Bridge: Complete Songs - ROGER VIGNOLES (2 CDs)

This important release brings together all forty-five of the songs composed by Frank Bridge. The programme is presented generally along chronological lines, and although the songs were written over two decades there is a remarkable consistency of style. A good number of the texts will be familiar from the songs of, say, Quilter or Finzi, but many more show Bridge’s enthusiasm for unearthing rather less well-known literary subject matter.

CD1
1
Sonnet 'When most I wink'[2'42]
Janice Watson (soprano)
2
If I could choose[2'03]
Gerald Finley (baritone)
3
The primrose  Ask me why I send you here[1'55]
Jamie MacDougall (tenor)
4
A dirge  Rough wind, that moanest loud[1'06]
Louise Winter (mezzo-soprano)
5
The Devon maid  Where be you going, you Devon maid?[1'28]
Jamie MacDougall (tenor)
6
Dawn and evening  Dawn awaking hears my calling[2'03]
Gerald Finley (baritone)
7
Where'er my bitter teardrops fall[1'39]
Jamie MacDougall (tenor)
8
E'en as a lovely flower[3'15]
Jamie MacDougall (tenor)
9
Blow, blow, thou winter wind[1'51]
Gerald Finley (baritone)
10
Go not, happy day[1'12]
Jamie MacDougall (tenor)
11
Night lies on the silent highways[2'41]
Gerald Finley (baritone)
12
A dead violet  The odour from the flower is gone[3'01]
Gerald Finley (baritone)
13
Cradle song  What does little birdie say?[1'53]
Janice Watson (soprano)
14
Lean close thy cheek[2'09]
Jamie MacDougall (tenor)
15
Fair daffodils[2'31]
Janice Watson (soprano)
16
Adoration  Asleep! O sleep a little while, white pearl![2'46]
Louise Winter (mezzo-soprano)
17
So perverse  All women born are so perverse[1'32]
Gerald Finley (baritone)
18
Tears, idle tears[5'29]
Gerald Finley (baritone)
19
The violets blue[1'50]
Jamie MacDougall (tenor)
20
Come to me in my dreams[3'35]
Janice Watson (soprano)
21
My pent-up tears oppress my brain[2'34]
Gerald Finley (baritone)
22
Music, when soft voices die[2'22]
Louise Winter (mezzo-soprano), Roger Chase (viola)
23
Far, far from each other[3'24]
Louise Winter (mezzo-soprano), Roger Chase (viola)
24
Where is it that our soul doth go?  One thing I'd know[3'42]
Louise Winter (mezzo-soprano), Roger Chase (viola)
CD2
25
All things that we clasp and cherish[1'38]
Janice Watson (soprano)
26
Love is a rose[1'58]
Janice Watson (soprano)
27
Dear, when I look into thine eyes[2'17]
Gerald Finley (baritone)
28
Isobel  What is the sorrow of the wind, Isobel?[2'11]
Gerald Finley (baritone)
29
O that it were so!  It sometimes comes into my head[2'21]
Louise Winter (mezzo-soprano)
30
Strew no more red roses[2'53]
Jamie MacDougall (tenor)
31
Where she lies asleep  She sleeps so lightly, that in trembling fear[3'11]
Louise Winter (mezzo-soprano)
32
Love went a-riding[1'50]
Janice Watson (soprano)
33
Thy hand in mine[2'24]
Louise Winter (mezzo-soprano)
34
So early in the morning, O: –  I cling and swing[2'27]
Janice Watson (soprano)
35
Mantle of blue  O, men from the fields![1'52]
Louise Winter (mezzo-soprano)
36
The last invocation  At the last, tenderly[2'52]
Louise Winter (mezzo-soprano)
37
When you are old and gray[3'29]
Gerald Finley (baritone)
38
Into her keeping  Now that my love lies sleeping[2'06]
Jamie MacDougall (tenor)
39
What shall I your true love tell?[3'32]
Louise Winter (mezzo-soprano)
40
'Tis but a week[1'58]
Gerald Finley (baritone)
41
Day after day[3'58]
Janice Watson (soprano)
42
Speak to me, my love![5'00]
Janice Watson (soprano)
43
Dweller in my deathless dreams  You are the evening cloud floating in the sky of my dreams[4'45]
Jamie MacDougall (tenor)
44
Goldenhair  Lean out of the window[1'40]
Janice Watson (soprano)
45
Journey's end  What will they give me, when journey's done?[3'54]
Jamie MacDougall (tenor)