Njabulo Madala - Songs of Home (2013)

The South African baritone and 2010 Kathleen Ferrier Award winner Njabulo Madlala makes his debut on Champs Hill Records. Songs of Home is a reflection of a journey from the townships of South Africa to the world of classical music and song. It is inspired by the South African Songbook and songs which his grandmother used to sing. Njabulo Madlala describes it as ‘life’s journey without boundaries’, drawing on ‘songs I heard and took to bed with me every night, songs I heard from Miriam Makeba, Sibongile Khumalo, and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau’. This CD celebrates the intense beauty of music, the unique harmonies and rhythms of Africa meeting those of Schubert, Schumann, and Strauss, the click sounds spoken by the Zulu and Xhosa people of South Africa meeting the English composers Vaughan Williams, Howells, and Quilter.