Songs from the Marylebone Pleasure Gardens Clare Presland, Simon Blendis, Natalie Klouda, Meghan Cassidy & Gemma Rosefield

• 1 Traditional: A New Song 02:48
• 2 Traditional: Fye, Shepherd, Fye 02:27
• 3 Traditional: Polly of the Plain 03:11
• 4 Traditional: Polly 03:50
• Total Runtime 12:16

Info for Songs from the Marylebone Pleasure Gardens

On 22nd June, Besant Hall Records released ‘Songs from the Marylebone Pleasure Gardens’, performed by mezzo-soprano Clare Presland and a string quartet featuring Simon Blendis, Natalie Klouda, Meghan Cassidy, and Gemma Rosefield, recorded at Air-Edel Studios at the start of June under socially distanced conditions. The release was recorded in partnership with the 2020 Marylebone Music Festival and The Howard De Walden Estate, and coincides with Air-Edel’s 50th Anniversary celebrations.

240 years in the making, the Marylebone Music Festival brings back music of the Marylebone Pleasure Gardens which fell silent in 1777. During their time in the 18th Century, the Pleasure Gardens were known for their elegance and sophistication and were renowned for their entertainment, of which Marylebone was said to be the greatest.

“Music was a big part of the Marylebone Pleasure Gardens, even with its own orchestra. The recent discovery of manuscripts of the songs sung at the Marylebone Pleasure Gardens, however has led to this recording: ‘Songs from the Marylebone Pleasure Gardens’. Despite being unable to host the event physically in Marylebone, we wanted to ensure we marked the Festival and it’s mission to bring people together for good and to celebrate and encourage community spirit and the importance of working together.” – Meghan Cassidy, Artistic Director

The Marylebone Pleasure Gardens opened in 1737 by Daniel Gough, who was the landlord of the Rose Tavern, situated at the north end of what is now Marylebone High Street. He was extremely well connected in the musical world, inviting the finest musicians of the time, including composers such as James Hook, Thomas Arne and George Frideric Handel, all of whom visited the gardens and had their compositions performed there. The importance of high quality music was established from the very beginning of the Marylebone Pleasure Gardens.

Unlike other Pleasure Gardens, Marylebone boasted its own orchestra. Yet despite this, there is very little that exists in the way of notated music from the gardens. The recent discovery of manuscripts of some of the songs sung at the Marylebone Pleasure Gardens, however, has led to these recordings, Songs from the Marylebone Pleasure Gardens.

It’s uncertain as to who the composers were for these songs, but we do know the singers: Mrs Chambers and Miss Faulkner. Mrs Chambers was a Marylebone regular and performed ‘Polly of the Plain’, which was printed in 1754. Miss Faulkner (Dublin-born) was a renowned singer, was engaged at the Marylebone Gardens for the 1747 season, and was to be a Marylebone favourite for the next five years.

Composer Thomas Arne’s son, Micheal Arne, also preformed regularly at the Marylebone Gardens from 1750 onwards. As a boy singer, he performed alongside Miss Faulkner, and this might suggest that Thomas Arne wrote one or two of these songs; for her, or indeed for Michael, as he is also known for his song compositions for the pleasure gardens.

Another composer who wrote many songs specifically for the Marylebone gardens was William Defesch (composer and violinist). When Defesch was in charge of the music at the Marylebone Pleasure Gardens in 1748, he published six ‘New Songs’, two of which were sung by Miss Faulkner.

The Marylebone Pleasure Gardens attracted many different patrons, and the most notable attendees include HRH Frederick Prince of Wales with several ‘persons of distinction’, as well as famous highwayman Dick Turpin.

In 1777 The Marylebone Pleasure Gardens eventually closed after 40 glorious years, and since then the musicality of the Marylebone Pleasure Gardens was passed onto the next generation. Elizabeth Trusler, daughter of John Trusler, who was the second landlord of the Marylebone Pleasure Gardens went on to have two Musical children. Her son Stephen (born April 4th 1762) and Anna Selina (‘Nancy’) (born 27th October 1786). Stephen was a very gifted composer, who became a friend and possibly pupil of Mozart in Vienna, and Nancy was Mozart’s first Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro (Vienna, 1786).

Clare Presland, mezzo-soprano
Simon Blendis, violin
Natalie Klouda, violin
Meghan Cassidy, viola
Gemma Rosefield, cello

Clare Presland
Most recent engagements for Clare Presland include her main-stage debut as Red Queen/Queen Of Hearts in Gerald Barry’s Alice’s Adventures Under Ground Royal Opera House Covent Garden, which she also performed with RTE Concert Orchestra, New Music Dublin; Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream Scottish Opera; Dinah in Trouble in Tahiti Nevill Holt Opera; Komponist in Ariadne auf Naxos Longborough Festival; Countess Susanna in Il segreto di Susanna Opera Holland Park and Scottish Opera and Soloist in Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, Gloria and Sanctus/Benedictus from Mass in C with Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting Philharmonia Orchestra at Royal Festival Hall.

Additional recent performances include Aksinya in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk Opera de Lyon; Patient 2 Venables’ in 4.48 Psychosis (world premiere) Royal Opera House at the Lyric Hammersmith; Christina in Eichberg’s Glare (world premiere) Royal Opera House; Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream Aldeburgh Festival, Snape Maltings, English National Opera, Hyogo Performing Arts Center in Japan; Fenena in Nabucco Chelsea Opera Group, Cadogen Hall; Varvara in Káťa Kabanová Opera Holland Park; Realtor in Tansy Davies’ Between Worlds(world premiere) English National Opera at The Barbican; Carmen (title role) Nevill Holt Opera; Margret (cover Marie) in Wozzeck, Palestinian Woman in The Death of Klinghoffer, Wardrobe Mistress/Schoolboy/Page in Lulu, Sonyetka in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Flora in La Traviata, Mercedes in Carmen, Wowkle in La fanciulla del West, Second Lady in The Magic Flute, Second Gentleman in Julietta and Carmen (cover) English National Opera. Clare trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and was also a Britten Pears Young Artist. She was a Chilcott Award winner.

This album contains no booklet.