritone at Royal Opera, Covent Garden; and as Wolfram
Gerald Finley is a leading singer and dramatic (Tannhäuser) at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
interpreter of his generation, with acclaimed As a celebrated song recitalist, his recent
performances at the world’s major opera and engagements include the Schubertiade, recitals
concert venues and award-winning recordings on throughout Europe, a residency at the Wigmore
CD and DVD with major labels in a wide variety Hall, at New York’s Carnegie-Zankel Hall as part
of repertoire. His career is devoted to the wide of a US tour of Schubert’s Winterreise, and
range of vocal art, encompassing opera, orchestral appearances at the festivals of Tanglewood and
and song, collaborating with the greatest orchestras Ravinia in the US. In 2018 he appeared at the
and conductors of our time. BBC’s Last Night of the Proms.
He began with the baritone roles of Mozart; Born in Montreal, Gerald Finley began singing
his Don Giovanni and Count in Le nozze di Figaro as a chorister in Ottawa, Canada, and completed
have been heard live throughout the world and his musical studies in the UK at the Royal College
on DVD. Recent signature roles include the of Music, King’s College, Cambridge, and the
title role in Rossini’s Guillaume Tell, J. Robert National Opera Studio. He is a Fellow and Visiting
Oppenheimer in John Adams’ Dr. Atomic, and Professor at the Royal College of Music. In 2014 he
Jaufré Rudel in Saariaho’s L’amour de loin. He climbed Kilimanjaro for the charity Help Musicians
created Harry Heegan in Mark-Anthony Turnage’s UK. In 2017 he was appointed Commander of the
The Silver Tassie. Order of the British Empire and had previously
In recent years, critical successes have been been appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada.
in the Wagner repertoire: as Hans Sachs (Die
Meistersinger von Nürnberg) at the Glyndebourne www.geraldfinley.com
Festival and Opéra de Paris; as Amfortas in Parsifal

26
JAMES GILCHRIST
Tenor

Tenor James Gilchrist began his working life as a Masaaki Suzuki; and a return to King’s College,
doctor, turning to a full-time music career in 1996. Cambridge to perform Bach’s St Matthew Passion
His extensive concert repertoire has seen him as part of Sir Stephen Cleobury’s final Easter week
perform in major concert halls throughout the as Director of Music. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio
world with renowned conductors including and the St John and St Matthew Passion feature
Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Roger Norrington, prominently in his schedule, and he is celebrated
Bernard Labadie, Harry Christophers, Harry Bicket, as perhaps the finest Evangelist of his generation;
Masaaki Suzuki and Richard Hickox. A master of as one review noted, “he hasn’t become a one-man
English music, he has performed Britten’s Church Evangelist industry by chance”.
Parables in St Petersburg, in London and at the James’ impressive discography includes
Aldeburgh Festival, Nocturne with the NHK recordings of Albert Herring (title role) and
Symphony in Tokyo, and War Requiem with the Vaughan Williams’ A Poisoned Kiss; Songs of
San Francisco Symphony and the National Youth Travel for Chandos; St John Passion with the AAM;
Orchestra of Germany. the Finzi song cycle Oh Fair To See; Elizabethan
Highlights have included singing the role of Lute Songs When Laura Smiles with Matthew
Rev. Adams in Britten’s Peter Grimes with the Wadsworth; Leighton’s Earth Sweet Earth;
Bergen Philharmonic and Edward Gardner, with Vaughan Williams’ On Wenlock Edge; Finzi songs,
performances at the Edinburgh International Britten’s Winter Words, and a disc of Schumann
Festival, the Royal Festival Hall, Grieghallen and song cycles for Linn Records; and the critically-
Den Norske Opera; Haydn’s Creation for a staged acclaimed recordings of Schubert’s song cycles
production with Garsington Opera and Ballet for Orchid Classics.
Rambert, and later with Dallas Symphony
Orchestra; Elijah with Goteborgs Symfoniker and www.jamesgilchrist.co.uk

27
TIM MEAD
Counter-tenor

Counter-tenor Tim Mead is praised for his “alluring” Orchestra at the BBC Proms; a European recital
and “consistently excellent” interpretations (New tour with Emmanuelle Haïm and Le Concert
York Times). With his “rich, mellifluous sound” d’Astrée; Bach’s St John Passion with Jonathan
(Guardian), he is recognised as one of the finest Cohen and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; an
across the generations of counter-tenors. appearance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Recent operatic highlights include Ottone at the Hollywood Bowl and Walt Disney Concert
(Agrippina) for Dutch National Opera; Dardano Hall; Athamas (Semele) with the CBSO and the
(Amadigi) for Garsington Opera; Apollo (Death in Handel and Haydn Society; Didymus (Theodora)
Venice) at the Royal Opera House; Ulisse (Achille in with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin; the world
Sciro) at the Teatro Real, Madrid; Athamas (Semele) premiere of Theo Loevendie’s Rise of Spinoza at
for Opera Philadelphia; Goffredo (Rinaldo) at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam; Handel’s Messiah
Glyndebourne; Endimione (La Calisto) for Teatro with Robin Ticciati and the Deutsches Symphonie-
Real, Madrid, and at the Bayerische Staatsoper; Orchester Berlin; Handel’s Theodora with the
Bertarido (Rodelinda) for Opéra de Lille and English English Concert; Handel’s Solomon with Akademie
National Opera; Oberon (A Midsummer Night’s für Alte Musik; Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus with
Dream) for Opera Philadelphia, Glyndebourne the OAE; and Handel’s Joseph and his Brethren
and Bergen National Opera; Hamor (Jephtha) at at the Internationale Händel-Festspiele Göttingen.
the Opéra National de Paris; Boy/Angel (Written Mead read Music as a choral scholar at King’s
on Skin) at the Bolshoi; and Arsamene in Cavalli’s College, Cambridge, before continuing his vocal
Xerse with Le Concert d’Astrée at Opéra de Lille, studies at the Royal College of Music.
Theater an der Wien, and Théâtre de Caen.
On the concert platform, recent highlights www.tim-mead.com
include Handel’s Jephtha with the Scottish Chamber

28
ASHLEY RICHES
Bass-baritone

British bass-baritone Ashley Riches read English Orchestra, among others. He has given recitals
at the University of Cambridge, where he was a at the Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw
member of the Choir of King’s College under Sir (Amsterdam), and Oxford Lieder Festival with
Stephen Cleobury. He went on to study at the pianists including Graham Johnson, Julius Drake
Guildhall School of Music and Drama and is rapidly and Simon Lepper.
emerging as one of today’s finest young singers. He was a BBC New Generation Artist from
He has performed at the Royal Opera House, 2016–18 and has made numerous award-winning
Covent Garden, where he was a member of the recordings including Bernstein’s Wonderful Town
Jette Parker Young Artist Programme; English with Sir Simon Rattle and the LSO for LSO Live;
National Opera; Glyndebourne Festival Opera; Purcell’s The Fairy Queen and King Arthur with
Opera Holland Park; Grange Festival; and at the the Gabrieli Consort under Paul McCreesh;
Bolshoi Opera, Moscow. Roles include Count Salieri’s Armida with Christophe Rousset and
Almaviva (The Marriage of Figaro), Escamillo Les Talens Lyriques; Bach’s St Matthew Passion
(Carmen), the title role in Don Giovanni, and with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi
roles in La Traviata, Dialogues des Carmelites, Choir; and Duruflé’s Messe ‘Cum Jubilo’ with the
Turandot, La bohème, Agrippina, and The Pirates Choir of King’s College, Cambridge and the OAE
of Penzance. under Sir Stephen Cleobury. His debut solo CD,
On the concert platform he has appeared A Musical Zoo, with Joseph Middleton is released
with Sir Simon Rattle, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, by Chandos.
Sir Antonio Pappano, Sir Roger Norrington and
Robin Ticciati, with the Berlin Philharmonic, www.ashleyriches.co.uk
London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of the
Age of Enlightenment, and Freiburg Baroque

29
ANDREW STAPLES
Tenor

Andrew Staples is considered one of the most Philharmonie de Paris; Dream of Gerontius with
versatile tenors of his generation, appearing the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and
regularly with conductors such as Rattle, Harding, Daniel Harding; Berlioz’ Roméo et Juliette with
Davis and Nézet-Séguin, and orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic; and Das Lied von der
the Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Philharmoniker, Erde with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra
Swedish Radio Orchestra, Bayerischer Rundfunk and Gustavo Dudamel, and also with Budapest
Sinfonieorchester, Rotterdam Philharmonic Festival Orchestra and Ivan Fischer.
Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, the Orchestre His discography includes Billy Budd with Daniel
de Paris, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Harding and the London Symphony Orchestra;
Cecilia, and the London Symphony Orchestra. Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri with the
Andrew made his debut at the Royal Opera LSO and Sir Simon Rattle (for LSO Live); Handel’s
House, Covent Garden as Jacquino (Fidelio), Messiah with Le Concert d’Astrée and Emmanuelle
returning for Flamand (Capriccio), Tamino (Die Haim (Erato/Warner Classics); Schumann’s Szenen
Zauberflöte), Artabenes (Artaxerxes) and Narraboth aus Goethes Faust with the Symphonieorchester
(Salome). He has sung Andres (Wozzeck) at the des Bayerischen Rundfunks and Daniel Harding;
Metropolitan Opera; Belfiore (La Finta Giardiniera) Stravinsky’s Persephone with Esa-Pekka Salonen
for the National Theatre, Prague, and La Monnaie; (Pentatone); the Grammy-nominated Dr. Atomic
Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) for the Salzburger with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and John
Festspiele; and Tamino in Die Zauberflöte for the Adams; and The Dream of Gerontius with Daniel
Lucerne Festival, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Barenboim and the Berlin Staatskapelle
with Daniel Harding at Drottningholms Slottsteater. (Deutsche Grammophon).
Concert repertoire include Britten’s War
Requiem; Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the www.ajrstaples.com

30
MARK STONE
Baritone

Mark Stone was born in London and studied Opera, Tampere), Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus,
Mathematics at King’s College, Cambridge, and and Count in Langer’s Figaro Gets a Divorce
singing at the Guildhall School of Music and (Welsh National Opera), as well as a tour to the
Drama. In 1998 he was awarded the Decca Prize USA as the Ferryman in Netia Jones’ acclaimed
at the Kathleen Ferrier Awards. production of Britten’s Curlew River.
Recent operatic engagements include his His many roles at the English National Opera
Gunther in Götterdämmerung (Geneva) and have included Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Marcello
Alberich in Das Rheingold (Longborough Festival), (La bohème), Figaro (Il barbiere di Siviglia),
Papageno in Die Zauberflöte (Valencia and Welsh Enrico (Lucia di Lammermoor), Silvio (I Pagliacci),
National Opera), Balstrode in Peter Grimes Chou-en-Lai (Nixon in China) and Prince Yamadori
(Queensland Opera), the King in George Benjamin’s in Anthony Minghella’s production of Madama
Lessons in Love and Violence (Mariinsky Theatre, Butterfly. In the USA he has appeared regularly
St Petersburg), the Protector in Benjamin’s at the Philadelphia Opera where his roles include
Written on Skin (Philadelphia), and the Cheshire Ford (Falstaff), Germont Pere (La Traviata), the
Cat in Gerald Barry’s Alice’s Adventures Under title role in Gianni Schicchi, and Papageno (Die
Ground (Royal Opera House). Zauberflöte). He has also sung Guglielmo in
He has sung the title role in Wozzeck (Geneva), Santa Fe.
and other roles include Don Giovanni (Deutsche
Oper Berlin, New Zealand Opera, English National www.markstone.info
Opera and Toyko Symphony Orchestra), Valmont
in Francesconi’s Quartett, Mountjoy in Britten’s
Gloriana (Royal Opera House), Il Conte in Le
nozze di Figaro (Welsh National Opera, Hamburg

31
LAWRENCE ZAZZO
Counter-tenor

A native of Philadelphia, American counter-tenor (The Tempest), Rolf Riehm (Sirenen, Die Tode
Lawrence Zazzo studied English and Music at Yale des Orpheus), and Iain Bell (These Motley Fools).
University and King’s College, Cambridge, before A keen Handelian, his extensive discography
making his operatic debut as Oberon in A Midsummer includes the operas and oratorios Giulio Cesare,
Night’s Dream whilst studying voice at the Royal Rodelinda, Rinaldo, Serse, Riccardo Primo, Lotario,
College of Music, London. As an opera singer, he Partenope, Fernando Ré di Castiglia, Saul, Deborah,
continues to perform in the world’s major opera Athalia and Messiah. His solo recordings include
houses, including the Wiener Staatsoper; the Handel Uncaged (Handel’s alto cantatas including
Metropolitan Opera; Opéra national de Paris; Royal a world premiere of Amore Uccellatore), Byrdland
Opera House, Covent Garden; Opernhaus Zürich; (Dowland, Byrd, and Purcell with the Paragon
Oper Frankfurt; Teatro Real, Madrid; Staatsoper Saxophone Quartet), Lunarcy (lute songs with
Berlin; Bayerische Staatsoper; La Monnaie, Brussels; Shizuko Noiri), and A Royal Trio (opera arias by
Opéra National de Lyon; Festival d’Aix-en-Provence; Handel, Bononcini, and Ariosti). He recently
Dutch National Opera; Staatsoper Hamburg; the collaborated with Wolfgang Katschner and Vivica
Canadian Opera Company; and Glyndebourne. Genaux in exploring gender ambiguity and disguise
Lawrence has worked with leading conductors on Baroque Gender Stories, as well as a world
in both early and contemporary music, including premiere recording of Jonathan Dove’s Hojoki with
René Jacobs, Ottavio Dantone, William Christie, the BBC Philharmonic. With a PhD in Music from
Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Ivor Bolton, Emmanuelle Queen’s University Belfast, Lawrence regularly
Haïm, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Alessandro De Marchi, gives masterclasses, lectures and vocal workshops
Leonardo García Alarcón, Christian Curnyn, David throughout the world and is a Lecturer in Music
Bates, Paul Goodwin, Martyn Brabbins, James at Newcastle University.
Conlon, and Simone Young. He has premiered new
works by Jonathan Dove (Hojoki), Thomas Adès www.lawrencezazzo.com

32
SIMON LEPPER
Piano

Simon read music at King’s College, Cambridge been the official accompanist for the BBC Cardiff
before studying collaborative piano with Michael Singer of the World Competition.
Dussek at the Royal Academy of Music in London, His discography includes a live recital disc
and later with Ruben Lifschitz at the Académie with Stéphane Degout; Mahler songs with Karen
de Royaumont, France. Cargill; two volumes of Debussy Songs and a
Specialising in song accompaniment, he has Strauss disc with Gillian Keith; the complete
regularly collaborated with singers including songs of Jonathan Dove with Kitty Whately;
Benjamin Appl, Ilker Arcayürekk, Christiane Schubert Songs with Ilker Arcayürek; and a
Karg, Karen Cargill, Stéphane Degout, Angelika recital disc with Dame Felicity Palmer.
Kirchschlager, Sally Matthews and Mark Padmore.
He performs extensively in venues around the www.simonlepper.com
world including Carnegie Hall; the Concertgebouw;
the festivals of Verbier, Ravinia and Edinburgh;
and the Opera houses of Frankfurt, Geneva,
Bordeaux, and La Monnaie (Brussels). In his home
country, he is often heard on BBC Radio 3 and
regularly performs at London’s Wigmore Hall,
where he has also curated a series on the songs
of Joseph Marx.
He is a committed teacher and is currently
professor of collaborative piano and a vocal
repertoire coach at the Royal College of Music,
London, where he also co-ordinates the
collaborative piano course. Since 2003 he has

33
 Recorded at 192kHz 24-bit PCM at All Saint’s Church,
East Finchley, London, on 29 October 2019 and
10 February 2020.

Producer & Editor Benjamin Sheen

Engineer Dave Rowell
Mixing Benjamin Sheen
Mastering Simon Gibson

Cover design Jeremy Hall, Benjamin Sheen & David Millinger

Cover image Pamela Schmieder / Trevillion Images
Layout design David Hawkins (Untitled Studio)
Content layout David Millinger
Booklet editors David Millinger & Benjamin Sheen
Booklet photographs
Benjamin Sheen / King’s College, Cambridge (pp22-23)
Sally Corrick (p24), Annelies van der Vegt (p25),
Sim Canetty-Clarke (p26), Patrick Allen (p27),
Benjamin Ealovega (p28), Debbie Scanlan (p29),
Andrew Staples (p30), Gerard Collett (p31),
Nancy Horowitz (p32), Robert Workman (p33)

Consultant Claire Long

Label management Benjamin Sheen

www.kingscollegerecordings.com
www.kings.cam.ac.uk

34