I’ve only discovered Quilter recently, mostly because there was a book of his art song available at the Allans sale a few weeks ago and I was seduced by the prospect of singing Shakespeare’s poetry.\u00a0 My friendly salesperson, who is a fellow lover of Purcell and 19th century French opera, eyed my choice with disfavour.\u00a0 “Well… it’s very… pretty,” he finally said, clearly attempting diplomacy. And so it is…<\/p>\n
[youtube=http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=yGZjewK_jJY&w=560&h=315]Actually, what Quilter is, when he chooses to be, is magnificently, utterly, overwhelmingly self-indulgent.\u00a0 Ian Bostridge actually shows a fair bit of restraint in singing this one.\u00a0 I don’t, because I tend to feel that the whole point<\/em> of this sort of music is to over-indulge.\u00a0 To me, it’s like Chopin and Schubert and Dowland all got together to write something so over-the-top in its gloomy romanticism that you just feel better singing it.\u00a0 But I do admire Bostridge’s ability to let the music speak for itself.<\/p>\n Which, when you consider it, is totally appropriate – the lyrics for this come from Twelfth Night, and this song is greatly favoured by Orsino, one of the most emotionally self-indulgent characters ever written.\u00a0 You just know that Orsino would love Quilter’s setting of this music, and would probably listen to it again and again (that strain again, it had a dying fall…), probably with the curtains shut and the lights off in a dark, dark room where he can truly get his goth on.\u00a0 Because that’s our Orsino, bless him.<\/p>\n