Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets

Background

The album is a collaboration with Marius de Vries, who produced Wainwright's previous studio albums Want One (2003) and Want Two (2004), and mixed his 2007 album Release the Stars. The concept originated when director Robert Wilson asked Wainwright to compose music for his 2009 production "Shakespeare's Sonnets", which was first staged at the Berliner Ensemble. The San Francisco Symphony later commissioned Wainwright to orchestrate five of the sonnets, which premiered in 2010. Three of the sonnets (Sonnet 10, Sonnet 20, Sonnet 43) appeared on Wainwright's 2010 studio album All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu; alternate versions were recorded for Take All My Loves. Wainwright has said, "For me, recording this album has been a marriage made in heaven, as it combines my love of classical music with my love of pop music. It's literally historically fun. And made all the better by working again with Marius." The tribute album commemorates, and will be released one day prior to, the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death.

Wainwright said of the project:

I guess a fair number of people know the sonnets, but the plays are the centerpiece of Shakespeare's legend. But I've found in working with the sonnets they even transcend the plays, though to even fathom that is inconceivable since the plays are so amazing. But once you start to get into the sonnets it takes on this timeless, ageless, almost futuristic quality. So much of the language and so much of the sentiment is contemporary -- gender and sexuality and love and hate are just so plainly exhibited that it's really searing.

Composition

Take All My Loves, named in honor of Shakespeare's Sonnet 40, includes nine adaptations of Shakespeare's sonnets (Sonnet 10, Sonnet 20, Sonnet 23, Sonnet 29, Sonnet 40, Sonnet 43, Sonnet 66, Sonnet 87, and Sonnet 129) across sixteen tracks. The album features guest appearances by Helena Bonham Carter, Fiora Cutler, Peter Eyre, Carrie Fisher, Inge Keller, Siân Phillips, Anna Prohaska, William Shatner, Martha Wainwright, and Florence Welch. Other contributors include Nicholai Baxter on acoustic guitar, the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jayce Ogren, the Berlin String Section, Dom Bouffard and Joel Shearer on guitar, Hans-Jörn Brandenburg on piano, Hoon Sun Chae on cello, Chris Chaney and Ralph Graessler on bass, Uhjin Choi on viola, de Vries on keyboard and ROLI Seaboard, Gary Novak on drums, Ilzoo Park and Sophiemarie Yeoungchie Won on violin, and Stefan Rager on drums and percussion.

The album's opening track, "Sonnet 43", is a recitation by Phillips. Prohaska provides vocals on "When Most I Wink (Sonnet 43)". "Take All My Loves (Sonnet 40)" features vocals by Wainwright and a recitation by de Vries. "Sonnet 20" is a recitation by Frally Hynes, and the following two tracks, "A Woman's Face (Sonnet 20)" and "For Shame (Sonnet 10)", feature vocals by Prohaska. "Sonnet 10" is a recitation by Eyre. "Unperfect Actor (Sonnet 23)" is a recitation by Bonham Carter and features vocals by Rufus and Martha Wainwright, and Cutler. "Sonnet 29" is a recitation by Fisher. The following track, "When in Disgrace with Fortune and Men's Eyes (Sonnet 29)" features vocals by Welch and backing vocals by Wainwright and Ben de Vries. "Sonnet 129" is a recitation by Shatner, and the subsequent track "Th'Expense of Spirit in a Waste of Shame (Sonnet 129)" features vocals by Prohaska. "All dessen müd (Sonnet 66)" features vocals by Christopher Nell, Jürgen Holtz, and Wainwright. "A Woman's Face – Reprise (Sonnet 20)" includes vocals by Wainwright and is followed by "Sonnet 87", which is a recitation by Keller. The album's closing track, "Farewell (Sonnet 87)", features vocals by Prohaska.

Promotion

On March 17, 2016, Billboard premiered the reprise version of "A Woman's Face".

Track listing

Track listing adapted from Universal Music Canada and Universal Music Group.

Personnel

Credits adapted from Universal Music Canada.