Cynara

Ernest Dowson (E,G)

Originally conceived as part of the Songs of Sunset, this short setting for baritone and orchestra of Ernest Dowson was one of the works completed in collaboration with Eric Fenby. Its yearning expression of the search for the ideal partner is unmistakably fin-de-siècle in tone with a large orchestra achieving a sumptuous but refreshingly uncloying backdrop for the soloist’s mediation on lost bliss to emerge as acutely and personally as ever.