Britten and Dowland BBC Proms


Britten and Dowland

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# Shall I strive with words to move

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# When deeds receive not due regard?

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# Shall I speak, and neither please

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# Nor be freely heard? #

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Hello, today at Cadogan Hall, in Chelsea, two great British

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tenors performing music by two great British composers.

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350 years separate the births of John Dowland and Benjamin Britten.

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Later, James Gilchrist will sing Britten's Songs from the Chinese.

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# Don't help on the big chariot

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# You will only make yourself dusty... #

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But we start with John Dowland, a contemporary of Shakespeare

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and one of the greatest lutenists of all time.

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An inveterate traveller as well, who worked in Paris and at the

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Danish court, before he finally secured a job here in London.

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On stage, the tenor Ian Bostridge, the lutenist Elizabeth Kenny

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and the viol consort Fretwork.

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# Can she excuse my wrongs with virtue's cloak?

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# Shall I call her good when she proves unkind?

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# Are those clear fires which vanish into smoke?

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# Must I praise the leaves where no fruit I find?

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# No, no, where shadows do for bodies stand

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# Thou may'st be abused if thy sight be dim

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# Cold love is like to words written on sand

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# Or to bubbles which on the water swim

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# Wilt thou be thus abused still

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# Seeing that she will right thee never?

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# If thou canst not o'ercome her will

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# Thy love will be thus fruitless ever

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# Wilt thou be thus abused still

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# Seeing that she will right thee never?

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# If thou canst not o'ercome her will

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# Thy love will be thus fruitless ever

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# Was I so base that I might not aspire

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# Unto those high joys which she holds from me?

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# As they are high so high is my desire

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# If she this deny what can granted be?

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# If she will yield to that which reason is

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# It is reason's will that love should be just

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# Dear, make me happy still by granting this

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# Or cut off delays if that die I must

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# Better a thousand times to die

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# Than for to live thus still tormented

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# Dear, but remember it was I

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# Who for thy sake did die contented

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# Better a thousand times to die

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# Than for to live thus still tormented

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# Dear, but remember it was I

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# Who for thy sake did die contented. #

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APPLAUSE

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# Now, o, now, I needs must part

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# Parting though I absent mourn

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# Absence can no joy impart

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# Joy once fled cannot return

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# While I live I needs must love

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# Love lives not when hope is gone

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# Now at last despair doth prove

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# Love divided, loveth none

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# Sad despair doth drive me hence

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# This despair unkindness sends

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# If that parting be offence

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# It is she which then offends. #

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APPLAUSE

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"Now, o, now, I needs must part",

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words set in 1597, in John Dowland's first book of songs.

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Dowland's speciality was a mood of refined melancholy that was

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so popular in Jacobean times.

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# Shall I strive with words to move

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# When deeds receive not due regard?

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# Shall I speak and neither please

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# Nor be freely heard?

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# Grief, alas, though all in vain

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# Her restless anguish must reveal

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# She alone my wound shall know

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# Though she will not heal

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# All woes have end

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# Though a while delayed

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# Our patience proving

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# O, that time's strange effects

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# Could but make, but make her loving

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# Storms calm at last

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# And why may not she

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# Leave off her frowning?

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# O, sweet love

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# Help her hands

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# My affection crowning

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# I wooed her, I loved her

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# And none but her admire

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# O, come, dear joy

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# And answer my desire

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# I wooed her, I loved her

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# And none but her admire

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# O, come, dear joy

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# And answer my desire. #

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APPLAUSE

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"Shall I strive with words to move, when deeds receive not due regard."

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An anonymous poem set as a galliard by John Dowland.

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The lute rather went out of fashion after

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the end of the 17th century

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but one of those involved in its revival was Benjamin Britten,

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who used lute music in his coronation opera, Gloriana.

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# Happy

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# Happy were he

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# Could finish forth his fate

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# In some unhaunted deserts

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# In some unhaunted deserts

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# Where, obscure from all society

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# From love and hate of worldly folk

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# Then might he sleep

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# Sleep secure

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# Then wake again

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# And give God ever praise

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# Content with hips and haws and brambleberry

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# In contemplation

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# Spending all his days

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# And change of holy thoughts

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# To make him merry

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# Where, when he dies his tomb might be a bush

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# Where harmless robin

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# Dwells with gentle thrush

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# Happy

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# Happy

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# Were he!

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# Happy

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# Were he! #

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APPLAUSE

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The second Lute Song from Britten's opera Gloriana,

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performed by Ian Bostridge and lutenist Elizabeth Kenny.

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Julian Bream was another of those responsible for the great

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revival of interest in the lute in the 20th century

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but it was for Bream's guitar that Britten wrote the next work

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to be performed here at Cadogan Hall.

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"The Songs From The Chinese" are settings of six poems

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translated by Arthur Waley.

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They're performed by James Gilchrist and guitarist Christoph Denoth.

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# Don't help on the big chariot

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# You will only make yourself dusty

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# Don't think about the sorrows of the world

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# You will only make yourself wretched

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# Don't help on the big chariot

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# You won't be able to see for dust

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# Don't think about the sorrows of the world

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# Or you will never escape from your despair

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# Don't help on the big chariot

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# The big chariot

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# You'll be stifled with dust be stifled with dust

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# Don't think about the sorrows of the world

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# Think about the sorrows of the world

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# The sorrows of the world

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# You will only load yourself with care. #

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# Of cord and cassia-wood

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# Is the lute compounded

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# Within it lie

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# Ancient melodies

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# Ancient melodies weak and savourless

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# Not appealing to present men's taste

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# Light and colour are faded from the jade stops

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# Dust has covered the rose-red strings

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# Decay and ruin came to it long ago

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# But the sound that is left

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# Is still cold and clear

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# I do not refuse to play it

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# If you want me to

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# But even if I play

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# People will not listen

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# How did it come to be neglected so?

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# Because of the Ch'iang flute and the zithern of Ch'in. #

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# Autumn wind rises

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# White clouds fly

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# Grass and trees wither

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# Geese go south

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# Orchids all in bloom

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# Chrysanthemums smell sweet

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# I think of my lovely lady

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# I never can forget

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# Floating pagoda boat crosses Fen River

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# Across the midstream white waves rise

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# Flute and drum keep time, keep time

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# To sound of rower's song

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# Amidst revel and feasting

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# Sad thoughts come

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# Youth's years how few!

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# Age how sure!

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# Youth's years how few!

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# Age how sure, how sure

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# Age how sure!

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# Age how sure, how sure. #

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# In the southern village

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# The boy who minds the ox

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# With his naked feet stands on the ox's back

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# Through the hole in his coat the river wind blows

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# Through his broken hat the mountain rain pours

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# On the long dyke he seemed to be far away

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# In the narrow lane suddenly we were face to face

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# The boy is home and the ox is back in its stall

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# And a dark smoke

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# Oozes through the thatched roof. #

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# The unicorn's hoofs!

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# The unicorn's hoofs!

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# The duke's sons throng

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# The duke's sons throng

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# Alas for the unicorn!

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# Alas for the unicorn! Alas!

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# The unicorn's brow!

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# The unicorn's brow!

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# The duke's kinsmen throng

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# The duke's kinsmen throng

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# Alas for the Alas! Alas for the unicorn! Alas!

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# The unicorn's horn!

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# The unicorn's horn!

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# The unicorn's horn!

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# The duke's handsmen throng

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# The duke's handsmen throng

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# Alas for the Alas! Alas for the unicorn! Alas!

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# Alas! #

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APPLAUSE

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James Gilchrist and Christoph Denoth,

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performing six poems translated from the original

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Chinese by Arthur Waley and set by Benjamin Britten.

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First performed in 1957 by Julian Bream

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and Britten's lifelong partner, Peter Pears.

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Well, it's Britten who provides us with the last music in this concert.

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One of his folk songs settings, Master Kilby, collected in Somerset

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and performed by James and Christoph and joined by soprano Ruby Hughes.

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# In the heat of the day

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# When the sun shines so clearly

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# There I met Master Kilby

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# So fine and so gay

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# So, I pulled off my hat

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# And I bowed to the ground

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# And I said, "Master Kilby

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# "Pray, where are you bound?"

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# I am bound for the West

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# There in hope to find rest

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# And in Nancy's soft bosom

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# To build a new nest

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# And if I were the master

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# Of ten thousand pounds

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# All in gay gold and silver

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# Or King William's crowns

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# I would part with it all

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# With my own heart so freely

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# And it's all for the sake

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# Of my charming Nancy

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TOGETHER: # She's the fairest of girls

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# She's the choice of my own heart

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# She is painted like waxwork

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# In every part. #

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APPLAUSE

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