End of My Days Ruby Hughes & Manchester Collective

• Brian Elias (b. 1948): Meet Me in the Green Glen:
• 1Elias: Meet Me in the Green Glen04:16
• Caroline Shaw (b. 1982): Valencia:
• 2Shaw: Valencia05:29
• Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958): Along the Field:
• 3Williams: Along the Field04:20
• John Tavener (1944 - 2013): Akhmatova Songs:
• 4Tavener: Akhmatova Songs: I. Dante02:50
• 5Tavener: Akhmatova Songs: III. Boris Pasternak02:17
• 6Tavener: Akhmatova Songs: IV. Couplet02:13
• John Dowland (1563 - 1626): Two Dowland Songs:
• 7Dowland: Two Dowland Songs: Go Crystal Tears03:57
• 8Dowland: Two Dowland Songs: Flow My Tears07:04
• Traditional: Da Day Dawn:
• 9Traditional: Da Day Dawn04:00
• Maurice Ravel (1875 - 1937): End of My Days:
• 10Ravel: Kaddisch05:47
• Errollyn Wallen (b. 1958): End of My Days:
• 11Wallen: End of My Days05:24
• Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918): Trois chansons de Bilitis, FL 37:
• 12Debussy: Trois chansons de Bilitis, FL 37: I. La flûte de Pan02:54
• 13Debussy: Trois chansons de Bilitis, FL 37: II. La chevelure03:56
• 14Debussy: Trois chansons de Bilitis, FL 37: III. Le tombeau des naïades03:05
• Gustav Mahler (1860 - 1911): Urlicht:
• 15Mahler: Urlicht05:15
• Deborah Pritchard (b. 1977): Peace:
• 16Pritchard: Peace03:13
• Total Runtime01:06:00

Info for End of My Days

The inspiration for this album came about from Ruby Hughes’ first collaboration with the Manchester Collective in the spring of 2020. During the first Covid lockdown, they built the programme of this recital for the purpose of touring the UK and uplifting their audiences at a time when we were all being confronted by challenging notions of mortality and isolation. As artists, they asked themselves what music might attend to the prevailing concerns of this time. Their answers came in the form of this offering. The title of this album, End of My Days, comes from Errollyn Wallen’s song; a resounding celebration of life that embraces death without regret or sadness but with great verve and acceptance. The other songs, each in its own way, evoke silence and separation, but also love and hope and even the reassurance that we will return whence we came and light shall lift us into eternity. The concluding song, Deborah Pritchard’s Peace, is a message of hope, willingly received as the world emerged out of lockdown in 2021. Luminous tranquillity moves us into the light, towards eternity.

Ruby Hughes, soprano
Manchester Collective

Ruby Hughes
is a former BBC New Generation Artist and was winner of both First Prize and the Audience Prize at the 2009 London Handel Singing Competition. She holds a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award and was Shortlisted for a 2014 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award.

She has become known for her interpretations of the music of the baroque and 20th and 21st Century, performed at every turn with a unique sensitivity and artistry. On the opera stage she has sung productions for Theater an der Wein (Roggiero in Rossini's Tancredi, and Fortuna in L’Incoronazione di Poppea), Aix-en-Provence Festival (EuridiceL'Orfeo), Opéra de Toulon (Rose Maurrant Street Scene) and Potsdamer Winteroper (title role, Theodora) and in the UK has performed major roles with English National Opera, Garsington Opera and for Scottish Opera.

Ruby works regularly with conductors including Rinaldo Allesandrini, Ivor Bolton, Laurence Cummings, Thierry Fischer, Pablo Heras Casado, Rene Jacobs, Juanjo Mena, Gianandrea Noseda, Marc Minkowski, HervéNiquet, Thomas Søndergård, John Storgårds, and Osmo Vänskä.

She is a passionate programmer, curator and collaborator and has forged particularly close relationships with Mime Brinkmann and Jonas Nordberg (baroque trio), Laurence Cummings, Joseph Middleton, Natalie Clein and Julius Drake, Huw Watkins, United Strings of Europe and the Manchester Collective.

Her captivating communication with the audience has resulted in invitations to give recitals at Wigmore Hall, Muziekcentrum De Bijloke, Gent, Kings Place, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Schloss Elmau, Vienna Konzerthaus, LSO St Luke’s and in the US at both the Frick Collection and Carnegie Hall, New York. Festival appearances have included the BBC Proms, Cheltenham, Edinburgh International, Newbury, Aldeburgh Festival, La Folle Journée, Gent Festival OdeGand, Göttingen, Marlboro, Spitalfields and Beaune and Namur.

She has built up an impressive discography including a tribute to Handel’s lyric muse Giulia Frasi for Chandos Records with Laurence Cummings and the OAE. She has a close partnership with BIS Records with whom she has recorded "Heroines of Love and Loss", which was released to huge critical acclaim and received a Diapason d’or award. Her debut solo recording with Symphony Orchestra ‘Clytemnestra’ (works by Mahler, Berg and Rhian Samuel) was also highly praised receiving record of the month in several publications as well as being nominated for a Gramophone Award. She has recorded Mahler Symphony No. 2 with the Minnesota Symphony under Osmo Vänskä, a solo recital disc with Joseph Middleton titled "Songs for New Life and Love" including works by Mahler, Ives and Helen Grime and most recently a programme with United Strings of Europe including Golijov’s Three Songs for Soprano and String Orchestra. Future recording projects for BIS include a baroque disc with Jonas Nordberg, and two recordings with Manchester Collective to include a commission by Edmund Finnis together with Britten’s Les Illuminations, a programme which they performed together in a UK tour to great critical acclaim.

Ruby’s passion for performing new repertoire has led to her becoming a champion of female composers having had many commissions written for her including those by Helen Grime, Deborah Pritchard Judith Weir and Errolyn Wallen.

Highlights for Ruby’s upcoming season include concerts with Bach Collegium Japan, performing Bach’s Matthew Passion under Masaaki Suzuki, Orchestre d’Auvergne (Britten’s Les Illuminations), ResidenteOrchestra (Ruckert Lieder), Orchestre National de Lille (Mozart Great Mass in C), Potsdam Kammerakademie, Aarhus Symfoniorkester and recitals at Wigmore Hall and LSO St Luke’s. 22/23 will also see the release of the disc ECHO with pianist and composer Huw Watkins on the BIS label.

Booklet for End of My Days