Track Listing

1. Songs of Travel, song cycle for voice & piano (or orchestra): No. 1, "The Vagabond": "Give to me the life I love"
2. Songs of Travel, song cycle for voice & piano (or orchestra): No. 2, "Let Beauty Awake": "Let Beauty awake in the mom from beautiful
3. Songs of Travel, song cycle for voice & piano (or orchestra): No. 3, "The Roadside Fire": "I will make you brooches and toys"
4. Songs of Travel, song cycle for voice & piano (or orchestra): No. 4, "Youth and Love": "To the heart of youth the world is a highways
5. Songs of Travel, song cycle for voice & piano (or orchestra): No. 5, "In Dreams": "In dreams, unhappy, I behold you stand"
6. Songs of Travel, song cycle for voice & piano (or orchestra): No. 6, "The infinite shining heavens"
7. Songs of Travel, song cycle for voice & piano (or orchestra): No. 7, "Whither must I wander?"
8. Songs Of Travel: Bright Is The Ring Of Words
9. Songs of Travel, song cycle for voice & piano (or orchestra): No. 9, "I have trod the upward and the downward slope"
10. Let Us Garlands Bring, song cycle for voice & piano (or string orchestra), Op. 18: Come Away, Come Away, Death
11. Let Us Garlands Bring, song cycle for voice & piano (or string orchestra), Op. 18: Who Is Silvia?
12. Let Us Garlands Bring, song cycle for voice & piano (or string orchestra), Op. 18: Fear No More The Heat O' The Sun
13. Let Us Garlands Bring, song cycle for voice & piano (or string orchestra), Op. 18: O Mistress Mine
14. Let Us Garlands Bring, song cycle for voice & piano (or string orchestra), Op. 18: It Was A Lover And His Lass
15. Bredon Hill and Other Songs, songs (5) for voice & piano: No 01, Bredon Hill
16. Bredon Hill and Other Songs, songs (5) for voice & piano: No 02, Fair Enough are Sky and Plain
17. Bredon Hill and Other Songs, songs (5) for voice & piano: No 03, When the Lad for Longing Sighs
18. Bredon Hill and Other Songs, songs (5) for voice & piano: No 04, On the Idle Hill of Summer
19. Bredon Hill and Other Songs, songs (5) for voice & piano: No 05, With Rue My Heart Is Laden
20. Sea fever, for voice & piano
21. The vagabond, for voice & piano
22. The bells of San Marie, for voice & piano
23. Songs (6) from 'A Shropshire Lad', for voice & piano (or orchestra): Loveliest of Trees
24. Songs (6) from 'A Shropshire Lad', for voice & piano (or orchestra): When I Was One-And-Twenty
25. Songs (6) from 'A Shropshire Lad', for voice & piano (or orchestra): Look Not In My Eyes
26. Songs (6) from 'A Shropshire Lad', for voice & piano (or orchestra): Think No More Lad
27. Songs (6) from 'A Shropshire Lad', for voice & piano (or orchestra): The Lads In Their Hundreds
28. Songs (6) from 'A Shropshire Lad', for voice & piano (or orchestra): Is My Team Ploughing?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #60645 in Music
• Released on: 1995-07-10
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Customer Reviews

TERFEL'S TOPS
I agree wholeheartedly with "A Music Fan From Washington DC:" Fisher-Dieskau MIGHT have sung this repertoire as well as Bryn Terfel, but he did not record it, so how are we to know? And frankly, I doubt seriously that he could possibly have sung it BETTER than Terfel. These are really lovely, rare songs that deserve to be heard by a wider audience. Terfel's total command of language (he makes every word count!) as well as music,(his mellow, rich bass-baritone sounds beautiful in each and every song) make this a very emotional recording, esp. with songs like "Come away, come away, death" by the usually neglected Gerald Finzi. The choice of material is first rate: here are not only terrific composers (i.e. Vaughan Williams, Ireland, etc.) but the source material for the songs is poetry by the likes of Robert Louis Stevenson and John Masefield and Wm. Shakespeare. Each song is like a tiny play. This is a wonderful recording and should be heard.

Excellent interpretations of oft-neglected literature
While Bryn Terfel is not one of my favorite opera singers, I have gained a new admiration for him after hearing his uncanny renditions of some very famous and some very obscure English art songs.

Some of this repertoire is well known to vocalists, and as often is the case with art song collections, is only really of interest to vocalists. However, Terfel's performances make this particular anthology a thrill for anyone interested in English music or the human voice. Terfel's voice soars to majestic fortes and sublime pianissimos on this recording (causing much distress involving the volume knob at times). He infuses these songs with such passion that not even Terfel himself seems to be able to parallel in many of his other recordings. His interpretation of Vaughan Williams' "In Dreams" is particularly exciting. His high range is unusually free in a lot of the songs, and his phrasing is immaculate.

There really isn't anything bad I can say about Terfel's performance, although some of the music has become obscure for a reason. A couple of the songs, while not bad songs overall, are not really well constructed, and with all the excitement that Terfel gives them, they still aren't really all that much fun to listen to. Anyway, be forewarned of that.

This CD should be indisposable to all voice students.

The Best....Simply the Best
Fischer-Dieskau never sang this repertoire, so what he might have done does not concern me (and he never had Terfel's technique or stylistic range anyway). Terfel is splendid in this recording - full of finesse, sensitivity, and, when appropriate, brashness. His Vagabond is definitive. The dynamic control he displays is rare and satisfying. He sets a new standard.