The Art-Music, Literature and Linguistics Forum

Peter Warlock: Collected 78rpm recordings       Divine Art Historic Sound  2 cd's

(https://i.imgur.com/IRlqZV0.jpg)      (https://i.imgur.com/qxCkUr0.jpg)      (https://i.imgur.com/LnUwOwT.jpg)

A somewhat enigmatic & mysterious character! This 2 cd set is absolutely,crammed full of fascinating recordings dating between 1925 and 1951. I am particularly fond of his Capriol Suite and his haunting (& genuinely,eerie) song cycle,The Curlew! The set is accompanied by an excellent booklet with lot's of information about the composer,the various recordings and the singers and musician's who perform them. I love these kind of collection's. :)

Fascinating stuff! I couldn't agree with you more about The Curlew. 'Eerie' is the right word. I can't imagine Benjamin Britten didn't know it: the creepier parts of The Turn of the Screw always put me in mind of The Curlew.

One of the few genuinely eerie pieces of music! And,surely,a masterpiece! (Some of Cyril Scott's orchestral music can be a bit spooky! And late Scriabin! ) I actually wondered whether to put it on late one night,because of that! But then it's the frisson it creates! Which is my ghost stories are always best read late at night! (Or after midnight?!) :o
Regarding the position Warlock is in,in that photo. I can't remember the last time I was able to get in a position like that? If I did I probably wouldn't get out of it! They'd have to carry me into the surgery like that!
I didn't know you liked Britten's The Turn of the Screw! By the way,which is your favourite recording of The Curlew?!

I agree with you about ghost stories too! Radio 4Extra sometimes has appropriately chilling stuff on just after midnight -- M. R. James, Algernon Blackwood and suchlike. Good to  listen to in bed in the dark with the duvet pulled up over my head!

I am very selective with Britten; I like much of his early stuff and Peter Grimes is, I think, a masterpiece of the front rank. However, I feel he went off the boil after Billy Budd  and The Turn of the Screw and anything later than that does not speak to me. I find it clever but uninspired. It's my fault, I'm sure. I do have blind spots: Rufinatscha, for example!

As for The Curlew, the best version I've heard is Mark Padmore's which is coupled with Vaughan Williams On Wenlock Edge and Ten Blake Songs on Harmonia Mundi.