B. Britten: On This Island - "Let the Florid Music Praise!"

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)

On This Island, Op. 11 (1937) - 1. Let the Florid Music Praise!

Emily Hamilton, soprano

Nathan Eck, piano

Recorded on June 28, 2022 in Duino, Italy during the International Music Festival of the Adriatic (IMFA)

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Let the florid music praise,

The flute and the trumpet,

Beauty’s conquest of your face:

In that land of flesh and bone,

Where from citadels on high

Her imperial standards fly,

Let the hot sun

Shine on, shine on.

O but the unlov’d have had power,

The weeping and striking,

Always; time will bring their hour:

Their secretive children walk

Through your vigilance of breath

To unpardonable death,

And my vows break

Before his look.

- W. H. Auden (1907-1973)