Sounds and Sweet Airs: A Shakespeare Songbook is a long and unusual CD by Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams and Joseph Middleton.  The songs set texts (mostly) by Shakespeare but some of it is translated into German or French and in the case of Hannah Kendall’s Rosalind it’s fragments stitched together.  Some of the material will be familiar to amateurs of art song but less than one might expect.  There’s no Finzi or Quilter!

The disc is organised into five acts plus a prelude and epilogue.  It starts quite gently with three duets.  I particularly liked Vaughan Williams rather gentle setting of “Fear No More the Heat of the Sun”.  Moeran’s version of “A Lover and his Lass” is lovely too.  Act 1 takes us on a temporal journey from settings by JC Smith and Thomas Arne in the 18th century through to Michael Tippett’s Three Songs for Ariel sung by Rod Williams; perhaps the most interesting part of this act.  In typical Tippett fashion they sound very “modern” for a British composer of the time.

Act 2 takes us to the German speaking lands though Haydn sets the English text of “She Never Told Her Love”.  There are very nice versions of Schubert’s “An Silvia” and “Ständchen” (Hark, Hark the Lark!) sung by Carolyn and a rousing and very Germanic “Trinklied” (“Bacchus, plump prince of wine” from Antony and Cleopatra) sung by Rod.  There’s also some Schumann, Wolf and Cornelius.

Act 3 brings us works by contemporary female British composers.  There’s a quiet, plaintive setting of fragments from Ophelia’s songs; They bore him barefaced on the bier by Cheryl Frances-Hoad.  It’s beautifully sung by Carolyn.  Then comes a much longer work in five parts from Hannah Kendall.  It’s a setting of Sabrina Mahfouz’s Rosalind poems.  This is an ambitious piece blending a wide range of vocal technique; brethy whispering, straightforward singing, speech, slow declamatory sections; two singers singing in unison and much more.  That’s backed up by extended and often atonal piano plus Carolyn on harmonica and music box.  It’s worth more than one listen and of all the pieces on the disc this is the one I really want to hear more of.

Act 4 shows Pouenc and Britten doiung very different things with a short text from The Merchant of Venice before Honegger provides Deux chants d’Ariel which are very different from Tippett’s work on the same theme.  Act 5 brings us back to English and the 20th century but showcases the wide range of ways of setting the text from jazzy pieces by Madeleine Dring and John Dankworth to a tango by Mervyn Horder.  There’s also some Beach, Coleridge-Taylor and Bridge and even a duet by the 12 year old Rod Williams.  The Epilogue closes us out with Sir Arthur Sullivan’s Orpheus with his Lute in a rather pleasant duet arrangement by Rod Williams.

It’s a very generous offering.  There’s 85 minutes of very varied music; much of it unfamiliar.  Some of the music is better than other bits but the range is fascinating and there’s some terrific singing and playing from all three musicians.  The booklet contains a whole lot more about the music and the reasons for choosing it plus texts and translations where needed though I found the English texts quite unnecessary.

The recording was made in June 2022 at Wyastone Concert Hall, Monmouth, UK.  It’s very good, as indeed BIS recordings tend to be.  It’s clear and very detailed.  The physical disc is a hybrid SACD and digital offerings are MP3 and FLAC at standard CD quality plus 24bit/96kHz and 24bit/192kHz.  I listened to the last of the digital options which was excellent though if I were buying I’d get the SACD.

Catalogue number: BIS-2653