Ruby Hughes & Joseph Middleton – Songs for New Life and Love (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Ruby Hughes & Joseph Middleton – Songs for New Life and Love (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:13:52 minutes | 1,12 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS

After appearing on a quartet of very different BIS releases, ranging from early baroque arias to orchestral songs by Alban Berg and Mahler’s “Resurrection Symphony”, the British soprano Ruby Hughes has devised a song recital, together with her regular Lieder partner Joseph Middleton. The process began in 2018 when the two gave the world premi`ere of Helen Grime’s Bright Travellers, a set of five poems charting the interior and exterior worlds of pregnancy and motherhood. Ruby Hughes soon set about planning a programme which would converge with Grime’s music and the themes of new life and of love in all its aspects.

The recital is bookended by two song cycles by Gustav Mahler which explore love, grief, loss and reconciliation through quite different lenses. In the opening cycle we experience Mahler as solitary wayfarer and hear of unrequited love. In Kindertotenlieder, the second cycle, the poet Friedrich R”uckert pours out his pain as a grieving father in songs about the beauty and innocence of children. Completing the programme is Charles Ives – described by Ruby Hughes as Mahler’s “musical kindred spirit” – with a selection of love songs, prayers and lullabies.

Tracklist:
01. Ruby Hughes & Joseph Middleton – Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Version for Voice & Piano): No. 1, Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht (04:36)
02. Ruby Hughes & Joseph Middleton – Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Version for Voice & Piano): No. 2, Ging heut’ morgen über’s Feld (04:57)
03. Ruby Hughes & Joseph Middleton – Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Version for Voice & Piano): No. 3, Ich hab’ ein glühend Messer (03:21)
04. Ruby Hughes & Joseph Middleton – Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Version for Voice & Piano): No. 4, Die zwei blauen Augen (05:42)
05. Ruby Hughes & Joseph Middleton – Ives: 114 Songs (Excerpts): No. 15, The Housatonic at Stockbridge (03:56)
06. Ruby Hughes & Joseph Middleton – Ives: 114 Songs (Excerpts): No. 57, Mists (01:45)
07. Ruby Hughes & Joseph Middleton – Grime: Bright Travellers: No. 1, Soundings (02:33)
08. Ruby Hughes & Joseph Middleton – Grime: Bright Travellers: No. 2, Brew (02:22)
09. Ruby Hughes & Joseph Middleton – Grime: Bright Travellers: No. 3, Visitations (03:05)
10. Ruby Hughes & Joseph Middleton – Grime: Bright Travellers: No. 4, Milk Fever (02:14)
11. Ruby Hughes & Joseph Middleton – Grime: Bright Travellers: No. 5, Council Offices (04:19)
12. Ruby Hughes & Joseph Middleton – Ives: 114 Songs (Excerpts): No. 42, Serenity (02:16)
13. Ruby Hughes & Joseph Middleton – Ives: 114 Songs (Excerpts): No. 74, The Children’s Hour (02:19)
14. Ruby Hughes & Joseph Middleton – Ives: 114 Songs (Excerpts): No. 108, Songs My Mother Taught Me (02:55)
15. Ruby Hughes & Joseph Middleton – Mahler: Kindertotenlieder (Arr. for Voice & Piano): No. 1, Nun will die Sonn’ so hell aufgehn (05:16)
16. Ruby Hughes & Joseph Middleton – Mahler: Kindertotenlieder (Arr. for Voice & Piano): No. 2, Nun seh’ ich wohl, warum so dunkle Flammen (04:26)
17. Ruby Hughes & Joseph Middleton – Mahler: Kindertotenlieder (Arr. for Voice & Piano): No. 3, Wenn dein Mütterlein (04:24)
18. Ruby Hughes & Joseph Middleton – Mahler: Kindertotenlieder (Arr. for Voice & Piano): No. 4, Oft denk’ ich, sie sind nur ausgegangen (02:57)
19. Ruby Hughes & Joseph Middleton – Mahler: Kindertotenlieder (Arr. for Voice & Piano): No. 5, In diesem Wetter (06:04)
20. Ruby Hughes & Joseph Middleton – Traditional: Suo Gân (Arr. H. Watkins for Voice & Piano) (04:16)

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