In this collection we have a cycle of choral settings with words by Campion, Shakespeare, and anon. for SATB (with tenor solo) and small orchestra.

Songlist: Icicles, Winter Nights, Good Ale, Blow Blow Thou Winter Wind, Winter Wakeneth All My Care, Hay Ay

The first book of a fabulous series presenting the best of Peter Warlock's Choral Music. Warlock is a treasure of British song-writing and this volume contains a fantastic collection of sociable songs ideal for encouraging sing-songs and parties! Nine songs for Voice and Piano accompaniment with optional Unison or two-part chorus. Humorous, entertaining, moving and sometimes vulgar songs, Warlock has such a way with words, phrasing and melody and these songs are sure to delight singers, players and audiences.

Songlist: One More River, Fill The Cup Philip, Good Ale, Jillian Of Berry, Mourn No Moe, Perter Warlock's Fancy, The Cricketers Of Hambledon, The Toper's Song, Twelve Oxen

The 'fancies' that give this album its title are the fleeting ideas, dreams and whims that flit like Will-o'-the-wisps through the imagination of every artist. I have always thought that they were captured to perfection by the Elizabethan poets and by their collaborators, the madrigal composers such as Weelkes, Wilbye and Morely; and, looking back now on the music heard on this recording, I realize how much of it was inspired by the madrigalian spirit. Fancies was written in 1971 for the Richard Hickox Singers and Orchestra (the orchestra was later renamed the City of London Sinfonia, who play on this recording). The first performance was given in London, repeated shortly afterwards at an open-air concert one lovely summer's evening by the River Thames in rural Berkshire, a perfect setting for it. The Suite Antique, dating from 1979, also has a Berkshire association: I was asked to write it for the Cookham Festival, to be peformed by Duke Dobing and the London Baroque Soloists at a concert in Cookham Parish Church. Bach's Fifth Brandenburg Concerto was on the programme, so I decided to write for the same combination of instruments, and to pay musical homage to the forms and styles of Bach's day. - John Rutter

Songlist: Fancies, Tell me where is fancy bred, There is a garen in her face, The urchins' dance, Riddle song, Midnight's bell, The bellman's song, Suite Antique, Prelude, Ostinato, Aria, Waltz, Chanson, Rondeau, Five Childhood Lyrics, Monday's child, The Owl and the Pussy-Cat, Windy nights, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Sing A Song Of Sixpence, When Icicles Hang, Icicles, Winter nights, Good ale, Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind, Winter wakeneth all my care, Hay, ay