Ruby Hughes | Joseph Middleton
Nocturnal Variations
- Type CD
- Label Champs Hill
- UPC 5060212591012
- Catalog number CHRCD 098
- Release date 07 September 2018
About the album
Soprano Ruby Hughes releases her debut solo recital disc with pianist Joseph Middleton, an anthology of night songs by Mahler, Britten, Berg and Schubert. Ruby Hughes introduces the programme:
I have always been fascinated by the various moods of night, from the astonishing drama of storms and sunsets to the tranquillity of darkness: a time for contemplation, meditation, sleep and dreams.
Night has at times evoked darker, more foreboding thoughts and philosophical questions concerning death and existence. Alone at night, the state of mind can be awestruck and frightening under the dark canopy of the universe. At other times it feels safe and calm.
These four composers (Schubert, Mahler, Berg and Britten) have been favourites of mine from a very young age. I love their melodies and modulations, their subtlety and passion as well as their genius for setting and enhancing profoundly moving words. They all composed so lyrically for the voice. Their night songs have at times an otherworldly sense of mystery, as in for example Mahler’s Urlicht, Schubert’s Im Abendrot and Abendstern, Berg’s Warm die Lüfte and Britten’s Um Mitternacht. Their songs also work brilliantly when programmed together, revealing influences such as Schubert’s on Mahler, and Schubert’s and Berg’s on Britten.
Alban Berg’s songs achieve a wonderful blend of his modernist musical language with all he inherited from the romantics (i.e. Schubert through to Mahler). Britten too has the power to combine ancient and modern influences to superb effect.
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11Nachtstuck D672
05:42 -
12Romanze D797 No.3
03:14 -
13Abendstern D806
02:48 -
14Die Sterne D939
03:28 -
15Im Abendrot D799
03:54 -
16Wo die schonen Trompeten blasen
08:05 -
17Um Mitternacht
07:04 -
18Urlicht
05:44 -
19Vier Gesange Op. 2 Schlafen, Schlafen, nichts, als schlafen
03:20 -
110Vier Gesange Op. 2 Schlafend tragt man mich
01:12 -
111Vier Gesange Op. 2 Nun ich der Riesen Starksen uberwand
00:57 -
112Vier Gesange Op. 2 Warm die Lufte
03:18 -
113Evening from ?This Way to the Tomb?
01:49 -
114Night from ?This Way to the Tomb?
01:47 -
115Um mitternacht
04:30 -
116At the mid hour of night
02:50