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One may expect choral music from an album with the King's College Cambridge logo on it, but not so: the label has begun issuing work by the alumni of the College choir. This is all to the good, for it emphasizes how classical music comes from the cultures of specific places rather than embodying some kind of abstract ideal. Two of these alumni are bass-baritone Christopher Purves and accompanist Simon Lepper, and here they have crafted a compelling and distinctive choral recital. They bill the program as a set of "Songs of War and Refuge," and it works quite well as such; some of the songs circle nicely around the idea of people for whom death is a more everyday presence than it is for the rest of us. The 16-year-old Schubert's Totengräberlied is marvelously done here, as is Hans Pfitzner's Hussens Kerker ("Hus's Dungeon," about the imprisonment of Protestant reformer Jan Hus). The album takes its name from the Conrad Ferdinand Meyer text of this song, but even more interesting than the general theme is the diversity of the program. Songs by Strauss and the Pfitzner song set the listener up to expect a dour hour of post-Romantic gloom, but then Purves takes a left turn into totally different kinds of material. The program includes three songs from the wonderful and quite rarely heard Hollywood Songbook of Hanns Eisler (in French and German despite the title), which mix texts by poets as diverse as Hölderlin and Bertolt Brecht. Hear An den kleinen Radioapparat ("To the Little Radio") with a text by the latter, in which he muses that he should give up listening to the radio before bed and upon awakening because of all the bad news. It has an element of humor, but it encapsulates the thread of unease that ties the whole album together. A superb recital with completely fresh ideas, although the inappropriate church sound is a bit of a disincentive.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Richard Strauss, Composer - Christopher Purves, MainArtist, VocalSolo - Simon Lepper, Piano, MainArtist
2023 King's College, Cambridge 2023 King's College, Cambridge
Richard Strauss, Composer - Christopher Purves, MainArtist, VocalSolo - Simon Lepper, Piano, MainArtist
2023 King's College, Cambridge 2023 King's College, Cambridge
Richard Strauss, Composer - Christopher Purves, MainArtist, VocalSolo - Simon Lepper, Piano, MainArtist
2023 King's College, Cambridge 2023 King's College, Cambridge
Christopher Purves, MainArtist, VocalSolo - Hans Pfitzner, Composer - Simon Lepper, Piano, MainArtist
2023 King's College, Cambridge 2023 King's College, Cambridge
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer - Christopher Purves, MainArtist, VocalSolo - Lucy Shaw, MainArtist, DoubleBass - Simon Lepper, Piano, MainArtist - Bertie Baigent, Arranger - Milos Milivojevic, Accordion, MainArtist - Sarah Field, Saxophone, MainArtist - Lily Vernon-Purves, Flute, MainArtist - Rafael Onyett, Guitar, MainArtist
2023 King's College, Cambridge 2023 King's College, Cambridge
Franz Schubert, Composer - Christopher Purves, MainArtist, VocalSolo - Simon Lepper, Piano, MainArtist
2023 King's College, Cambridge 2023 King's College, Cambridge
Franz Schubert, Composer - Christopher Purves, MainArtist, VocalSolo - Simon Lepper, Piano, MainArtist
2023 King's College, Cambridge 2023 King's College, Cambridge
Franz Schubert, Composer - Christopher Purves, MainArtist, VocalSolo - Simon Lepper, Piano, MainArtist
2023 King's College, Cambridge 2023 King's College, Cambridge
Robert Schumann, Composer - Christopher Purves, MainArtist, VocalSolo - Simon Lepper, Piano, MainArtist
2023 King's College, Cambridge 2023 King's College, Cambridge
Robert Schumann, Composer - Christopher Purves, MainArtist, VocalSolo - Simon Lepper, Piano, MainArtist
2023 King's College, Cambridge 2023 King's College, Cambridge
Hanns Eisler, Composer - Christopher Purves, MainArtist, VocalSolo - Lucy Shaw, MainArtist, DoubleBass - Simon Lepper, Piano, MainArtist - Bertie Baigent, Arranger - Milos Milivojevic, Accordion, MainArtist - Sarah Field, Saxophone, MainArtist - Lily Vernon-Purves, Flute, MainArtist - Rafael Onyett, Guitar, MainArtist
2023 King's College, Cambridge 2023 King's College, Cambridge
Hanns Eisler, Composer - Christopher Purves, MainArtist, VocalSolo - Lucy Shaw, MainArtist, DoubleBass - Simon Lepper, Piano, MainArtist - Bertie Baigent, Arranger - Milos Milivojevic, Accordion, MainArtist - Sarah Field, Saxophone, MainArtist - Lily Vernon-Purves, Flute, MainArtist - Rafael Onyett, Guitar, MainArtist
2023 King's College, Cambridge 2023 King's College, Cambridge
Hanns Eisler, Composer - Christopher Purves, MainArtist, VocalSolo - Lucy Shaw, MainArtist, DoubleBass - Simon Lepper, Piano, MainArtist - Bertie Baigent, Arranger - Milos Milivojevic, Accordion, MainArtist - Sarah Field, Saxophone, MainArtist - Lily Vernon-Purves, Flute, MainArtist - Rafael Onyett, Guitar, MainArtist
2023 King's College, Cambridge 2023 King's College, Cambridge
Gustav Mahler, Composer - Christopher Purves, MainArtist, VocalSolo - Simon Lepper, Piano, MainArtist
2023 King's College, Cambridge 2023 King's College, Cambridge
Kurt Weill, Composer - Christopher Purves, MainArtist, VocalSolo - Lucy Shaw, MainArtist, DoubleBass - Simon Lepper, Piano, MainArtist - Gerard McBurney, Arranger - Milos Milivojevic, Accordion, MainArtist - Sarah Field, Saxophone, MainArtist
2023 King's College, Cambridge 2023 King's College, Cambridge
Album review
One may expect choral music from an album with the King's College Cambridge logo on it, but not so: the label has begun issuing work by the alumni of the College choir. This is all to the good, for it emphasizes how classical music comes from the cultures of specific places rather than embodying some kind of abstract ideal. Two of these alumni are bass-baritone Christopher Purves and accompanist Simon Lepper, and here they have crafted a compelling and distinctive choral recital. They bill the program as a set of "Songs of War and Refuge," and it works quite well as such; some of the songs circle nicely around the idea of people for whom death is a more everyday presence than it is for the rest of us. The 16-year-old Schubert's Totengräberlied is marvelously done here, as is Hans Pfitzner's Hussens Kerker ("Hus's Dungeon," about the imprisonment of Protestant reformer Jan Hus). The album takes its name from the Conrad Ferdinand Meyer text of this song, but even more interesting than the general theme is the diversity of the program. Songs by Strauss and the Pfitzner song set the listener up to expect a dour hour of post-Romantic gloom, but then Purves takes a left turn into totally different kinds of material. The program includes three songs from the wonderful and quite rarely heard Hollywood Songbook of Hanns Eisler (in French and German despite the title), which mix texts by poets as diverse as Hölderlin and Bertolt Brecht. Hear An den kleinen Radioapparat ("To the Little Radio") with a text by the latter, in which he muses that he should give up listening to the radio before bed and upon awakening because of all the bad news. It has an element of humor, but it encapsulates the thread of unease that ties the whole album together. A superb recital with completely fresh ideas, although the inappropriate church sound is a bit of a disincentive.
© James Manheim /TiVo
About the album
- 1 disc(s) - 15 track(s)
- Total length: 00:55:48
- 1 Digital booklet
- Main artists: Christopher Purves Simon Lepper
- Composer: Various Composers
- Label: Kings College Cambridge
- Genre: Classical Art Songs, Mélodies & Lieder
2023 King's College, Cambridge 2023 King's College, Cambridge
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