Soprano
Carolyn Sampson
and baritone
Roderick Williams
are prolific singers who can handle almost any kind of repertory but have a strong connection to the English tradition from the Baroque to the 20th century. It would be hard to imagine better singers for this collection of
Shakespeare
songs, for on one hand,
settings are about as traditional as one can get, while on the other, this is an exceptionally diverse collection. It runs from the 20th century composers who favored
as a text source to contemporary settings that may be gender-bending or otherwise experimental.
Sampson
and
Williams
handle
Hannah Kendall
's avant-garde duet settings of Rosalind's songs from As You Like It, just as well as works by
John Ireland
Ivor Gurney
. Even better, there are quite a few real novelties here. Listeners unaware that
Haydn
set
should make it their business to hear
in
She never told her love, Hob. 16/34a
, as soon as possible. There are settings of German Shakespeare translations by
Schubert
,
Schumann
, and
Hugo Wolf
, a French one by
Arthur Honegger
, and an entrancing English-language
Fancy
by
Poulenc
. There is a song by
John Dankworth
and one by
Arthur Sullivan
. This album represents, in short, an embarrassment of riches, and it is one of the finest
song releases to come along in quite some time. ~ James Manheim