5023363023528

Brian Elias: Electra Mourns

Susan Bickley; Roderick Williams; Britten Sinfonia

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Format: CD

Cat No: NMCD235

Release Date:  21 April 2017

Label:  NMC Recordings

Packaging Type:  Jewel Case

No of Units:  1

Barcode:  5023363023528

Genres:  Classical  Contemporary  

  • Description

    The title work on this new album by Brian Elias sets text from 'Electra', a 5th Century BC play by the Greek dramatist Sophocles. It is sung in the original ancient Greek by mezzo-soprano Susan Bickley, accompanied by cor anglais and string orchestra, and recounts the tale of Electra and the vengeance that she and her brother Orestes take on their mother and stepfather following the murder of their father.

    Continuing Elias's fascination with ancient Greece, Geranos is a dramatic and rhythmic ensemble piece inspired by a ritual 'crane dance' associated with Theseus, the mythical king of Athens.

    In contrast, the two song cycles on this album are set to texts by English poets. Meet me in the Green Glen for unaccompanied solo voice is a setting of five John Clare poems, here performed by both Susan Bickley and Roderick Williams, and Once did I breathe another's breath for baritone and piano was commissioned for the 2013 Ludlow Weekend of English Song; the poems (some anonymous) were all written in the first half of the seventeenth century.

  • Tracklisting

      Disc 1

      Side 1

      • 1. Brian Elias_Geranos I
      • 2. Brian Elias_Geranos II (Adonidia)
      • 3. Brian Elias_Geranos III
      • 4. Brian Elias_Meet me in the Green Glen I Meet me in the Green Glen
      • 5. Brian Elias_Meet me in the Green Glen II Song
      • 6. Brian Elias_Meet me in the Green Glen III Now is Past
      • 7. Brian Elias_Meet me in the Green Glen IV Love's Pains
      • 8. Brian Elias_Meet me in the Green Glen V Hesperus
      • 9. Brian Elias_Once did I breathe another’s breath I Dost ask my dear
      • 10. Brian Elias_Once did I breathe another’s breath II Dear, let us two each other spy
      • 11. Brian Elias_Once did I breathe another’s breath III Now sleep, bind fast the flood of air
      • 12. Brian Elias_Once did I breathe another’s breath IV Once did my thoughts both ebb and flow
      • 13. Brian Elias_Once did I breathe another’s breath V There comes a night
      • 14. Brian Elias_Electra Mourns