En 2009, pour célébrer dignement son 20ème anniversaire, NMC Recordings a commandé le NMC Songbook. Près de 100 compositeurs, choisis parmi les talents émergents ou avérés ayant enregistré pour ce label, ont composé une mélodie pour une ou deux voix avec ou sans accompagnement instrumental et ayant pour thème la Grande Bretagne. Le texte de ces songs a été choisi par le compositeur et couvre une grande diversité de thème : des poèmes de Blake et de Byron, des comptines, des extraits de textes documentaires, des recettes de cuisine, etc. Quelques interludes instrumentaux viennent aérer le contenu de ce récital en 4 disques au nombre desquels on pourra entendre une gaillarde de Thomas Morley, arrangée pour le Songbook par Colin Matthews. AG

Lucretius (Julian ANDERSON), Sonnet XVIII (Simon BAINBRIDGE), English lullaby (Richard BAKER), The importance of being earnest (Gerald BARRY), Hour-glass (Daniel BASFORD), Titania's song (Alison BAULD), Vocalise-loch Lurgainn in the sunshine (Rupert BAWDEN), The roman centurion's song (David BEDFORD), Upon St. George's hill (Luke BEDFORD), Echo: hommage à Francis Poulenc (Michael BERKELEY), She walks in beauty like the night (Judith BINGHAM), This silence before light (Harrison BIRTWISTLE), A swallow (David BLAKE), Old man and sea (Gavin BRYARS), Love song (Diana BURRELL), London (Martin BUTLER) , Interlude (Gary CARPENTER), Daisy's song (Philip CASHIAN), Night and morning (John CASKEN), English encouragement of art (Richard CAUSTON), Tss-k-haa (Jonathan COLE), A recipe for whisky (Lyell CRESSWELL), Dirge for Cymbeline (Gordon CROSSE), Bands (Joe CUTLER), Spoken of th bronze head (Jeremy Dale ROBERTS), Destroying beauty (Tansy DAVIES), An hypallage (Chris DENCH), Swift's epitaph (Donnacha DENNEHY), Upon the cloudy night (James DILLON), Cease sorrows now (Joe DUDDELL), Meet me in the green glen (Brian ELIAS) , Outside fort Tregantle (Michael FINNISSY), Driving (Ben FOSKETT), The true standard advanced (Christopher FOX), Lake side (Dai FUJIKURA), Those fenny bells (Anthony GILBERT), Ulysse's admonition to Achille (Alexander GOEHR), First known when lost (Philip GRANGE), Know the kings and queens (Julian GRANT), Nobody comes (Helen GRIME), A simple neo-georgian summer (Emily HALL), An oblique (Bryn HARRISON), Easter zunday (Sadie HARRISON), Ah! Sun-flower (Jonathan HARVEY), A dictionary of London (Morgan HAYES), Go, lovely rose (Robin HOLLOWAY), Raju Raghuvanshi is a ghost (Simon HOLT), A curious thirsty fly (David HORNE), Wild clematis in winter (Emily HOWARD), An aesthetic of lines (Jordan HUNT), Because I breathe not love to everyone (Robert KEELEY), Haiku (Blaar KINDSDOTTIR), Out of town (Rachel LEACH), The bourne (Nicola LEFANU), The greenwood's lament (Jonathan LLOYD), Mouth of the dumb (James MACMILLAN), The lit in this world (Stuart MACRAE), A cat (John MCCABE), Lullaby (Roger MARSH), Blaze of noon (Phillip Neil MARTIN), Gailliard, versions d'après Thomas Morley; Out in the dark (Colin MATTHEWS), Plover's peak (David MATTHEWS), Labyrinth to light (Peter MAXWELL DAVIES), The fitful alternations of the rain (Christopher MAYO ), Fin like a flower (Anna MEREDITH), My favourite sound (Claudia MOLITOR), The poison tree (Stephen MONTAGUE), Music, thou queen of souls (Lloyd MOORE), A winter's morning (Thea MUSGRAVE), Poet and star (Bayan NORTHCOTT), Darkness visible (Tarik O'REGAN), That mighty heart (Roxanna PANUFNIK), Ghost train (Anthony PAYNE), The moon's funeral (Joseph PHIBBS), Blist's hill (Julian PHILIPS), Heynonnynonny smallprint (Geoffrey POOLE), Stanzas 1814 (Jonathan POWELL), Shinig plain (Anthony POWERS), A dangerous crossing (Edwin ROXBURGH), With my whip (Edward RUSHTON), Maiden in the moor (Nicholas SACKMAN), The Source (David SAWER), The beach in winter: scrabty (Robert SAXTON), Bees a-zwarmen (Julia SIMPSON), Silence on Ullswater (Howard SKEMPTON), 25 (Luke STONEHAM), I look into my glass (Giles SWAYNE), Bellamy (Mark-Anthony TURNAGE), Tree (Errollyn WALLEN), Proud Maisie (Huw WATKINS), Blackbirds and thrushes (Judith WEIR), Houses and gardens in the heart of England (John WHITE) , A cause for wonder (Peter WIEGOLD), A coat (Roderick WILLIAMS), Easter (Hugh WOOD), Stendhal's observation (John WOOLRICH)