Flights of Fancy and Fantasy

Mark Oldfield, Baritone
with Timothy Lole, Pianoforte

English Dreams

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)
A song of enchantment

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1857)
Let beauty awake (from Songs of Travel)

Peter Warlock (1894-1930)
Sleep. 

A Mythical Flight

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Ganymed (words by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

The shepherd boy revels at the beauty of a morning in spring. Zeus flies down and takes the willing Ganeymed to be the cupbearer for the Gods 

Knightly Ambitions

Maurice Ravel (1873-1943)
Don Quichote a Dulicnee:
Chanson Romanesque
On your command I will gladly stop the world spinning and I would dispatch Panza [my servant] so that you shall see it motionless and silent. I will sweep the stars from the skies and then replace them with my lance if you command me so, my Dulcinee.

Chanson Epique
I pray to Saint Michael and Saint George to bless my sword before the Madonna of the blue mantle. Amen.

Chanson a Boire
I drink to joy and damn anyone who is jealous and weeps about a loveless life!. 

A Morsel of Fantasy

Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943)
Prelude in C sharp mnior(Opus 3 no 2) 

Knightly Ambitions

Pytor Ilyich Tchaikowsky (1840-1893)
Don Juan’s Serenade

In Alpujura it is growing dark and with my guitar I call my darling! I shall challenge my rivals to combat! Nissetta, come quickly to the balcony. From Seville to Granada serenades can be heard and the clashing of swords; Much blood and many songs are flowing for the sake of the beautiful ladies. To her who is the fairest of them all, I shall give all- my song and my blood!

Moontalk

Gabriel Faure (1845-1924)
Claire de lune

Within a landscape in which maskers play the lute and dance there is an air of sad beneath their fanciful disguises. Singing in the minor key to victorious love and the propitious life, the song mingles with the moonlight and brings dreams to the birds in the trees as the fountains sob with ecstasy.

Feliz Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Venetianishes Gondellied (words by Paul Verlaine)

When the evening breeze blows across the piazza you will know how my heart burns with longing for you Ninetta. I shall wait, dressed in Boatman’s garb, with the boat ready to take us across the lagoon. Come now, let us flee! 

Hotel Fantasies

Samuel Barber (1910-1981)
Solitary Hotel

Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)
Hotel (from Banalites)

My room is shaped like a cage.
The sun puts its arm through the window, and I would like simply to smoke. 

Two Tall Stories

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)
Plough Boy (words traditional)

Peter Warlock (1894-1930)
Yarmouth Fair (words traditional Norfolk)

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