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A Shropshire Lad in Ontario | Walter Hall, Toronto
A Shropshire Lad in Ontario | Walter Hall, Toronto
The life story of James Campbell McInnes (1874-1945)
date: January 30, 2011
In the centenary year of George Butterworth’s Six Songs from “A Shropshire Lad”, we celebrated the life and work of the baritone who premiered the cycle, James Campbell McInnes (1874-1945). After a brilliant start to his career in England, involving the premieres of several of Vaughan Williams’s major works as well as the Butterworth songs, McInnes was disgraced by a very public divorce case and emigrated to Toronto. Here he became one of Sir Ernest MacMillan’s favourite singers and also taught singing and diction, with posts at Wycliffe and Trinity Colleges. The late Vincent Massey Tovell and Mary Willan Mason (daughter of the composer, Healey Willan) both told us of their vivid memories of the “bardic” quality of McInnes’s voice. Our founding patron, Sir Peter Pears, visited McInnes for lessons on two of his visits here in the 1930s and 40s. Additional research material was made available by Rolf Jordan, who is working on a biography of McInnes, and by Ruth Farnworth, a descendent of McInnes’s family who lives near the singer’s birthplace in Lancashire. This concert was built around a performance of the complete Butterworth cycle by one of Canada’s finest present-day baritones, Brett Polegato.
| SONG | ARTIST | COMPOSER | POET |
|---|---|---|---|
| Loveliest of trees | Colvin, Michael, tenor; Ralls, Stephen, piano | Peel, Graham | Housman, Alfred Edward |
| Loveliest of trees (A Shropshire Lad) | Polegato, Brett, baritone; Ralls, Stephen, piano | Butterworth, George | Housman, Alfred Edward |
| Chanson d’avril | Colvin, Michael, tenor; Ralls, Stephen, piano | Bizet, Georges | Bouilhet, Louis |
| Six Dukes went afishin’ | Colvin, Michael, tenor; Ralls, Stephen, piano | Lincolnshire folksong, arr. Grainger, Percy | anon. |
| The Call (Five Mystical Songs) | Polegato, Brett, baritone; Ubukata, Bruce, piano | Vaughan Williams, Ralph | Herbert, George |
| Art thou troubled? (Rodelinda) | Colvin, Michael, tenor; Ubukata, Bruce, piano | Handel, George Frideric | Haym, Nicola, trans. Rothery, W.G. |
| Think no more, lad (A Shropshire Lad) | Polegato, Brett, baritone; Ralls, Stephen, piano | Butterworth, George | Housman, Alfred Edward |
| Is my team ploughing? (A Shropshire Lad) | Polegato, Brett, baritone; Ubukata, Bruce, piano | Butterworth, George | Housman, Alfred Edward |
| Hawthorn Time | Colvin, Michael, tenor; Ubukata, Bruce, piano | Ireland, John | Housman, Alfred Edward |
| When I was one and twenty (A Shropshire Lad) | Polegato, Brett, baritone; Ubukata, Bruce, piano | Butterworth, George | Housman, Alfred Edward |
| Excerpt from St Matthew Passion | Colvin, Michael, tenor; Polegato, Brett, baritone; Ubukata, Bruce, piano | Bach, Johann Sebastian | Gospel according to St Matthew |
| Yarmouth Fair | Polegato, Brett, baritone; Ralls, Stephen, piano | Norfolk folksong, arr. Warlock, Peter | Collins, Hal |
| I sing of a maiden (Two Christmas Carols) | Colvin, Michael, tenor; Ubukata, Bruce, piano | MacMillan, Sir Ernest | anon. |
| Sonnet “To Sleep” | Polegato, Brett, baritone; Ralls, Stephen, piano | Willan, Healey | Keats, John |
| Look not in my eyes (A Shropshire Lad) | Polegato, Brett, baritone; Ubukata, Bruce, piano | Butterworth, George | Housman, Alfred Edward |
| Horo Mhairi dhu | Colvin, Michael, tenor; Ralls, Stephen, piano | Scottish folksong, arr. Peel, Graham | North, Christopher |
| Country Gardens (English Morris Tune) | Ralls, Stephen / Ubukata, Bruce, piano | Grainger, Percy | n/a |
| The Self-banished | Polegato, Brett, baritone; Ubukata, Bruce, piano | Blow, John | anon. |
| Der Doppelgänger, D957/13 | Polegato, Brett, baritone; Ubukata, Bruce, piano | Schubert, Franz | Heine, Heinrich |
| The Ash Grove | Colvin, Michael, tenor; Ralls, Stephen, piano | Welsh folksong, arr. Britten, Benjamin | anon. |
| The lads in their hundreds (A Shropshire Lad) | Polegato, Brett, baritone; Ralls, Stephen, piano | Butterworth, George | Housman, Alfred Edward |
| Wenn ich mit Menschenzungen, Op.121/4 (Vier ernste Gesänge) | Polegato, Brett, baritone; Ralls, Stephen, piano | Brahms, Johannes | I Corinthians 13 |
| Prelude (The 49th Parallel) – ENCORE | Ralls, Stephen / Ubukata, Bruce, piano | Vaughan Williams, Ralph | n/a |