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Track(s) taken from CDA66136

Willow, willow

First line:
The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree
composer
1910/1; orchestral version 1912; No 1 of Old-English Popular Music
author of text
original version of text used by Shakespeare in Othello IV:3

Sarah Walker (mezzo-soprano), Graham Johnson (piano)
Recording details: May 1984
Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel, Hampstead, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Mark Brown
Engineered by Antony Howell
Release date: July 1988
Total duration: 3 minutes 58 seconds

Cover artwork: Ophelia. Arthur Hughes (1832-1915)
Reproduced by courtesy of the City of Manchester Art Galleries
 

Other recordings available for download

John Mark Ainsley (tenor), Polyphony, Stephen Layton (conductor)

Reviews

‘The most delightful and varied song recital I've come across all year’ (The Guardian)
Willow, willow was first set by Grainger for voice and piano in November 1898. It was his first setting of a traditional tune. Four years later he sketched a version for voice, strings and guitar or harp adding a further verse with a much richer accompaniment, finally publishing this version together with its voice and piano counterpart in 1912. The words are familiar to us as those sung by Desdemona in Shakespeare’s Othello. This lament for lost love, with its sighing motifs, is of rare and ravishing beauty.

from notes by Barry Peter Ould © 1996

Other albums featuring this work

Grainger: Jungle Book & other choral works
CDH55433
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