Ian Venables – Love Lives Beyond the Tomb (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Ian Venables studied composition with Richard Arnell at Trinity College of Music, London and later with John Joubert, Andrew Downes and John Mayer at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. His works encompass many genres and he has added significantly to the canon of English art song. Described as ‘Britain’s greatest living composer of art song’ (Musical Opinion) and ‘a song composer as fine as Finzi and Gurney’ (BBC Music Magazine), Ian Venables has written over 80 works in this genre, including nine song-cycles.

As the title suggests, the works on this disc are predominantly reflective in mood although this does not preclude the use of faster-moving music whenever the poetry requires it. Its subject matter celebrates the timelessness of love through the poetry of James Joyce, John Drinkwater, Edward Thomas, John Clare, Robert Nichols and the modern poet Jennifer Andrews; the celebration and commemoration of Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, in Sir Andrew Motion’s remarkable narrative poem Remember This and the collective remembrance of those who died in the First World War: the poetry of Wilfred Owen, Isaac Rosenberg, Siegfried Sassoon, Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy and the less well-known Francis St. Vincent Morris providing the impetus for one of Ian Venables’ most dramatic and profoundly moving cycles.

Tracklist:
1. Mary Bevan – Six Songs for Tenor, Soprano or Baritone and Piano, Op. 33: I. The Way Through (03:13)
2. Mary Bevan – Songs for Soprano and Piano, Op. 37: III. Aurelia (03:19)
3. Mary Bevan – Songs for Baritone or Mezzo Soprano and Piano, Op. 41: VI. Chamber Music No. 3 (04:49)
4. Mary Bevan – Songs for Soprano and Piano, Op. 37: I. Love Lives Beyond the Tomb (04:20)
5. Mary Bevan – Six Songs for Tenor, Soprano or Baritone and Piano, Op. 33: II. It Rains (05:43)
6. Mary Bevan – I Caught the Changes of the Year, Op. 45 (03:53)
7. Mary Bevan – Remember This, Op. 40: I. Think of the Failing Body (03:35)
8. Mary Bevan – Remember This, Op. 40: In the Swirl of Its Pool (02:39)
9. Carducci String Quartet – Remember This, Op. 40: III. Think of the Flower-Lit Coffin (04:34)
10. Carducci String Quartet – Remember This, Op. 40: IV. In the Grip of Their Season (03:32)
11. Mary Bevan – Remember This, Op. 40: V. Think of the Standard and Its Blaze (04:27)
12. Carducci String Quartet – Remember This, Op. 40: VI. On the Crest of Their Downs (02:42)
13. Mary Bevan – Remember This, Op. 40: VII. Think of the Buried Body Laid (04:58)
14. Mary Bevan – Remember This, Op. 40: VIII. In the Eyes of Our Minds (04:20)
15. Allan Clayton – Through These Pale Cold Days, Op. 46: I. The Send-Off (05:32)
16. Allan Clayton – Through These Pale Cold Days, Op. 46: II. Procrastination (04:26)
17. Allan Clayton – Through These Pale Cold Days, Op. 46: III. Through These Pale Cold Days (05:22)
18. Allan Clayton – Through These Pale Cold Days, Op. 46: IV. Suicide in the Trenches (02:38)
19. Allan Clayton – Through These Pale Cold Days, Op. 46: V. If You Forget (04:28)