Britten: Come ye not from Newcastle?

Britten and Pears early collaborations for HMV display an infectious vigour. Britten’s own works, the Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, Op.22 and the Holy Sonnets of John Donne, Op. 35. are given definitive readings. Also included are folk song settings by Britten, Grainger and Copland and the programme concludes with two of Schubert’s most famous songs ‘Im Fruhling’ and ‘Auf der Bruck’. Essential listening for fans of Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears.

American tenor Nicholas Phan makes his solo recording debut with a deeply personal approach to the songs of Britten.

‘Winter Words’ is the solo debut release by American tenor Nicholas Phan. The recording was made in the wake of a recital tour in 2010-11 which culminated in his Carnegie debut at Weill Hall. A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music and an alumnus of the Houston Grand Opera studio Nick has performed with the opera companies of Los Angeles and Seattle, symphony orchestras of Atlanta, St. Louis and San Francisco, and the Marlboro, Ravinia and Edinburgh Festivals, among others. He sang in Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Pierre Boulez which won a Grammy Award.

Nick presents a deeply personal perspective of Britten’s music, encompassing his own performing experiences to audience reaction. He says: “I’ve been a fan of Britten since playing his Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra with my youth orchestra in Detroit as a teenage violinist. But my great devotion to his music increased to an obsession when an excellent pianist and good friend asked if I’d perform with her at a small university in Missouri. She suggested Winter Words, saying, “I think these would sound really great in your voice, and I’ve wanted to play them for ages, so indulge me.” I researched and played through Britten’s settings of Hardy’s poems and before long, I was hooked.”

Approaching the performance in a small Midwestern town with some trepidation (“how would they react?”), Nick describes the audience’s overwhelmingly positive response: “my favourite piece on the program … the most lasting impression.” Such is the enduring quality of Britten’s sophisticated yet direct song writing, of which Nick is a leading torchbearer.

Steeped in an atmosphere of ancient Scottish musical tradition, Benjamin Britten’s setting of texts by Robert Burns in A Birthday Hansel was his final song-cycle. Who are these children? is another late cycle to poems by William Soutar, combining darkly dramatic musical depictions of wartime life with protest songs which hark back to the composer’s youth.

Acclaimed Scottish tenor Mark Wilde’s sensitivities embrace both the vibrantly dramatic and “gently mellifluous” (Manchester Evening News) qualities in this deeply expressive repertoire.

Australia’s foremost tenor Steve Davislim and conductor/pianist Simone Young are reunited with Melba Recordings to present a mesmerising collection of Benjamin Britten’s Folksong Arrangements.

This new CD follows Seduction (MR301108), their highly praised exploration of orchestral songs of Richard Strauss.

22nd April 2012 marks 100th anniversary of the birth of Kathleen Ferrier.

Kathleen Ferrier was born on 22 April 1912 and died at the age of forty-one on 8 October 1953.

She was an artist held in awe and affection by numerous colleagues and countless fans worldwide and her reputation is undiminished to this day. A true contralto, whose repertory encompassed English song as well as German Lieder, her recording of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the Vienna Philharmonic under Bruno Walter [and tenor Julius Patzak] is one of the most celebrated classical recordings of all time and has been a staple of the Decca catalogue since it was first released in 1952. The majority of Ferrier’s studio recordings were made for DECCA and many from broadcast sources have also been published by DECCA.

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Kathleen Ferrier’s birth the DECCA legacy is brought together in a comprehensive 14-CD set with a bonus DVD.

All the recordings have been remastered for this anniversary edition and will further demonstrate the unique qualities of this much-loved artist.

Also included is 'What the Edinburgh Festival has meant to me' - a talk given by Ferrier on 11th September 1949