Featuring the first recording of BRITTEN's Les Illuminations, Op. 18 sung in English, from a brand new translation by Timothy Ades. Also includes the original French version. Coupled with Samuel BARBER's dramatic masterpiece Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Op. 24, written just a few years after Les Illuminations.Among the most personal and powerful music ever written for the human voice, Britten and Barber's masterpiece settings of texts by Rimbaud and Agee continue to resonate intensely. Taken together, they form bookends to the cataclysms of the 20th century, with it's two life-shattering world wars. The colours, verbal and harmonic, of such human drama are a dazzling mix, running the gamut of life in dramatic flux. Mild mannered it is not, though parts are hauntingly beautiful.

Tracklist:

1. Illuminations, Op. 18~I. Fanfare
2. Illuminations, Op. 18~II. Villes
3. Illuminations, Op. 18~IIIa. Phrase
4. Illuminations, Op. 18~IIIb. Antique
5. Illuminations, Op. 18~IV. Royaut
6. Illuminations, Op. 18~V. Marine
7. Illuminations, Op. 18~VI. Interlude
8. Illuminations, Op. 18~VII. Being Beauteous
9. Illuminations, Op. 18~VIII. Parade
10. Illuminations, Op. 18~IX. Dpart
11. Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Op. 24
12. Illuminations, Op. 18~I. Fanfare
13. Illuminations, Op. 18~~II. Towns
14. Illuminations, Op. 18~IIIa. Phrase
15. Illuminations, Op. 18~IIIb. Antique
16. Illuminations, Op. 18~IV. Royalty
17. Illuminations, Op. 18~V. Seascape
18. Illuminations, Op. 18~VI. Interlude
19. Illuminations, Op. 18~VII. Beautiful Being
20. Illuminations, Op. 18~VIII. Parade
21. Illuminations, Op. 18~IX. Departing

UPC: 5060216343150
Label: First Hand
Release Date: 1.30.26
Format: CD