Description
EM Records is proud to announce a collaboration with the celebrated and much-loved composer Morten Lauridsen in a newly released disc of solo songs and duets, performed by the acclaimed baritone Jeremy Huw Williams and soprano Caryl Hughes together with the remarkable and versatile pianist Paula Fan (who tragically died suddenly last year whilst on a recital tour with Williams), the clarinettist John Reynolds and cellist Peter Esswood.
Lauridsen is acclaimed worldwide for his numerous choral works, which have been widely recorded and performed; his songs, although less well-known, beautifully complement his more extensively surveyed repertoire. This EM Records release contains all three of Lauridsen's vocal cycles: A Backyard Universe (three songs setting poems by Harold Witt), A Winter Come (six songs setting poems by Howard Moss) and Cuatro Canciones (poetry by Federico Garcia Lorca); the solo-voice versions of O Magnum Mysterium and the cabaret song alongside the mixed-duet versions of Ya Eras Mia (Now You Are MinebyPablo Neruda), Dirait-on (So They Sayby Rainer Maria Rilke) and Sure On This Shining Night (James Agee), as well as the setting that lends its name to the disc's title: Prayer (Dana Gioia). Lauridsen has a special fondness for composing for mixed duet and piano, being drawn as he is to the intimacy and expressiveness of the genre.
The disc was recorded in Wales, the artists being joined by Lauridsen for the entire sessions, and is a gorgeously performed recital of intensely heartfelt music by a remarkable composer.
Morten Lauridsen said "I am overjoyed with the release by the distinguished label EM Records of these recordings of my solo songs and mixed duets. That it will be available just prior to Christmas is very fitting as Jeremy's and Paula's stunning performance of my setting of O Magnum Mysterium opens the disc. I am as proud of these songs as anything I have ever composed and I hope that this extensive survey will bring joy to music-lovers everywhere, whether they are already acquainted with my other works or whether they are encountering my music for the first time."
