Ivor Bertie Gurney

“Iain Burnside presents impressive solo credentials: the serious technical demands of the Job arrangement cause him no problems, while his flair for conjuring orchestra-like colours from the keyboard is of the very highest standard of play.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2013 ****

“A hefty bass-baritone in every sense, he's inevitably compared with Bryn Terfel, but his voice seems darker and somewhat smoother, less given to pianissimi but still expressive...Songs of Travel has a notably virile energy, reinforced by veteran accompanist Eugene Asti's unusually driven reading...A very worthwhile recital.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2012 *****

“Rutherford brings his Wagnerian bass-baritone to bear on the song repertoire with uncommon skill and sensitivity...The only serious drawback comes at the top of the voice, where Wagnerian bluster and a slow vibrato sometimes detract from the beauty of his singing...but Rutherford has given notice of a very appreciable talent for song. With accompaniments of exemplary precision, this disc is highly recommended.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2012

“Rutherford's full tone, dark, possibly bass-baritone rather than BIS's designation of baritone, is released with the vigour to resemble somebody, here the vagabond, striding purposefully along the lane...Asti's playing gels with Rutherford's singing in these Gurney songs, as it does in the other pieces...Rutherford's enunciation is all one could wish for.” International Record Review, September 2012

“The quality of the Gurney songs may be a bit uneven, but Rutherford handles them all with great tact, his tone fined down, his diction immaculate, and without a hint of extraneous pathos. In the authentically great Butterworth sets Rutherford's approach is exemplary.” The Guardian, 15th August 2012 ****

“The title is deceptive, for these songs exude anything but a warlike mood. Almost all are English: the idiom is winsome, romantic and often quite innocent, as in Vaughan Williams’s “Youth and Love” and Bridge’s “Thy hand in mine”. At the heart of the recital – beautifully vocalised and artlessly characterised by Keenlyside – is Butterworth’s cycle of songs under the title “A Shropshire Lad”.” Financial Times, 5th November 2011 ****

“Despite the title, most of the songs in this admirable collection are anything but warlike. There is no place for patriotic bombast here; instead, these polished miniatures yearn for a vanished pastoral England...a beautifully judged recording, exquisitely sung; poignant but never sentimental.” The Observer, 13th November 2011

“At 52, the British baritone is in peak vocal health, and certainly young-sounding enough to portray the men in their late teens and twenties who leave their homes and loves...I can’t think of another baritone who can match him for beautiful tone, nuance of expression and immaculate diction...Keenlyside is incomparable here, in one of the song records of the year.” Sunday Times, 13th November 2011

“it’s not damning with faint praise to say that you don’t really notice the music at all – it’s Simon Keenlyside’s impeccable delivery that registers. Housman’s bittersweet musings are heartbreaking, notably in the penultimate poem; just listen to Keenlyside's mention of "the lads that will die in their glory and never be old"...A sober, intelligent CD, beautifully sung, immaculately accompanied. Keenlyside's sleeve notes are intelligent, insightful and touching.” The Arts Desk, 26th November 2011

“A sense of the mannered or precious can debase these songs; Keenlyside's sweeping, robust lyricism is deceptively effortless and exactly right...Dr Johnson once said that every man thinks worse of himself for never having been a soldier; Keenlyside has evidently thought deeply about this, making for a robust and involving recital.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2012 *****

“Keenlyside's mark is everywhere apparent and full marks to him for persuading Sony to indulge his choices...He is indeed a remarkable singer. He can encompass tragedy and irony, heroic and tender, he has magical half-tones, introduces a thrilling touch of head voice in Warlock's The Night, he can tell a story...Keenlyside's impassioned, almost overwhelming rendering of Frank Bridge's Thy Hand in Mine is, I think, the core and key to this compelling collection” International Record Review, January 2012

“One can imagine a more poignant account of the ghostly voices in 'Is my team ploughing?' but 'The lads in their hundreds' is all the more moving for Keenlyside's robustness...The rest of the programme is equally rewarding and Keenlyside's diction is perfect.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2012

“Bejun Mehta certainly can't be faulted on his eclecticism in his whistle-stop tour of English song...Mehta's singing is so heart-stoppingly beautiful and musically perceptive that you wish he had recorded whole cycles rather than just representative songs.” The Guardian, 1st September 2011 ****

“Mehta's gift for mood and atmosphere is heard in the light beauty of Quilter's "It was a lover and his lass", the sweet melancholy of Gurney's "Down by the Salley Gardens" or the veiled mystery of Lennox Berkeley's "The Horseman". Pianist Julius Drake provides customary alert, expressive accompaniment.” The Observer, 11th September 2011

“Mehta is a technically excellent singer; with a firm well-supported line; an unusually resonant lower range; and fine expressive diction, well equal to Julius Drake's sturdy accompaniment. And he's hardly more bloodless than genteel English tenors of the era...he exploits his thinner tone deftly for unusual, even eerie effects, especially in Stanford's chilling La belle dame snas merci” BBC Music Magazine, November 2011 *****

“Any suspicion that these songs might sound lukewarm or tentative in the hands of a countertenor is soon dispelled by Mehta's invigorating singing of Quilter's 'Blow, blow, thou winter wind' and the keen way he dramatises Stanford's 'La Belle Dame sans merci'. The verbal point he brings to a handful of Purcell songs in arrangements by Britten and Tippett is also appreciated.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2011

“Mehta may not possess the most extensive of vocal paintboxes but he does gradate the shades at his disposal to good effect: pastels rather than oils. In Drake he has a partner who draws suitable sounds from the piano.” International Record Review, November 2011

“…Susan Bickley shares with Gurney a direct and instinctive response to the inflections, metres and emotional colours of the English language.” BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2009 ****

“…the settings of John Masefield are especially memorable, notably "By a Bierside" with a wonderful final climax, superbly conveyed here by Susan Bickley. Wherever you turn, these songs offer illumination and refreshment, splendidly captured not only by Susan Bickley but by her ever-sensitive accompanist, Iain Burnside.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2009

“Bickley’s attractive mezzo is the perfect interpreter for Gurney, gutsy one moment, restrained the next, whilst textual clarity is always given paramount importance. Iain Burnside accompanies her superbly on the piano, with real passion for the music.” Opera Britannia, 26th August 2009 ***

“...as Susan Bickley's beautifully understated performances with pianist Iain Burnside show, Gurney was not only an important figure in early 20th-century English song, but also a distinctive one detached from its folksy mainstream. Gurney's style is much more European, much more conscious of the German Lieder tradition, and Schumann especially; this is a well-conceived and important disc for all English music enthusiasts.” The Guardian, 7th August 2009 ****

“…a fine if distinctly gloom-laden recital, cleverly put together and sensitively performed.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2008 ****

“Andrew Kennedy sings devotedly and with skill, Julius Drake's playing is always responsive, and together they often perform memorably: Goossens's Hardy settings are fine, and contrasted, examples.” Gramophone Magazine, October 2008

“…Kennedy… proves himself a rising start with performances keenly sung if occasionally rather mannered, supported by Simon Crawford Philips and the Dante players.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2008 ****

“Kennedy's young tenor sounds utterly at ease in this CD of Housman settings by VW, Ivor Gurney and Ian Venables … his musicianship is appealing, and the Dante Quartet accompany with gusto” The Times

“Kennedy has a big, bright, expressive tenor voice and uses it with fervour, delicacy and imagination ... A thoughtfully realised recital” The Independent on Sunday

“Venables' songs are sharply responsive to the weight and meaning of every word, and his style ... around Kennedy's voice like a glove ... The tenor handles the texts superbly, making every word perfectly clear” The Guardian

“Gilchrist's bright, ringing tenor voice is compelling from the first note, but it's the range of expression and unaffected musicality that leave the lasting impression” BBC Music Magazine

“...invigorating stuff from the off, and far from the pastoral legato of some other interpretations...Gilchrist’s no-nonsense vocal style meets the folk-based contours of the music with a convincing respect – his vowels more fluid and natural than some in the English tenor tradition, and his delivery all the more vivid for it.” Andrew Mellor, bbc.co.uk, 5th July 2007

“…a wonderfully imaginative account of On Wenlock Edge and The Curlew. The developing tale of Bredon Hill has never been more vividly told on records, and the desolation of Warlock's masterpiece becomes more poignant still because of the beauty evoked. ...Gurney's Housman cycle has also its finest performance on record. Strongly recommended.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2007