The Curlew is a song cycle from 1922 by Peter Warlock (actual name Philip Heseltine, 1894 - 1930) on poems by W. B. Yeats. It was written for singer and an unusual accompanying group of flute, cor anglais and string quartet. There are four songs, with a short instrumental interlude between the third and the fourth (see also its Wiki entry). When I bought the CD decades ago, it was to get the two Vaughan Williams cycles, but as good as they were, the Warlock turned out to be the real find. For me, bleak as it may be, it is one of the most beautiful song cycles ever composed. The average playing time is 22 minutes (AllMusic). I have two versions, of which I have a slight preference for Ian Partridge with the Music Group of London, including Janet Craxton on cor anglais, on an EMI CD.
