Peter Warlock -- The Curlew (Music for William Butler Yeats Poems)

[MrMjp58]

The recent 'revelation' that PW was the father of art critic Brian Sewell left me amazed.

[borncountryful]

The Lover Mourns for The Loss of Love -Pale brows, still hands and dim hair, I had a beautiful friend.. And dreamed that the old despair, Would end in love in the end: She looked into my heart one day And saw your image was there; She has gone weeping away.

[alipitogen]

The late Irish composer Brian Boydell, if what I heard is true, used to convene a group of his musical friends every Halloween night and sit in the light of a single candle, listening to The Curlew as a more or less ritual observation. That has always sounded to me like a good idea, but I haven't tried it yet.

[Serbskii]

Peter Warlock was a very depressed man, He's sadness reflects in a lot of he's work, 'Sleep' is a specially sad piece, such great works, its a shame he's not celebrated more these days.

[AVD743]

Yes - captivating is the word.

I'm familiar with the technically more assured Ian Partridge version, and also Martyn Hill's version - but this has a layer of nostalgia on top of it that is quite something.

And your assessment, SmilingPessimist, vis a vis Yeats is spot on!

Thank you.

[jsilence418]

Thank you You tube, and Smiling Pessimist.

[martinjp1958]

The piece captivates me from beginning to end. This period recording adds another element again. It says most of the things I want to hear from music. The sustained melancholy, lack of expectation, a writhing emotional state, and yet a little glimmer of hope somewhere.

[alipitogen]

@martinjp1958 Sorry, I have to reply to you. I love your description but I'd  have to think very hard on this piece to detect the hope you hear. Then again, you may be right. Is there automatically hope in beauty? -but this is about the darkest beauty I know in music. Could I suggest that rather than hope it is more a feeling of consolation we can derive from it? consolation stemming from a profound expression of sadness which by its mastery lets us know that we are not the only ones to feel it.

[BridgetteK69]

Wow at last, Lionel Solomon on the Tube!! He used to teach me, a wonderful man!

[kerbal29anen]

@BridgetteK69

Woww, I agree that the singing is wonderful. But surely Alexander Young is the tenor - a wonderful teacher, too, who sadly died in 2000