The Curlew is a song cycle from 1922 by British composer Peter Warlock (actual
name Philip Heseltine, 1894 - 1930) on poems by W. B. Yeats. It was
written for singer and an unusual accompanying group of flute, cor
anglais and string quartet. There are four songs, with a short
instrumental interlude between the third and the fourth (see also its Wiki entry).
When I bought the CD decades ago, it was to get the two Vaughan
Williams cycles, but as good as they were, the Warlock turned out to be
the real find. For me, bleak as it may be, it is one of the most
beautiful song cycles ever composed. The version shown above is by Ian
Partridge with the Music Group of London, including Janet Craxton on cor
anglais, on an EMI CD.
Copyright statement: posting lower quality album covers is deemed fair use.
