Philippe Sly: The complete "5 Shakespeare songs Op. 23" (Quilter)

5 Shakespeare songs (Op. 23):
I. Fear no more the heat of the sun 00:00
II. Under the greenwood tree 03:09
III. It was a lover and his lass 04:15
IV. Take, o take those lips away 06:42
V. Hey, ho, the wind and the rain 08:13
Quilter, Roger (1877-1953) -composer
Philippe Sly -baritone
Michael McMahon -piano
Playlist: "The art of British song: Elgar, Somervell, Williams, Finzi..": • The art of British son...
Score: conquest.imslp....
Although the Three Shakespeare Songs, Op. 6, of 1905 were a great success for Roger Quilter, the English composer was not to return to setting the work of Shakespeare for nearly 15 years. Yet after the publication of the songs "Under the Greenwood Tree" and "It was a Lover and his Lass," a duet, in 1919, the composer incorporated them into a second set, the Five Shakespeare Songs, Op. 23, in 1921.
"Fear No More the Heat o' the Sun," from Cymbeline, is a pensive elegy in which the vocal melody inescapably rises and falls. The poem is in four strophes, of which the first three are in parallel form; to an art song composer like Quilter, however, the strophes had to be musically modified. The third and fourth stanzas are not identical, and as the text becomes impassioned, the melody becomes more chromatic.
The second song, "Under the Greenwood Tree," from As You Like It, is a light and cheerful air, in barely modified strophic form. "It was a Lover and his Lass," also from As You Like It, follows in much the same vein, though arranged from its original setting as a duet. Like many of Quilter's others songs, the accompaniment is varied and florid, building to a majestic final verse.
The tempo then slows for the expressive fourth song "Take, O Take Those Lips Away," from Measure for Measure. Using a favorite text for composers, this song has a carefully crafted melody and accompaniment that reveal Quilter at his most profoundly concise: the piece is only 21 measures long. The composer was later to set it for piano quartet.
"Hey, Ho, the Wind and the Rain," the song which concludes Twelfth Night, brings this cycle to a close as well. The composer compacts this multi-strophe song by omitting a verse and setting the text in markedly quick tempo. As in seemingly every Quilter cycle, the high note and dramatic climax come in the final cadence.
This second set marks a departure for Quilter in that he was willing to wrestle with longer song texts, although he was not reluctant to omit verses and did so several times. Not as tightly unified a cycle as the first set, the Five Shakespeare Songs of Op. 23 show that in 1921 Quilter's musical language had remained much the same as that of Op. 6, and had begun to sound more and more like a retrenchment against the more daring styles of contemporary English song composers such as Finzi and Warlock.
Source: www.allmusic.co...
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[@sage4nowty129]

A beautiful baritone voice!! Great singing!! Bravo!!

[@steveblack3010]

Phenomenal voice. Carrying on our great tradition of baritone. Love it. Love Quilter.

[@Istvanoiv]

Great voice full of lyrical and soulful nyances! Love!

[@mjk5807]

They are a great new type of performers for the 21st century: Nuria Rial, Philippe Sly, Jakub Józef Orliński ... Wonderfully educated, sensitive, modest...

[@Alieaz]

What a very beautiful lyric baritone voice! Excellent recording voice. :)

[@jmizzleful]

+Andrew Grenon Of all places on the span of the internet. I see you again on the comments of this video :') If you can guess who this is I'll say yes haha.

[@sage4nowty129]

An amazing baritone voice! An excellent recording.

[@judyboyter2159]

Wonderful voice! I love all these songs!

[@carolynclark1724]

How beautiful Philippe

[@daponteable]

I have tears, warm voice…

[@19391962]

Lovely...I very much know Lieder.

[@normancascioppo1456]

superb

[@galas062]

thank you!

[@johnsantoro1958]

As fine a performance of these superb songs as one can imagine!

[@wesleysatterfield6309]

I look forward to following his career.

[@kmmbs1]

Glorious voice

[@pedroa.cantero9449]

Un soneto de Shakespeare guardaba la puerta de nuestra casa, House of Dyonisos la llamabas, en ella tramamos nuestros más bello años, que hoy no por lejanos dejan de evocar momentos de plenitud. Souviens toi: « La maison était sous les brumes. / Rien ne pouvait nous éloigner du songe. / La volevi bianca sul colle appesa. / Tu la voulais blanche perchée. / Dedans les brumes/ blanche tu la voulais. / De l'aube au soir/ une même lueur grise la couvrait ». En ella te encontrabas a salvo de todo mal. “Fear no more the heat o' the sun/ nor the furious winters' rages …”.

[@princeandrey]

hisponofrench? Intriguing.

[@lawrencebrown3677]

My favourite bass-baritone is Lawrence Tibbett whose timbre is quite darker than Sly's and who is on on the whole of weightier voice. But Sly is an elegant thoughtful , fine singer and Shakespeare is one of the very greatest writers in the English language which Sly does justice to in his interpretation.

[@mckavitt13]

THE greatest writer in the English language.

[@5476_qwerty]

1:35 1:47 2:15

[@cynic150]

He has a beautiful voice, but is not really very interesting. He makes Quilter sound boring, which he was not.

[@sheenareid3083]

Try listening to him in "The Messiah"!!!