The strong historical resonances of both the countertenor voice and the recorder have inspired these magical works, all with inventive colours and surprisingly varied textures. Richard Steinitz's Hymn to Apollo at Delphi is based on ancient Greek melodies and was composed as a touching and unique wedding present for his wife. Ancient Rome is the cue for John McCabe's Two Latin Elegies, based on a piece for virginals by William Byrd, the music being punctuated by the tolling of David Munrow's much loved set of medieval bells. Haunting nature poems by Walter de la Mare and Ted Hughes respectively are strikingly set by Arthur Butterworth and Nicholas Marshall. Stephen Hough (best known for his consummate pianistic skills) contributes a triptych of song about graves, the last of which, a setting of Hardy's comic poem about spending the money for a aunt's tombstone on an evening of drunken revelry at the local hostelry, relieves the sad sentiments of the other two songs. Seriousness intrudes again with John Joubert's masterful settings of well known poems by Shakespeare and others, movingly contrasting the wisdom and infirmity of old age with the joys and carefree activity of youth. John Gardner's Shakespeare songs are brimful of winning melody, the concluding setting of ''When that I was and a little tiny boy'' being in his most infectious ''pop'' style.

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