B. Britten: On This Island - "Now the Leaves Are Falling Fast"

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)

On This Island, Op. 11 (1937) - 2. Now the Leaves are Falling Fast

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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Now the leaves are falling fast,

Nurse’s flowers will not last;

Nurses to the graves are gone,

And the prams go rolling on.

Whisp’ring neighbours, left and right,

Pluck us from the real delight;

And the active hands must freeze

Lonely on the sep’rate knees.

Dead in hundreds at the back

Follow wooden in our track,

Arms raised stiffly to reprove

In false attitudes of love.

Starving through the leafless wood

Trolls run scolding for their food;

And the nightingale is dumb,

And the angel will not come.

Cold, impossible, ahead

Lifts the mountain’s lovely head

Whose white waterfall could bless

Travellers in their last distress.

- W. H. Auden (1907-1973)