Samuel Wesley's 'Birthday Song' was written for the birthday of his friend, Prime Minister Charles Fox, and was coincidentally recorded on the birthday of a later Prime Minister, Tony Blair.
Performer Biography
Ian Partridge, one of Britain's leading lyric tenors, was awarded the CBE in 1992 for his services to music.
Recording & Production
This album is a live concert recording, with applause edited out, and may contain some ambient noise and less than ideal sound balance due to microphone placement constraints.
Composer Biography
Ernest J. Moeran, known as Jack, was a dispatch rider in the Great War and suffered a shrapnel wound to his head, which may have contributed to his premature death.
Composer Biography
Ivor Gurney, a composer and poet, volunteered for the army in the First World War, serving as a signaller in France where he was gassed and wounded.
Composer Biography
Samuel Wesley, son of the Methodist hymn writer Charles Wesley, converted to Catholicism at 18 and made a modest living as a composer and organist.
Composition History
Sulyen Caradon, a composer of Cornish extraction, wrote the songs on this CD over 13 years, with 'Clouds' for the Rupert Brooke centenary in 1988 and 'Margaret's Song' in 2001.
