Everybody knows William Shakespeare (1564–1616) the playwright, but how about Shakespeare the lyricist?
Actually, the Bard of Avon penned song lyrics for a number of his works, though the original music (which may have been supplied by the actors) has been lost. Nevertheless, many composers have set his words to music, either to be performed in the plays or in concert halls as stand-alone pieces. There are also musical settings of Shakespeare’s sonnets.
To commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, Grammy winners Ian Bostridge and Sir Antonio Pappano have collaborated on an exceptional new album, “Shakespeare Songs” (on Warner Classics).
Bostridge is a leading lyric tenor, who has distinguished himself both in operas and as a recitalist. He is especially well equipped to perform this material since he is a singer with crystal clear enunciation as well as a scholar. He was a fellow in history at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and in 2001 was elected an honorary fellow of that college.
Recently, Bostridge was awarded the Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize for nonfiction writing for his book on the “Winterreise” song cycle, “Schubert’s Winter Journey: Anatomy of an Obsession.”
Pappano is primarily known as a conductor but shows here that he is also a sensitive piano accompanist.
On six tracks, Bostridge is joined by the lutenist Elizabeth Kenny for works of Shakespeare’s contemporaries: William Byrd, Thomas Morley, John Wilson, and Robert Johnson.
For Igor Stravinsky’s modernist “Three Songs from Shakespeare,” the instrumentalists are flautist Adam Walker, violist Lawrence Power, and clarinetist Michael Collins.
Franz Schubert’s famous setting “An Silvia” (“Who is Sylvia?”) was written to a German translation of the text from “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” but is sung on the album in English.
Joseph Haydn’s “She never told her love” was set to Shakespeare’s original words, which were not songs in “Twelfth Night” but taken from dialogue in the play.
The album begins, not chronologically, but with five songs by Gerald Finzi (1901–1956), a cycle he titled, “Let Us Garlands Bring.” The beautiful first piece, “Come away, come away, death” makes the Grim Reaper sound awfully seductive.
On YouTube, you can see a video of the piece, introduced by Joseph Fiennes, in which Bostridge and Pappano perform the song in the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon, where Shakespeare was baptized and is buried.
Other 20th-century composers include Peter Warlock, Ivor Gurney, Michael Tippett, Benjamin Britten, Francis Poulenc, and Erich Korngold. Britten and Poulenc supply different approaches to the same text from “The Merchant of Venice.” This was the French composer’s only song in English.
Bostridge (born in 1964) sounds as youthful as ever as he effortlessly moves through the four centuries of musical settings. The album is a fitting tribute to the Bard.
Bostridge will perform Schubert’s “Winterreise” with composer Thomas Adès on piano at Carnegie Hall on Sunday, Oct. 23 at 2 p.m. When they performed the work at the Barbican in London last year, the Telegraph’s critic, Ivan Hewett, wrote that it was “without doubt the most extraordinary, riveting, uncanny performance of Schubert’s great song-cycle ... I have ever witnessed.” For tickets, go to CarnegieHall.org
Barry Bassis has been a music, theater, and travel writer for over a decade.
