Alun Hoddinott: Landscapes – Song Cycles and Folksongs

World Première Recordings

Landscapes (Ynys Môn) Op.87
Two Songs from Glamorgan (Traditional)
The Silver Hound Op.121
One Must Always Have Love Op.152 No.3
Towy Landscape Op.190
Six Welsh Folksongs (Traditional)

The British Music Society is proud to release this unique recital of song cycles and folksong settings by the eminent Welsh composer Alun Hoddinott (1929-2008). The programme contains a number of world-première recordings.

REVIEWS

“The composer is wonderfully served by these artists… all in all, it is impossible to imagine these original works being better performed…an outstanding issue, consistently of very high quality as regards music, performance, recording and presentation,” Robert Matthew-Walker, International Record Review

“…this engaging recording of the composer’s song cycles…bears witness to Hoddinott’s fecund imagination and invention in bringing such poetic landscapes to lustrous musical life…” Pwyll ap Siôn, Gramophone – Recommended Recording

“Performances and recording are really very fine indeed. All three singers obviously enjoy the music and their immaculate singing is nicely matched by subtlety and nuance when required… this well-filled release is the first recent disc entirely devoted to his music and, as such, is a most welcome addition to Hoddinott’s discography,” Hubert Culot, MusicWeb

“This CD is a major addition to the (slowly) growing corpus of Alun Hoddinott’s music available on CD… I was impressed by the sympathetic, enthusiastic and convincing performances of all these pieces…” John France, MusicWeb

“… Sympathetically partnered by Andrew Matthews-Owen at the piano, Nicky Spence brings out the beauties of each cycle… Claire Booth captures the underlying rapture of the cycle’s four pieces…” Peter Palmer, Tempo