Isolation Songbook Helen Charlston, Michael Craddock & Alexander Soares

• Owain Park (b. 1993):
• 1 18th April 04:32
• Heloise Werner:
• 2 The Orange Vendor 04:16
• Andrew Brixey-Williams (b. 1956):
• 3 Abat-jour 04:26
• Kerensa Briggs (b. 1991):
• 4 Melancholy (and Buttercream) 06:23
• Nathan James Dearden (b. 1992):
• 5 the way we go 04:09
• Richard Barnard: Three Early Stroll Songs:
• 6 Three Early Stroll Songs: I. Early Stroll 28.03.20 01:07
• 7 Three Early Stroll Songs: II. Early Stroll 29/30.3.20 01:31
• 8 Three Early Stroll Songs: III. Early Stroll 31.5.20 02:44
• Joshua Borin:
• 9 Nature is Returning 06:15
• Ben Rowarth:
• 10 The King’s Breakfast 03:03
• Elliott Park: Skysong (Extracts):
• 11 Skysong (Extracts): Refrain 01:36
• 12 Skysong (Extracts): dawn 03:07
• 13 Skysong (Extracts): soothe 01:36
• 14 Skysong (Extracts): Refrain II 01:42
• Derri Joseph Lewis (b. 1997):
• 15 A Moment 02:15
• Terence Charlston: Three Duets:
• 16 Three Duets: I. O Soliude 01:14
• 17 Three Duets: II. Hurried Letter 01:13
• 18 Three Duets: III. Endless Song 01:55
• Matthew J C Ward (1985): Concerning Cows:
• 19 Concerning Cows: A Rural Song Cycle: I. 00:33
• 20 Concerning Cows: A Rural Song Cycle: II. 00:23
• 21 Concerning Cows: A Rural Song Cycle: III. 00:40
• Gerda Blok-Wilson (b. 1955):
• 22 I'm Nobody 02:29
• James Davy:
• 23 Dreams 04:01
• Stephen Bick (b. 1993):
• 24 On His Blindness 03:40
• Total Runtime 01:04:50

Info for Isolation Songbook

A creative response to a time of chaos and change

Following its successful premiere in July, the Isolation Songbook will soon be recorded for release on Delphian Records. Originally conceived as an open call-for-scores to composers and lyricists to respond creatively to lockdown, the resulting 15 new songs are by turns witty and melancholic, brash and joyful.

The Isolation Songbook began as a way for me to deal with the reality of lockdown – professionally and personally. It has been an extraordinary privilege to be invited into the composers and poets own experiences of this time through these songs, and I know that the Isolation Songbook will remain a positive creative history of this time of change. It is amazing to think just a few months ago none of this music existed and now they have been premiered live to hundreds of people and are will soon be recorded for the first time.

It is clear that the Isolation Songbook has struck a chord with performers, composers, poets and audience alike. Thank you to everyone who helped sponsor the commission fees for the creation of these pieces and allow us to complete the first stage of this project. We have been so heartened by the outpouring of support of audience members and donors, we could not have brought these songs together without you. This positivity has inspired us to look further and record the songs for release at the beginning of 2021. This is a fantastic chance to add these songs to the musical canon and give them the legacy they deserve.

“…singers Helen Charlston and Michael Craddock were outstanding, both in their singing, and their presentation of the pieces… Alexander Soares’ musically sensitive playing and coordination with the two singers were exceptional.” (Andrew Benson-Wilson, read the full review here)

“New creative ventures amid the cancellations…the Isolation Songbook, a collection of songs commissioned under lockdown by mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston and performed with commitment and even a frenetic bout of staged hand-sanitising by Charlston, baritone Michael Craddock and pianist Alexander Soares. It’s an often melancholic, occasionally silly record in song of strange times.” (Flora Wilson, the Guardian)

Helen Charlston, mezzo-soprano
Michael Craddock, baritone
Alexander Soares, piano

Helen Charlston
won First Prize in the 2018 Handel Singing Competition, was a Rising Star of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment for 2017-19 and is a 2018 City Music Foundation Artist. This season she will make debuts with Academy of Ancient Music, Cambridge Handel Opera Company, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra and the Concertgebouw Kammerorchestra, as well as joining Fretwork for a solo recital programme at Wigmore Hall and York Early Music Christmas Festival. She will premiere the role of Anna in the newly completed opera Blue Electric by Tom Smail and will continue her commissioning project of lute songs with duo partner Toby Carr.

Operatic roles include Messaggera & Prosperpina/L’Orfeo (Monteverdi), Penelope/Il Ritorno d’Ilisse in patria (Monteverdi), First Witch/Dido and Aeneas, Olga/Eugene Onegin, Florence Pike/AlbertHerring, Ino/Semele, Sara/Tobias and the Angel (Dove) and Dinah/Trouble in Tahiti (Bernstein). Helen created the role of Dido in the premiere of a new chamber opera based on Virgil’s writings about Dido: Dido is Dead, by young composer Rhiannon Randle.

Often heard on BBC Radio 3 in live concert relays, Helen features on recordings of Bach B Minor Mass (Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/Trinity College Choir), and Bach ActusTragicus & Himmelskönig sei willkommen (Amici Voices/Amici Baroque Players), both available from Hyperion. The “mesmerising delivery” of her aria in BWV 182 on the Amici Voices CD was singled out by Gramophone Magazine as the highlight of the recording. This season she will record John Eccles Semele (Juno) with Cambridge Handel Opera Company and the Academy of Ancient Music.

Helen began singing as chorister and head chorister of the St Albans Abbey Girls Choir. She then studied music at Trinity College, Cambridge where she held a choral scholarship for four years and was a scholar on the Pembroke College Lieder Scheme, led by Joseph Middleton.

This album contains no booklet.