'The Blue Bird', C. V. Stanford

Stanford's delicately divine setting of a poem by Mary Elizabeth Coleridge masterfully captures a fleeting moment of natural wonder, a blue bird flitting across a still lake.

Recorded in the Great Hall of Durham Castle. Our thanks to Media Durham for loaning us upgraded equipment. Stay tuned for some more gems from our end of term recording day!

Soloist: Talulla Lee

Sopranos: Kate Ryan, George Daniel
Altos: Sophie Essenhigh, Hannah Mayes, Thomas Good, Seana Barrett
Tenors: Elliott Gregg, Matthew Holloway-Strong, Harry Gordon
Basses: Mikolaj Derdun, Oliver Woods

Text:
The lake lay blue below the hill.
O'er it, as I looked, there flew
Across the waters, cold and still,
A bird whose wings were palest blue.

The sky above was blue at last,
The sky beneath me blue in blue.
A moment, ere the bird had passed,
It caught his image as he flew.

'L'Oiseau Bleu', Mary Elizabeth Coleridge