Ian Venables studied composition with Richard Arnell at Trinity College of Music, London and later with John Joubert, Andrew Downes and John Mayer at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. His works encompass many genres and he has added significantly to the canon of English art song. Described as ‘Britain’s greatest living composer of art song’ (Musical Opinion) and ‘a song composer as fine as Finzi and Gurney’ (BBC Music Magazine), Ian Venables has written over 80 works in this genre, including nine song-cycles.
As the title suggests, the works on this album are predominantly reflective in mood although this does not preclude the use of faster-moving music whenever the poetry requires it. Its subject matter celebrates the timelessness of love through the poetry of James Joyce, John Drinkwater, Edward Thomas, John Clare, Robert Nichols and the modern poet Jennifer Andrews; the celebration and commemoration of Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, in Sir Andrew Motion’s remarkable narrative poem Remember This and the collective remembrance of those who died in the First World War: the poetry of Wilfred Owen, Isaac Rosenberg, Siegfried Sassoon, Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy and the less well-known Francis St. Vincent Morris providing the impetus for one of Ian Venables’ most dramatic and profoundly moving cycles.
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Reviews
“… Two glorious singers in a fine collection from a master of song… Venables is also well served by the Carducci String Quartet. Much of this music haunts the mind, even after a single hearing. No lover of English song should miss it.”
William Hedley – MusicWeb-International.com – 14 July 2020
"A highly reflective, mournful set of songs and cycles interpreted with dramatic flair by Bevan and Clayton..." ****
Freya Parr - BBC Music magazine (Brief Notes section) - July 2020
“… He [Venables] is a very fine composer of songs, with a real feel for poetry, and can spin sympathetic vocal lines for his singers... Most of his works are for male voice … yet his writing for soprano is wonderfully accomplished, texts set as to remain intelligible and also allowing Bevan to float creamy top notes. ‘Love lies beyond the tomb’ is the highlight of this set… Remember This is the most striking work on the disc, a 30-minute setting of Motion’s poem that is itself split into an aria-and-recitative structure which allows Venables to treat it as something of a cantata…”
Mark Pullinger - Gramophone magazine - July 2020
Media Downloads
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