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- Julian Philips
Four Sonnets of John Clare (2002)
- Peters Edition Limited (World)
- Bar + pf
- Baritone
- 10 min
- John Clare
- English
Programme Note
Four Sonnets of John Clare (2002)
for baritone and piano
Four Sonnets of John Clare is a 12-minute work for baritone and piano which sets four sonnets by the English poet John Clare. The work reflects on different aspects of Clare's human experience: the transcience of worldly renown, the loss of inspiration, a fear of neglect in death and a love of the numinous in nature, and the music seeks to match Clare's poetic gestures with clarity and economy.
1. Fame
2. The Death of Beauty
3. Memory
4. The Shepherd's Tree
The Four Sonnets of John Clare were completed in April 2002 and commissioned by Wigmore Hall, with funds made available by the Ralph Vaughan Williams Trust. The set was written specially for Sir Thomas Allen and Graham Johnson, who gave its premiere on 16 July 2002 at London's Wigmore Hall. The work is dedicated to William Lyne.
Julian Philips, 2023
Scores
Reviews
The highlight of the programme, however, was the world premiere of a work specially commissioned by the Wigmore Hall itself, Four Sonnet of John Clare by the young Welsh-born composer Julian Philips…this proved a very welcome addition to the song repertoire. It is rare, indeed, to hear classic English texts so sympathetically and effectively set. Philips's melodic lines never take the easy way out, yet, in tandem with an ever-apposite piano accompaniment, capture all the detail of the sonnets' verbal nuances.
Transience, the loss of inspiration and the fear of neglect in death: these thoroughly Shakespearean themes speak with sad strength in Clare's sturdy monosyllables. And Philips answers with music which is equally economic, yet also teeming with complementary ideas of its own, particularly in the piano writing, nudged by every passing image. Allen and Johnson made one long to hear future repeat performances as this cycle enters the repertoire