Dreams, Desires, Desolation - English Song
Baritone Trevor Alexander and pianist Peter Crockford present an album celebrating English Song – art-songs by composers well and not-so-well known, and some of the best examples of what is often called the Parlour Ballad, so beloved of audiences in the early years of the 20th century.
“Dreams, Desires, Desolation was created out of our love for English Song. The album comprises a real mixture of very familiar songs, along with some relatively unknown ones, and a few which were very popular in their day but have fallen out of fashion. There are also three world premiere recordings. We believe, despite the mixture of styles, each song brings something valid to our concept.”
Since graduating from Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Trevor Alexander has worked for numerous companies including The Royal Opera, English National Opera, D’Oyly Carte, and the Royal Shakespeare Company. He has sung many of the standard baritone operatic roles as well as appearing in musicals and cabaret. He has sung in opera productions and concerts all over the Middle and Far East, and his repertoire is extensive and varied.
Peter Crockford studied at the Birmingham School of Music and The Royal Northern College of Music. In his early career, he was an accompanist and repetiteur for various opera companies including Glyndebourne. He has traveled the world widely as an accompanist and Musical Director/Conductor. He conducted the European Tour of West Side Story and was Assistant to the Musical Director at the Stadt Theater, Freiburg. He continues to pursue a career of coaching and playing in concert.
Tracks
- George Butterworth: Is my team plowing? (3:47)
- Frank Bridge: Come to me in my dreams (3:37)
- Charles Marshall: I hear you calling me (3:35)
- Roger Quilter: Now sleeps the crimson petal (2:10)
- Clive Pollard: Go song of mine* (3:34)
- Richard Hageman: Do not go my love (2:58)
- Ralph Vaughan Williams: Silent Noon (4:07)
- Frederick Keel: Remembrance (2:56)
- Victor Hely-Hutchinson: Dream Song (2:09)
- Frank Bridge: What shall I your true love tell? (4:15)
- Haydn Wood: Love’s garden of roses (4:04)
- Peter Gellhorn: Autumn**
- John Ireland: If there were dreams to sell (2:03)
- Cecil Armstrong Gibbs: Silver (2:52)
- Clive Pollard: The cloths of heaven* (2:41)
- Ralph Vaughan Williams: The sky above the roof (2:49)
- Cyril Scott: Lullaby (2:54)
- Amy Woodforde-Finden: Kashmiri Song (3:39)
- Roger Quilter: I arise from the dreams of thee (4:41)
- Frank Bridge: Journey’s End (3:58)
- Lucy Simon: How could I ever know (The Secret Garden) (3:03)
*First Recording
**First Commercial Recordings