Release Date: 30 September 2022
Label: Voces8 Records
Packaging Type: Digipak
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 5060140211686
Description
Sweet Stillness features British artists Davina Clarke (violinist) and Mary Bevan (soprano). The project is centred around Handel's Neun Deutsche Arien, set to the texts of Barthold Heinrich Brockes. With exemplary obligato-style writing, frequent appearances in recital repertoires, and few recordings available, we have decided to share our interpretations of the arias. Sweet Stillness puts the Nine German Arias in a revised order which Brockes intimated for them, called the Frühlings-Cantata (Spring Cantata). This order makes them much more suited for a sequential performance than the original autograph, which places many arias in the same key as the one that follows; in Brockes' order, pleasing key relations between arias emerge. These historical texts have also been given a modern twist by translating and distilling each text into two lines of English prose, specially and newly written by Baroque cellist Jonathan Rees, who is a close friend. Indeed, the album is an interdisciplinary project of poetry, music and art, connected thematically by nature but also through a collaborative effort borne of friendship. Many of our peers and close friends have contributed to the album's artwork; cover art shot by operatic tenor Andrew Staples, sleeve notes from oboist Leo Duarte, and translations hand-written in ink calligraphy by baroque violinist Julia Kuhn which have been set upon vibrant watercolours hand-painted by Rees.
Tracklisting
Davina Clarke
Daniela Mars & Paul Smith
Daniela Mars
VOCES8
Daniela Mars
Apollo5
Thomas Elwin and Lana Bode
New Dublin Voices
Enno Poppe, Klangforum Wien, PHACE, Nacho de Paz, Pierre Roullier, Ensemble Diagonal, Rut Schereine
Peter Rundel, Wiener Symphoniker, Wolfgang Kogert
Magdalena Geka, Iveta Calite & Ilona Meija
Patrick Demenga; Latvian State Academic Choir; Youth Choir Kamer; Riga Cathedral Boys Choir; Andres
Chor "Astrolabium", Tomasz Drozdek T.ETNO, Kinga Litowska
Monika Plachta, Chor Mieszany Katedry Wawelskiej, Andrzej Korzeniowski, Pawel Wajrak, Katarzyna Luk
Roberta Mameli, Adam Kruzel, Polski Chor Kameralny, Sinfonia Varsovia, Jan Lukaszewski
Takacs Quartet, Marc-Andre Hamelin
