Britten Serenade, Nocturnes, Finzi Dies natalis : Padmore(T)Shave / Britten Sinfonia, S.Bell(Hr)(Hybrid)

Following the success of his 2011 album Rose of Sharon - a celebration of 18th Century American music that landed on Billboard's classical chart and critics' year-end lists - the latest project by Joel Frederiksen and the Ensemble Phoenix Munich takes them all the way back in time to... 1972. That was the year the late British troubadour and cult favorite Nick Drake released his third and final album, Pink Moon. Initially, the album garnered a small amount of critical attention, but it was not until decades after Drake's death that it received widespread public and critical acclaim. Today, the sparse and unadorned tracks of Pink Moon are regarded by many fans and music critics as the greatest efforts of a tragically short career. Drake's was an art filled with melancholy, a feeling and a concept that unites him with the singer-songwriters of the Elizabethan age. Adapting Drake's melodic guitar lines for Renaissance instruments, Frederiksen sheds new light on these finely crafted songs that speak directly and powerfully to the human condition and offers a fitting tribute to a modern-day Thomas Campion.