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# Shall I strive with words to move | 0:00:07 | 0:00:11 | |
# When deeds receive not due regard? | 0:00:11 | 0:00:14 | |
# Shall I speak, and neither please | 0:00:14 | 0:00:18 | |
# Nor be freely heard? # | 0:00:18 | 0:00:22 | |
Hello, today at Cadogan Hall, in Chelsea, two great British | 0:00:22 | 0:00:25 | |
tenors performing music by two great British composers. | 0:00:25 | 0:00:29 | |
350 years separate the births of John Dowland and Benjamin Britten. | 0:00:29 | 0:00:34 | |
Later, James Gilchrist will sing Britten's Songs from the Chinese. | 0:00:34 | 0:00:37 | |
# Don't help on the big chariot | 0:00:39 | 0:00:45 | |
# You will only make yourself dusty... # | 0:00:45 | 0:00:50 | |
But we start with John Dowland, a contemporary of Shakespeare | 0:00:52 | 0:00:55 | |
and one of the greatest lutenists of all time. | 0:00:55 | 0:00:58 | |
An inveterate traveller as well, who worked in Paris and at the | 0:00:58 | 0:01:01 | |
Danish court, before he finally secured a job here in London. | 0:01:01 | 0:01:05 | |
On stage, the tenor Ian Bostridge, the lutenist Elizabeth Kenny | 0:01:05 | 0:01:09 | |
and the viol consort Fretwork. | 0:01:09 | 0:01:11 | |
# Can she excuse my wrongs with virtue's cloak? | 0:02:31 | 0:02:37 | |
# Shall I call her good when she proves unkind? | 0:02:37 | 0:02:42 | |
# Are those clear fires which vanish into smoke? | 0:02:43 | 0:02:48 | |
# Must I praise the leaves where no fruit I find? | 0:02:49 | 0:02:54 | |
# No, no, where shadows do for bodies stand | 0:02:56 | 0:03:02 | |
# Thou may'st be abused if thy sight be dim | 0:03:02 | 0:03:08 | |
# Cold love is like to words written on sand | 0:03:08 | 0:03:14 | |
# Or to bubbles which on the water swim | 0:03:14 | 0:03:19 | |
# Wilt thou be thus abused still | 0:03:20 | 0:03:23 | |
# Seeing that she will right thee never? | 0:03:23 | 0:03:26 | |
# If thou canst not o'ercome her will | 0:03:26 | 0:03:29 | |
# Thy love will be thus fruitless ever | 0:03:29 | 0:03:32 | |
# Wilt thou be thus abused still | 0:03:32 | 0:03:35 | |
# Seeing that she will right thee never? | 0:03:35 | 0:03:38 | |
# If thou canst not o'ercome her will | 0:03:38 | 0:03:41 | |
# Thy love will be thus fruitless ever | 0:03:41 | 0:03:44 | |
# Was I so base that I might not aspire | 0:05:01 | 0:05:07 | |
# Unto those high joys which she holds from me? | 0:05:07 | 0:05:13 | |
# As they are high so high is my desire | 0:05:14 | 0:05:21 | |
# If she this deny what can granted be? | 0:05:21 | 0:05:26 | |
# If she will yield to that which reason is | 0:05:27 | 0:05:34 | |
# It is reason's will that love should be just | 0:05:34 | 0:05:39 | |
# Dear, make me happy still by granting this | 0:05:39 | 0:05:46 | |
# Or cut off delays if that die I must | 0:05:46 | 0:05:52 | |
# Better a thousand times to die | 0:05:52 | 0:05:55 | |
# Than for to live thus still tormented | 0:05:55 | 0:05:58 | |
# Dear, but remember it was I | 0:05:58 | 0:06:01 | |
# Who for thy sake did die contented | 0:06:01 | 0:06:04 | |
# Better a thousand times to die | 0:06:04 | 0:06:07 | |
# Than for to live thus still tormented | 0:06:07 | 0:06:11 | |
# Dear, but remember it was I | 0:06:11 | 0:06:13 | |
# Who for thy sake did die contented. # | 0:06:13 | 0:06:17 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:06:20 | 0:06:24 | |
# Now, o, now, I needs must part | 0:06:25 | 0:06:31 | |
# Parting though I absent mourn | 0:06:31 | 0:06:37 | |
# Absence can no joy impart | 0:06:37 | 0:06:42 | |
# Joy once fled cannot return | 0:06:42 | 0:06:46 | |
# While I live I needs must love | 0:06:48 | 0:06:54 | |
# Love lives not when hope is gone | 0:06:54 | 0:07:00 | |
# Now at last despair doth prove | 0:07:00 | 0:07:06 | |
# Love divided, loveth none | 0:07:06 | 0:07:10 | |
# Sad despair doth drive me hence | 0:07:12 | 0:07:18 | |
# This despair unkindness sends | 0:07:18 | 0:07:23 | |
# If that parting be offence | 0:07:25 | 0:07:31 | |
# It is she which then offends. # | 0:07:31 | 0:07:38 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:07:43 | 0:07:45 | |
"Now, o, now, I needs must part", | 0:07:45 | 0:07:48 | |
words set in 1597, in John Dowland's first book of songs. | 0:07:48 | 0:07:53 | |
Dowland's speciality was a mood of refined melancholy that was | 0:07:53 | 0:07:58 | |
so popular in Jacobean times. | 0:07:58 | 0:08:01 | |
# Shall I strive with words to move | 0:10:06 | 0:10:09 | |
# When deeds receive not due regard? | 0:10:09 | 0:10:13 | |
# Shall I speak and neither please | 0:10:13 | 0:10:17 | |
# Nor be freely heard? | 0:10:17 | 0:10:20 | |
# Grief, alas, though all in vain | 0:10:21 | 0:10:24 | |
# Her restless anguish must reveal | 0:10:24 | 0:10:28 | |
# She alone my wound shall know | 0:10:28 | 0:10:32 | |
# Though she will not heal | 0:10:32 | 0:10:36 | |
# All woes have end | 0:10:36 | 0:10:40 | |
# Though a while delayed | 0:10:40 | 0:10:44 | |
# Our patience proving | 0:10:44 | 0:10:49 | |
# O, that time's strange effects | 0:10:52 | 0:10:58 | |
# Could but make, but make her loving | 0:10:59 | 0:11:05 | |
# Storms calm at last | 0:11:08 | 0:11:11 | |
# And why may not she | 0:11:11 | 0:11:16 | |
# Leave off her frowning? | 0:11:16 | 0:11:22 | |
# O, sweet love | 0:11:24 | 0:11:28 | |
# Help her hands | 0:11:28 | 0:11:31 | |
# My affection crowning | 0:11:31 | 0:11:37 | |
# I wooed her, I loved her | 0:11:40 | 0:11:44 | |
# And none but her admire | 0:11:44 | 0:11:46 | |
# O, come, dear joy | 0:11:48 | 0:11:50 | |
# And answer my desire | 0:11:50 | 0:11:55 | |
# I wooed her, I loved her | 0:11:55 | 0:11:59 | |
# And none but her admire | 0:11:59 | 0:12:02 | |
# O, come, dear joy | 0:12:02 | 0:12:05 | |
# And answer my desire. # | 0:12:05 | 0:12:13 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:12:18 | 0:12:20 | |
"Shall I strive with words to move, when deeds receive not due regard." | 0:12:26 | 0:12:32 | |
An anonymous poem set as a galliard by John Dowland. | 0:12:32 | 0:12:36 | |
The lute rather went out of fashion after | 0:12:36 | 0:12:38 | |
the end of the 17th century | 0:12:38 | 0:12:40 | |
but one of those involved in its revival was Benjamin Britten, | 0:12:40 | 0:12:43 | |
who used lute music in his coronation opera, Gloriana. | 0:12:43 | 0:12:46 | |
# Happy | 0:13:17 | 0:13:22 | |
# Happy were he | 0:13:24 | 0:13:32 | |
# Could finish forth his fate | 0:13:39 | 0:13:46 | |
# In some unhaunted deserts | 0:13:47 | 0:13:53 | |
# In some unhaunted deserts | 0:13:55 | 0:14:02 | |
# Where, obscure from all society | 0:14:05 | 0:14:11 | |
# From love and hate of worldly folk | 0:14:12 | 0:14:17 | |
# Then might he sleep | 0:14:20 | 0:14:27 | |
# Sleep secure | 0:14:27 | 0:14:33 | |
# Then wake again | 0:14:37 | 0:14:39 | |
# And give God ever praise | 0:14:40 | 0:14:45 | |
# Content with hips and haws and brambleberry | 0:14:46 | 0:14:54 | |
# In contemplation | 0:14:57 | 0:15:03 | |
# Spending all his days | 0:15:03 | 0:15:07 | |
# And change of holy thoughts | 0:15:10 | 0:15:17 | |
# To make him merry | 0:15:17 | 0:15:19 | |
# Where, when he dies his tomb might be a bush | 0:15:25 | 0:15:32 | |
# Where harmless robin | 0:15:34 | 0:15:39 | |
# Dwells with gentle thrush | 0:15:39 | 0:15:45 | |
# Happy | 0:15:53 | 0:16:00 | |
# Happy | 0:16:01 | 0:16:07 | |
# Were he! | 0:16:07 | 0:16:11 | |
# Happy | 0:16:17 | 0:16:24 | |
# Were he! # | 0:16:28 | 0:16:35 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:16:58 | 0:17:00 | |
The second Lute Song from Britten's opera Gloriana, | 0:17:04 | 0:17:07 | |
performed by Ian Bostridge and lutenist Elizabeth Kenny. | 0:17:07 | 0:17:10 | |
Julian Bream was another of those responsible for the great | 0:17:10 | 0:17:14 | |
revival of interest in the lute in the 20th century | 0:17:14 | 0:17:16 | |
but it was for Bream's guitar that Britten wrote the next work | 0:17:16 | 0:17:20 | |
to be performed here at Cadogan Hall. | 0:17:20 | 0:17:22 | |
"The Songs From The Chinese" are settings of six poems | 0:17:22 | 0:17:25 | |
translated by Arthur Waley. | 0:17:25 | 0:17:27 | |
They're performed by James Gilchrist and guitarist Christoph Denoth. | 0:17:27 | 0:17:31 | |
# Don't help on the big chariot | 0:17:33 | 0:17:39 | |
# You will only make yourself dusty | 0:17:39 | 0:17:44 | |
# Don't think about the sorrows of the world | 0:17:51 | 0:17:56 | |
# You will only make yourself wretched | 0:17:56 | 0:18:02 | |
# Don't help on the big chariot | 0:18:09 | 0:18:15 | |
# You won't be able to see for dust | 0:18:15 | 0:18:21 | |
# Don't think about the sorrows of the world | 0:18:27 | 0:18:33 | |
# Or you will never escape from your despair | 0:18:33 | 0:18:37 | |
# Don't help on the big chariot | 0:18:44 | 0:18:48 | |
# The big chariot | 0:18:48 | 0:18:50 | |
# You'll be stifled with dust be stifled with dust | 0:18:52 | 0:18:56 | |
# Don't think about the sorrows of the world | 0:19:03 | 0:19:08 | |
# Think about the sorrows of the world | 0:19:08 | 0:19:10 | |
# The sorrows of the world | 0:19:10 | 0:19:12 | |
# You will only load yourself with care. # | 0:19:12 | 0:19:16 | |
# Of cord and cassia-wood | 0:19:42 | 0:19:46 | |
# Is the lute compounded | 0:19:46 | 0:19:51 | |
# Within it lie | 0:19:51 | 0:19:54 | |
# Ancient melodies | 0:19:54 | 0:20:02 | |
# Ancient melodies weak and savourless | 0:20:07 | 0:20:13 | |
# Not appealing to present men's taste | 0:20:15 | 0:20:20 | |
# Light and colour are faded from the jade stops | 0:20:24 | 0:20:31 | |
# Dust has covered the rose-red strings | 0:20:33 | 0:20:39 | |
# Decay and ruin came to it long ago | 0:20:43 | 0:20:50 | |
# But the sound that is left | 0:20:59 | 0:21:03 | |
# Is still cold and clear | 0:21:03 | 0:21:08 | |
# I do not refuse to play it | 0:21:13 | 0:21:17 | |
# If you want me to | 0:21:17 | 0:21:21 | |
# But even if I play | 0:21:23 | 0:21:27 | |
# People will not listen | 0:21:27 | 0:21:32 | |
# How did it come to be neglected so? | 0:21:45 | 0:21:51 | |
# Because of the Ch'iang flute and the zithern of Ch'in. # | 0:21:54 | 0:21:58 | |
# Autumn wind rises | 0:22:09 | 0:22:12 | |
# White clouds fly | 0:22:12 | 0:22:16 | |
# Grass and trees wither | 0:22:16 | 0:22:18 | |
# Geese go south | 0:22:18 | 0:22:20 | |
# Orchids all in bloom | 0:22:21 | 0:22:24 | |
# Chrysanthemums smell sweet | 0:22:24 | 0:22:29 | |
# I think of my lovely lady | 0:22:29 | 0:22:34 | |
# I never can forget | 0:22:34 | 0:22:39 | |
# Floating pagoda boat crosses Fen River | 0:22:41 | 0:22:45 | |
# Across the midstream white waves rise | 0:22:46 | 0:22:50 | |
# Flute and drum keep time, keep time | 0:22:54 | 0:22:57 | |
# To sound of rower's song | 0:22:57 | 0:23:00 | |
# Amidst revel and feasting | 0:23:01 | 0:23:06 | |
# Sad thoughts come | 0:23:06 | 0:23:10 | |
# Youth's years how few! | 0:23:12 | 0:23:15 | |
# Age how sure! | 0:23:15 | 0:23:17 | |
# Youth's years how few! | 0:23:17 | 0:23:19 | |
# Age how sure, how sure | 0:23:19 | 0:23:23 | |
# Age how sure! | 0:23:23 | 0:23:25 | |
# Age how sure, how sure. # | 0:23:25 | 0:23:29 | |
# In the southern village | 0:23:40 | 0:23:46 | |
# The boy who minds the ox | 0:23:46 | 0:23:54 | |
# With his naked feet stands on the ox's back | 0:23:54 | 0:23:59 | |
# Through the hole in his coat the river wind blows | 0:24:00 | 0:24:06 | |
# Through his broken hat the mountain rain pours | 0:24:07 | 0:24:12 | |
# On the long dyke he seemed to be far away | 0:24:15 | 0:24:19 | |
# In the narrow lane suddenly we were face to face | 0:24:21 | 0:24:27 | |
# The boy is home and the ox is back in its stall | 0:24:31 | 0:24:36 | |
# And a dark smoke | 0:24:40 | 0:24:46 | |
# Oozes through the thatched roof. # | 0:24:46 | 0:24:54 | |
# The unicorn's hoofs! | 0:25:06 | 0:25:08 | |
# The unicorn's hoofs! | 0:25:08 | 0:25:10 | |
# The duke's sons throng | 0:25:10 | 0:25:12 | |
# The duke's sons throng | 0:25:12 | 0:25:14 | |
# Alas for the unicorn! | 0:25:14 | 0:25:17 | |
# Alas for the unicorn! Alas! | 0:25:17 | 0:25:21 | |
# The unicorn's brow! | 0:25:23 | 0:25:25 | |
# The unicorn's brow! | 0:25:25 | 0:25:27 | |
# The duke's kinsmen throng | 0:25:27 | 0:25:29 | |
# The duke's kinsmen throng | 0:25:29 | 0:25:31 | |
# Alas for the Alas! Alas for the unicorn! Alas! | 0:25:31 | 0:25:36 | |
# The unicorn's horn! | 0:25:40 | 0:25:41 | |
# The unicorn's horn! | 0:25:41 | 0:25:43 | |
# The unicorn's horn! | 0:25:43 | 0:25:47 | |
# The duke's handsmen throng | 0:25:47 | 0:25:48 | |
# The duke's handsmen throng | 0:25:48 | 0:25:51 | |
# Alas for the Alas! Alas for the unicorn! Alas! | 0:25:51 | 0:25:57 | |
# Alas! # | 0:25:59 | 0:26:01 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:26:03 | 0:26:05 | |
James Gilchrist and Christoph Denoth, | 0:26:05 | 0:26:07 | |
performing six poems translated from the original | 0:26:07 | 0:26:10 | |
Chinese by Arthur Waley and set by Benjamin Britten. | 0:26:10 | 0:26:13 | |
First performed in 1957 by Julian Bream | 0:26:13 | 0:26:16 | |
and Britten's lifelong partner, Peter Pears. | 0:26:16 | 0:26:19 | |
Well, it's Britten who provides us with the last music in this concert. | 0:26:19 | 0:26:23 | |
One of his folk songs settings, Master Kilby, collected in Somerset | 0:26:23 | 0:26:26 | |
and performed by James and Christoph and joined by soprano Ruby Hughes. | 0:26:26 | 0:26:31 | |
# In the heat of the day | 0:26:34 | 0:26:37 | |
# When the sun shines so clearly | 0:26:37 | 0:26:40 | |
# There I met Master Kilby | 0:26:40 | 0:26:45 | |
# So fine and so gay | 0:26:45 | 0:26:48 | |
# So, I pulled off my hat | 0:26:50 | 0:26:52 | |
# And I bowed to the ground | 0:26:52 | 0:26:55 | |
# And I said, "Master Kilby | 0:26:55 | 0:27:00 | |
# "Pray, where are you bound?" | 0:27:00 | 0:27:05 | |
# I am bound for the West | 0:27:05 | 0:27:08 | |
# There in hope to find rest | 0:27:08 | 0:27:11 | |
# And in Nancy's soft bosom | 0:27:11 | 0:27:16 | |
# To build a new nest | 0:27:16 | 0:27:20 | |
# And if I were the master | 0:27:20 | 0:27:23 | |
# Of ten thousand pounds | 0:27:23 | 0:27:26 | |
# All in gay gold and silver | 0:27:26 | 0:27:30 | |
# Or King William's crowns | 0:27:30 | 0:27:34 | |
# I would part with it all | 0:27:34 | 0:27:37 | |
# With my own heart so freely | 0:27:37 | 0:27:40 | |
# And it's all for the sake | 0:27:40 | 0:27:43 | |
# Of my charming Nancy | 0:27:43 | 0:27:48 | |
TOGETHER: # She's the fairest of girls | 0:27:51 | 0:27:54 | |
# She's the choice of my own heart | 0:27:54 | 0:27:57 | |
# She is painted like waxwork | 0:27:57 | 0:28:03 | |
# In every part. # | 0:28:03 | 0:28:09 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:28:12 | 0:28:15 |