Roderick Williams

Romanzen aus Die Schöne Magelone

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Champs Hill
UPC: 5060212591111
Catnr: CHRCD 108
Release date: 06 October 2017
Buy
2 CD
✓ in stock
€ 19.95
Buy
 
Label
Champs Hill
UPC
5060212591111
Catalogue number
CHRCD 108
Release date
06 October 2017
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN

About the album

Either I am a sucker for late-Romantic song or perhaps for histrionic fairytales of derring-do and blushing maidens, but I for one was enthralled by Brahms’s ‘Die schöne Magelone’ on first hearing. It was presented in such a way as to grip the audience from the outset: a narrator set the scene and linked the songs, all of this in an exciting, modern English précis, while the songs themselves were performed in German by a range of young singers and pianists, each one encapsulating the heightened emotion of each piece. I left the recital with the sort of heart-pounding best described by the likes of Berlioz.

When the opportunity came for me to learn these songs, I relished the chance, finding along the way that Brahms’s glorious, sweeping vocal lines really suited my voice. I revelled in the ardour of emotion in Tieck’s lyrics, channelling my inner Romantic adolescent. Pianist Roger Vignoles enlisted the wonderful Julia Somerville to narrate between the songs using Roger’s own reduction of Tieck’s story and the three of us, like troubadours of old, presented this epic fairytale in concerts around the country.

It is easy for us sophisticates in the twenty-first century to treat such material with a certain hauteur, or even ridicule. But what I noticed in concert, especially as Julia’s narration unfolded, giving me a chance slyly to observe the audience, is that people were very quickly spellbound by the tale. All of us, I observed, love to be told a story.

I am hugely grateful to Champs Hill for allowing me the privilege of recording these songs and the Vier Ernste Gesänge. When the sessions were all but finished, I begged for the indulgence of those present and asked to record Roger’s English narration, pretty much on a whim. I hoped it might help persuade some audiences, perhaps unfamiliar with these songs and especially out of their context, that this really is a most terrific and enchanting work. I hoped it might connect with the wide-eyed child in us all, anyone who cannot resist “Once upon a time...”.

Artist(s)

Roderick Williams (baritone)

Roderick Williams is one of this country’s most sought after baritones and is constantly in demand on the concert platform and in recital, encompassing a repertoire from the baroque to world premieres.   In 2016 he won the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Singer of the year award. Opera engagements have included for Royal Opera House Covent Garden Schaunard/La bohème and  Ned Keene/Peter Grimes; for English National Opera Papageno/Die Zauberflöte,  Pollux in Rameau’s Castor and Pollux, and Jaufre Rudel in Saariaho’s L’amour de loin ,as well as  world premieres of  From Morning to Midnight  by David Sawer and A Better Place  by Martin Butler.  For Opera North his roles have included the title role of Don Giovanni, The Count/Le nozze di Figaro, Guglielmo/Cosi fan...
more

Roderick Williams is one of this country’s most sought after baritones and is constantly in demand on the concert platform and in recital, encompassing a repertoire from the baroque to world premieres. In 2016 he won the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Singer of the year award.

Opera engagements have included for Royal Opera House Covent Garden Schaunard/La bohème and Ned Keene/Peter Grimes; for English National Opera Papageno/Die Zauberflöte, Pollux in Rameau’s Castor and Pollux, and Jaufre Rudel in Saariaho’s L’amour de loin ,as well as world premieres of From Morning to Midnight by David Sawer and A Better Place by Martin Butler. For Opera North his roles have included the title role of Don Giovanni, The Count/Le nozze di Figaro, Guglielmo/Cosi fan tutte, Figaro/Il barbiere di Siviglia, Ned Keene and Goryanchikov/From the House of the Dead. For Scottish Opera roles have included Marcello/La bohème, Lord Byron in the world premiere of Sally Beamish’s Monster and Count/ Figaro. Other notable world premieres have included Alexander Knaifel’s Alice in Wonderland and Michel van der Aa’s After Life for Netherlands Opera, as well as the title role in Robert Saxton’s The Wandering Jew with the BBC Symphony , which has been released on NMC to considerable critical acclaim. He made his North American opera debut singing Figaro/Il barbiere di Siviglia for Florida Grand Opera.

Among Roderick Williams’ many performances of opera in concert are recent appearances with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Tippett’s The Knot Garden (Barbican) and Birtwistle’s The Second Mrs Kong (Royal Festival Hall) and with the London Symphony Orchestra and Daniel Harding Billy Budd. He has also sung the role of Eddie in Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Greek for the BBC. He has taken major roles in conductor Richard Hickox’s semi-staged performances of opera, including Britten’s Gloriana (Aldeburgh, 2003), Walton’s Troilus and Cressida and most of the Vaughan Williams operas. Other concert performances include Henze, Strauss, Stravinsky and Wagner (Donner in Das Rheingold for ENO).

Roderick Williams has sung concert repertoire with all the BBC orchestras, and many other ensembles including the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Russian National Orchestra, Academy of Ancient Music, The Sixteen, Le Concert Spirituel, and Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. Recent successes include Britten’s War Requiem and Pilgrim in Vaughan Williams’s The Pilgrim’s Progress (semi-staged) with the Philharmonia, Jesus in The Last Supper by Birtwistle with the London Sinfonietta in Milan and Turin, Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius in Toulouse, a European tour of Handel’s Messiah with RIAS Kammerchor, Tippett’s The Vision of St Augustine with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales at the 2005 BBC Proms, Henze’s Elegy for Young Lovers with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the world premiere of Birtwistle’s The Ring Dance of the Nazarene with VARA Radio (repeated at the BBC Proms), performances of Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen at La Scala, concerts with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in San Francisco, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and a concert with Bach Collegium Japan at the Edinburgh Festival.

Recent and future operatic engagements include Oronte in Charpentier’s Medée, Toby Kramer in Van der Aa’s Sunken Garden and Sharpless / Madam Butterfly for English National Opera, the title role in Eugene Onegin for Garsington Opera, the title role in Billy Budd for Opera North, Van der Aa’s After Life at Melbourne State Theatre and at Opera de Lyon, and Van de Aa’s Upload for Netherlands Opera, the Bregenz Festival, Cologne Opera and at the Park Avenue Armory in New York, Captain Balstrode / Peter Grimes in a concert performance with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Papageno and Ulisse / Il ritorno di Ulisse in Patria for the Royal Opera House, Toby Kramer for Dallas Opera, a concert performance of Ned Keene/Peter Grimes with Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Van de Aa’s Upload for Netherlands Opera, Oper Koln and the Bregenz Festival, and Christus / St John Passion in staged performances with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment both under Sir Simon Rattle.

Recent and future concert engagements include performances with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Manchester Camerata, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Hallé, Britten Sinfonia, City of London Sinfonia, King’s College Cambridge, Goldsmiths Choral Union, Ex Cathedra, The Sixteen, The King’s Consort, New London Consort, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Le Concert Spirituel, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Berlin Philharmonic, Rias Kammerchor, Orquesta Sinfonica de Euskadi, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Iceland Symphony, Danish National Radio Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Utah Symphony, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Music of the Baroque Chicago, Bach Collegium Japan, Cappella Amsterdam, New York Philharmonic, Britten War Requiem with the Maggio Musicale and Semyon Bychkov in Florence, the UK premiere of Sally Beamish’s Judas Passion with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment as well as with Philharmonia Baroque. In 2014 Roderick was the featured soloist at the BBC Last Night of the Proms and returned in 2021 for a performance of the St Matthew Passion.

He is an accomplished and highly sought after recital artist who can be heard regularly at venues and festivals including Kings Place, LSO St Luke’s, the Perth Concert Hall, the Concertgebouw, Oxford Lieder Festival, London Song Festival, Howard Assembly Room, the Musikverein, Vienna and on Radio 3, where he has participated on Iain Burnside’s Voices programme. Recent recitals include various performances at the Wigmore Hall including the three Schubert cycles, recitals for the BBC, the Concertgebouw and appearances at the Ludlow Song Festival, Oxford Lieder Festival, Three Choirs Festival, Edinburgh International Festival and at the Bath International Music Festival.

His numerous recordings include Vaughan Williams, Berkeley and Britten operas for Chandos, and an extensive repertoire of English song with pianist Iain Burnside for Naxos. He is currently in the process of recording the three Schubert Cycles for Chandos as well as recordings of Stanford and Somervell for Somm.

He is also a composer and has had works premiered at the Wigmore and Barbican Halls, the Purcell Room and live on national radio. Recent commissions include a major work, World without End, for the Rias Kammerchor and BBC Singers as well as a commission to celebrate the centenary of the RAF. He was Artistic Director of Leeds Lieder in April 2016 and he is currently Artist in Residence with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and ‘singer-in-residence’ for Music in the Round in Sheffield, presenting concerts and leading on dynamic and innovative learning and participation projects that introduce amateur singers, young and old, to performing classical song repertoire. He was awarded an OBE for services to music in June 2017.


less

Composer(s)

Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria. His reputation and status as a composer is such that he is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the 'Three Bs' of music, a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow.   Brahms composed for symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles, piano, organ, and voice and chorus. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works. He worked with some of the leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim (the three were close friends). Many of his works have become...
more
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria. His reputation and status as a composer is such that he is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs" of music, a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow.
Brahms composed for symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles, piano, organ, and voice and chorus. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works. He worked with some of the leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim (the three were close friends). Many of his works have become staples of the modern concert repertoire. Brahms, an uncompromising perfectionist, destroyed some of his works and left others unpublished.
Brahms has been considered, by his contemporaries and by later writers, as both a traditionalist and an innovator. His music is firmly rooted in the structures and compositional techniques of the Classical masters. While many contemporaries found his music too academic, his contribution and craftsmanship have been admired by subsequent figures as diverse as Arnold Schoenberg and Edward Elgar. The diligent, highly constructed nature of Brahms's works was a starting point and an inspiration for a generation of composers. Within his meticulous structures is embedded, however, a highly romantic nature.

less

Press

Play album
Disc #1
01.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: This is the story of...
01:26
02.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: i Keinen hat es noch gereut
03:42
03.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: Peter listened quietly...
01:50
04.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: ii Traun! Bogen und Pfeil sind gut fu?r den Feind
01:43
05.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: After travelling for many days...
01:29
06.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: iii Sind es Schmerzen, sind es Freuden
05:35
07.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: Peter vowed...
01:47
08.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: iv Liebe kam aus fernen Landen
04:46
09.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: Magelone was deeply moved...
01:01
10.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: v So willst du des Armen dich gna?dig erbarmen?
01:39
11.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: The following morning...
01:13
12.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: vi Wie soll ich die Freude, die Wonne denn tragen?
06:33
13.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: At last it was the hour...
01:38
14.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: vii War es dir, dem diese Lippen bebten
03:21
15.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: Now it so happened...
01:39
16.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: viii Wir mu?ssen uns trennen, geliebtes Saitenspiel
04:27
17.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: As soon as night fell...
01:02
18.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: ix Ruhe, Sussliebchen
05:39
19.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: Gazing up into the treetops...
02:03
20.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: x Verzweiflung, “So tonet denn”
02:37
21.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: Meanwhile back in the forest...
01:56
22.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: xi Wie schnell verschwindet so Licht als Glanz
03:44
23.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: Far out at sea...
00:47
24.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: xii Muss es eine Trennung geben
03:13
25.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: Now the sultan had a daughter...
01:56
26.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: xiii Sulima, “Geliebter, wo zaudert”
02:08
27.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: As Peter heard this song...
00:47
28.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: xiv Wie froh und Frisch
02:35
29.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: When day dawned...
03:31
30.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: xv Treue Liebe dauert lange
04:50

Disc #2
01.
Vier Ernste Gesange Op. 121: i Denn es gehet dem Menschen
04:15
02.
Vier Ernste Gesange Op. 121: ii Ich wandte mich, und sahe an Alle
03:51
03.
Vier Ernste Gesange Op. 121: iii O Tod, o Tod, wie bitter bist du
03:25
04.
Vier Ernste Gesange Op. 121: iv Wenn ich mit Menschen - und mit Engelzungen redete
04:54
05.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: i Keinen hat es noch gereut
03:42
06.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: ii Traun! Bogen und Pfeil sind gut fu?r den Feind
01:43
07.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: iii Sind es Schmerzen, sind es Freuden
05:35
08.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: iv Liebe kam aus fernen Landen
04:46
09.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: v So willst du des Armen dich gna?dig erbarmen?
01:39
10.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: vi Wie soll ich die Freude, die Wonne denn tragen?
06:33
11.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: vii War es dir, dem diese Lippen bebten
03:21
12.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: viii Wir mu?ssen uns trennen, geliebtes Saitenspiel
04:27
13.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: ix Ruhe, Su?ssliebchen
05:39
14.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: x Verzweiflung, “So tonet denn”
02:37
15.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: xi Wie schnell verschwindet so Licht als Glanz
03:44
16.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: xii Muss es eine Trennung geben
03:13
17.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: xiii Sulima,?Geliebter, wo zaudert?
02:08
18.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: xiv Wie froh und Frisch
02:35
19.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: xv Treue Liebe dauert lange
04:50
show all tracks

You might also like..

Cecilia McDowell Da Vinci Requiem, Seventy Degrees Below Zero
Cecilia McDowell
Tom & Will – Weelkes & Byrd 400 Years
The King's Singers | Fretwork
Mirages: The Art of French Song
Roderick Williams
Stokowski: Philadelphia Rarities
Leopold Stokowski
A French Connection
Daniel Rowland | Natacha Kudritskaya
Kokoschka's Doll
Sir John Tomlinson
Innovators
Benyounes Quartet
Impromptus
Katya Apekisheva
Mythes
Jiyoon Lee
Nocturnal Variations
Ruby Hughes | Joseph Middleton
Retrospective: French Sonatas
Ittai Shapira | Jeremy Denk
Winter Journey
Roderick Williams