Ayres and Ballads of the British Isles is a program of wonderful works for soprano and violin, featuring works by Rebecca Clarke, Ralph Vaughan Williams, JohnÂ Corgliano, and Gustav Holst. Margaret Astrup and Eric Lewis are the sensitive performers. Dr. Margaret Astrup is well known for her interpretations of contemporary American music. She has premiered works by SeymourÂ Barab, Otto Luening, RuthÂ Schonthal, JudithÂ Zaimont, RichardÂ AuldonÂ Clark, David Sampson, Jorge Martin, and numerous other contemporary composers. With the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, she has performed Knoxville, Summer of 1915 by Samuel Barber (also broadcast on WNYC), Collages by RuthÂ SchonthalÂ , Cosmos Cantata by SeymourÂ BarabÂ and Kurt Vonnegut and songs by Otto Luening, William Grant Still, SeymourÂ BarabÂ and RichardÂ AuldonÂ Clark.Â In New York she has appeared in many contemporary American operas for which she has received critical acclaim in publications including The New York Times, The NewÂ Yorker, NewÂ York Magazine, The London Financial Times and the New York Daily News. A native New Yorker, violinist Eric Lewis earned both hisÂ Bachelor'sÂ and Master's degrees in violin performance at the Manhattan School of Music. With encouragement from his teachers, violinistÂ RachmaelÂ Weinstock and world-renowned violist Lillian Fuchs, Mr. Lewis served as U.S cultural ambassador to the former Soviet Union during the Glasnost era of the 1980's, performing throughout that country until it's dissolution in 1990. The Manhattan String Quartet's recording of the Shostakovich Quartet Cycle was the only chamber music to be named by Time magazine in it's best of 1991 classical list. He retired from the Manhattan Quartet in 2013 after 45 years as founder and first violinist.

Tracklist:

Three Irish Country Songs~As I Was Goin' to Ballynure
Three Irish Country Songs~I Know Where I'm Goin'
Three Irish Country Songs~Down by the Salley Gardens
Two English Folk Songs~Searching for the Lambs
Two English Folk Songs~The Lawyer
Along the Field~We'll to the Woods No More
Along the Field~Along the Field
Along the Field~The Half-Moon Westers Low
Along the Field~In the Morning
Along the Field~The Sigh That Heaves the Grasses
Along the Field~Good-Bye
Along the Field~Fancy's Knell
Along the Field~With Rue My Heart Is Laden
Three Irish Folksong Settings~Down by the Salley Gardens
Three Irish Folksong Settings~The Foggy, Foggy Dew
Three Irish Folksong Settings~She Moved Through the Fair
Four Songs for Voice and Violin~Jesu Sweet
Four Songs for Voice and Violin~My Soul Has Nought But Fire and Ice
Four Songs for Voice and Violin~I Sing of a Maiden
Four Songs for Voice and Violin~My Leman Is So True
Three Old English Songs~It Was a Lover and His Lass
Three Old English Songs~Phillis on the New-Made Hay
Three Old English Songs~The Tailor and His Mouse

UPC: 044747377520
Label: Centaur
Release Date: 4.3.20
Format: CD

Clarke / Astrup / Housman - Ayres & Ballads of the British (CD)