![\"Capture\"](\"https:\/\/soundslikesydney.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Capture6-264x240.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Two of Australia\u2019s finest storytellers, actor John Bell and pianist Simon Tedeschi, break new ground with this new recording for ABC Classics, of the great melodrama Enoch Arden<\/em> \u2013 a deeply moving tale of love, loss, redemption and shipwreck, told through spoken word and solo piano. The album, available on CD and as a digital recording will be launched by Bell and Tedeschi on a national tour through June and July.<\/p>\n Enoch Arden<\/em> depicts, in Tedeschi\u2019s own words, “extremities of emotional pathos in which an everyman is thrust into a maelstrom of betrayal, longing, regret and often, madness.\u201d It is the story of three childhood friends, Enoch Arden, Philip Ray and Annie Lee. Enoch and Annie marry and start a family, but after Enoch is shipwrecked on an island for ten years, Annie agrees to marry Philip \u2013 believing Enoch to be dead. When Enoch returns, he learns of Annie and Philip\u2019s relationship, and of their child together, and chooses to live in seclusion, heartbroken for his own fate but blissful in their happiness.<\/p>\n The poem Enoch Arden<\/em> was published in 1864 while Alfred, Lord Tennyson was Queen Victoria\u2019s Poet Laureate; Strauss wrote a piano score to accompany its recitation in 1897. Its most famous recording was a limited-edition release by Glenn Gould with Claude Rains in 1962. This new recording presents a rare insight into the pathos of Enoch Arden\u2019s story, an exploration of humanity just as relevant in 2017 as when it was first written.<\/p>\n Recorded May 2017 in the Eugene Goossens Hall, ABC Ultimo, this album is the first collaboration between Tedeschi and Bell. “I wanted to do Enoch,\u201d says John Bell, \u201cbecause I love working with musicians; I love being up close and watching their technique and feeling the visceral presence of the instruments. I’ve admired Simon for a long time; he’s a bit of an entertainer and showman as well as being a great pianist.”<\/p>\n On this album, Enoch Arden<\/em> is paired with the evocative Songs of Dawn<\/em> (Ges\u00e4nge der Fr\u00fche) for solo piano by Robert Schumann. Written in 1853, towards the end of the composer\u2019s tragic life, the five songs are, Tedeschi notes, “devotional one minute, white-hot the next, and then heartbreakingly lyrical, ending with a hymn-like movement that, to me, is as palpable a winding-down of the human spirit as Beethoven\u2019s last Piano Sonata.”<\/p>\n John Bell is one of our generation\u2019s foremost actors, particularly renowned for his performances of Shakespeare and for founding the Bell Shakespeare company. He was named one of Australia’s National Living Treasures in 1997. Simon Tedeschi\u2019s solo and concerto performances have seen him hailed by critics worldwide, including as \u201ctrue greatness\u201d by the Sydney Morning Herald.<\/p>\n The tracks:\u00a0RICHARD STRAUSS :1\u20138 Enoch Arden,<\/em>\u00a0Poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson\/\u00a0ROBERT SCHUMANN:\u00a09\u201313 Songs of Dawn<\/em> (Ges\u00e4nge der Fr\u00fche)<\/p>\n John Bell narrator [1-8]\/\u00a0Simon Tedeschi piano<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sydney tour date: <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Two of Australia\u2019s finest storytellers, actor John Bell and pianist Simon Tedeschi, break new ground with this new recording for ABC Classics,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"sls_format":[],"class_list":["post-23364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":{"deck":"","is_featured":false,"media_type":"standard","audio_embed":"","video_url":""},"yoast_head":"\n
\nSun July 9, 3pm at Utzon Music Series, Sydney Opera House (NSW)<\/p>\n