Sunday, May 23, 2004
Songs of the 1990s #9.
Silent Worship, by Kenneth McKellar with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult.
Well this is a stretch! Prussian-born George Frideric Handel wrote this aria a few hundred years ago for his opera Ptolemy (Tolomeo) which is one of around fifty Italian operas he wrote. It is set in Cyprus in 108BC.
Handel was such a cosmopolitan, three countries spell his name differently in order to claim him as their own! The above name was the spelling he took on when he moved to London.
The Italian lyrics were re-written in English by Sir Arthur Somervell. So don't talk to me about globalisation, Handel wrote the book!
So: an Italian song about Cyprus written by a German who became a Briton, translated by an Englishman and sung by a Scot.
The CD on which this track appears - a compilation - was released in 1996, so I'm counting it as one of my 1990s top ten. I can't find a link to the publisher, PolyGram Classics.
It is one of the finest love songs ever recorded. No-one ever to hear this could fail to be moved. Find it and fall in love again.
is it time for a nap yet? i think so
Well this is a stretch! Prussian-born George Frideric Handel wrote this aria a few hundred years ago for his opera Ptolemy (Tolomeo) which is one of around fifty Italian operas he wrote. It is set in Cyprus in 108BC.
Handel was such a cosmopolitan, three countries spell his name differently in order to claim him as their own! The above name was the spelling he took on when he moved to London.
The Italian lyrics were re-written in English by Sir Arthur Somervell. So don't talk to me about globalisation, Handel wrote the book!
So: an Italian song about Cyprus written by a German who became a Briton, translated by an Englishman and sung by a Scot.
The CD on which this track appears - a compilation - was released in 1996, so I'm counting it as one of my 1990s top ten. I can't find a link to the publisher, PolyGram Classics.
It is one of the finest love songs ever recorded. No-one ever to hear this could fail to be moved. Find it and fall in love again.
is it time for a nap yet? i think so
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