Day of these Days
The British Isles Reflected in Song
“Hambleton's clarity of tone is a consistent pleasure throughout.”
Day of these Days is the debut recital disc from Tristan Hambleton and Simon Lepper out now on Delphian Records.
This album brings together some of the most important British song composers of today: Errollyn Wallen, Judith Weir, Sally Beamish, Tarik O’Regan, Stuart MacRae, Huw Watkins, Thomas Adès, Richard Sisson and James MacMillan.
Alongside two of the most accomplished song composers of the twentieth century Benjamin Britten and his teacher Frank Bridge. Ten of the albums twenty two songs are world premier recordings.
We are especially grateful for the support from Susan Edwards, The Francis Routh Trust and The Vaughn Williams Foundation.
Click here to purchase the CD from the store.
“You’d have to have a heart of stone not to be moved. It’s really beautiful.”
Reviews:
“This attractive and unusual vocal programme is beautifully performed, writes George Hall”
“The result is an attractive collection, voiced with confidence and an attractive bass-baritone by Hambleton and with Lepper providing secure, sensitive piano accompaniments.”
“Indeed, it’s the quality of the performances as much as the attractions of an unusual programme (eight items new to disc) that make this assemblage so desirable. Everything is considered, imaginative and delivered to a high level.”
- BBC Music Magazine (Vocal Choice); George Hall
“Hambleton's clarity of tone is a consistent pleasure throughout. Britten's This Way to the Tomb is particularly striking, Lepper's accompaniment percussive and alive to Hambleton's phrasing. Richard Sisson's The Silver Swan is a delight, and Stuart Macrae's I Know Not How It Is with You sits at the album's emotional heart. In Huw Watkins's contributions we hear the full expressive range of Hambleton's voice, while Sally Beamish's Day of These Days — brief but telling — captures Laurie Lee's words with quiet precision, Hambleton's lower register particularly effective. The album's most elegant moment may be Thomas Adès's arrangement of Purcell's By Beauteous Softness, sung with real poise.”
“A rewarding and thoughtful recital.”
- Chimeo; Andrew Palmer (Group Editor)
“Standout Singers”
“An album subtitled “The British Isles Reflected in Song” sounds as cosy as cheese on toast. It isn’t. After an obligatory pair of Brittens, bass-baritone Tristan Hambleton and pianist Simon Lepper swing down lanes and byways. The title song, by Sally Beamish, is a contemplative ramble. Songs by Frank Bridge, Britten’s teacher, hide like a robin from a hedgerow. And gems by living composers — Tarik O’Regan, Huw Watkins, James MacMillan, Stuart MacRae and Richard Sisson — compose a portrait of an island diverse in temperament and temperature. I was much taken by MacRae’s darkly internalised “I know not how it is with you”.
- The Critic (Standout Singers); Norman Lebrecht
“You’d have to have a heart of stone not to be moved. It’s really beautiful.”
- Swedish Radio Music Review on P2 (Record of the Week); Bengt Forsberg
“Man måste nog ha en hjärta av sten att inte ska röras av det här. Det är verkligen vackert”
- Sveriges Radio Musikrevyn i P2 (Record of the Week); Bengt Forsberg