Gurney: Down by the Salley Gardens

“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

“Vale and his accomplished colleague Paul Plummer start with an unpublished song by Gurney, the spirited, stirring On Wenlock Edge with a grand tune…Immediately one is made aware of Vale’s clarity of tone, a clarity matched by that of the recording…As satisfying as he is in the liveliness of On Wenlock Edge, he is equally so in Down by the Salley gardens, which he sings with a touch of regret…He also conveys the sadness of Edward Thomas’s poem snow.” International Record Review

“It is difficult to conceive of performances more finely attuned to this spirit that hardly ever raises its protest or its pain, its joy for that matter, above a mezzo-forte, and yet which conveys within its mild utterances such feeling for the quality of life...” Gramophone

'A delightful programme in all respects' (Gramophone)