Gurney: Severn Meadows & other songs

The life of Ivor Gurney was one of the most tragic in English musical history. A chorister in Gloucester Cathedral Choir at the turn of the century (along with Herbert Howells and Ivor Novello) he was later conscripted into The Great War where he was gassed in the trenches. This experience unhinged his mind and the last few years of his life were spent in an asylum.

Gurney was a prolific poet and the composer of some of the most beautiful songs in the English language, many of which are included on this disc. Some are comparatively well-known (I will go with my father a-ploughing; In Flanders; Down by the Salley Gardens and the five 'Elizas'); many are not. The moving 'Severn Meadows', which gives the disc its title, sets his own nostalgic poem written in the trenches.

This is tenor Paul Agnew's first solo CD and Julius Drake's debut on Hyperion.

CDA67243  68 minutes 9 seconds
‘Another fine addition to the Hyperion treasure-house of vocal recordings’ (The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs)
‘If … at the very thought of hazy June fields, your eyes mist up or you feel a lump in the throat, then this record is for you. On it, the tenor Paul Agnew sings, exquisitely, 25 exquisite songs ...
‘Gurney’s turmoil surfaces the songs in Paul Agnew’s sublime Hyperion disc’ (Classic FM Magazine)