Shakespeare Inspired CD

South African-born Michelle Breedt has graced the most prominent concert and opera stages in Europe since her move to Germany in 1990. Appearing at, amongst others, the Salzburg and Bayreth Festivals and working with such luminaries as Ozawa, Tielemann, de Billy andHarnoncourt, her rich mezzosoprano voice has elicited ecstatic reviews.

TwoPianists Records is proud to announce its association with Michelle on a first disc featuring Shakespeare in song. What makes this disc so unique is that most people associate artsong with Germany or France, never England! It is indeed true that England was known as Anglia non Cantat and endured a musical silence of almost 200 years following the death of Henry Purcell in 1695.

By the late 19th century English composers rediscovered their tradition, amongst them Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Cecil A Gibbs, Frederick Delius and later Eric Coates and Benjamin Britten. Thus this disc represents a journey spanning 100 years of Shakespeare texts at the pen of his countrymen combined with a collage of english atmospheric songs on nature and love.