Highbridge Music Ltd.
| 27th November 2006 | University of Nebraska, Kearney, NE USA |
| 31st October 2005 - 1st November 2005 |
Martyn Hill, English Serenata, St Lawrence's Parish Church, Mickleton, Gloucestershire
First recording for Meridian by Richard Hughes,produced by Susanne Stanzeleit |
| 19th November 2003 | Patricia Rozario, Schubert Ensemble, Wigmore Hall |
| 6th April 1989 | Ian Partridge, Coull Quartet, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London |
| 3rd March 1988 | Martyn Hill, Coull Quartet, Recording for BBC Radio 3, Birmingham |
| 21st July 1987 | Martyn Hill / Medici Quartet, Chester Festival |
'Of the various works especially commissioned by the Chester Summer Music Festival this year's Shakespeare song cycle would musically and artistically speaking seem to be the best....Blake has achieved true sensitivity, originality and innate musicianship with all the technical skills of modern song-writing to breathe fresh life into familiar stanzas. The songs are crafted with much perception. Devices such as suddenly-soaring intervals to give emphasis, sense of movement with changing time-signatures, and the manner in which lines are phrased to make literate as well as refined musical sense are some of the ways that help underline the significance of the texts...the composer acknowledged the prolonged ovation that was given the first performance.'
Chester Standard, 31/7/1987
'...a big success in the Festival..a work which received a stamping ovation...Blake's appreciation and comprehension of the poems was expressed precisely, passionately and descriptively...music utterly fitting to each mood, modern in sound, classical in impact.'
Chester Chronicle, 24/7/1987
'...the odd faint passing hint of Britten in some of the textures, and the more obvious debt of Stravinskian neo-classicism in the recurring motif of trills in the string accompaniments, the Shakespeare Songs hark back to Peter Warlock in their blend of rhythmic regularity spiced with the occasional irregularity and almost embarassingly direct tunefulness...the audience was duly enthusiastic.'
Paul Dewhirst, Daily Telegraph, 23/7/1987
Rarely does one witness so warm and prolonged a reception for the premiere of a new composition as greeted Howard Blake's Shakespeare Songs...the English folk song tradition permeates every nook and cranny. Britten (in his Serenade style) seems to have been a particularly strong influence but the writing is at once highly skilled and conceptually fresh
Chester Post, 22/7/1987