Erik Chisholm's settings of poems by Lillias Scott, his second wife, were composed when they fell in love, with one manuscript noting it was written "1 hour after receiving the poem!".
Recording & Production
Most tracks on this album, except for 1-17, 20, and 28, are premiere recordings.
Performer Biography
Nicky Spence, a Scottish tenor, made his Metropolitan Opera debut before the age of thirty and was a Solo Vocal category winner in the 2020 Gramophone Awards.
Composer's Artistic Vision
A seminal moment in Erik Chisholm's career was receiving Patrick MacDonald's A Collection of Scottish Airs, published in 1784, which he used extensively in his compositions.
Compositional Technique
Chisholm often used traditional Gaelic melodies from the MacDonald collection for his settings of William Soutar's poems, providing them with sensitive but adventurous accompaniments.
Composer Biography
Erik Chisholm conducted the British premieres of Berlioz's The Trojans and Mozart's Idomeneo, and was responsible for revivals of Gluck's Iphigenia in Tauris and Armida.
Composer Biography
Erik Chisholm, born in Glasgow in 1904, was initially destined to be a virtuoso pianist but soon focused on composition.
