Delius: Twilight Fancies

“The highlights here are the Four Old English Lyrics, to words by Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, among others, in which Stone’s engagingly natural style and immaculate diction are supported by Barlow’s sympathetic playing.” Sunday Times, 14th August 2011 ***

“I've been critical of Mark Stone's use of big primary colours in subtle English songs in the past, but found his approach to Delius far more persuasive, rich in nuance, sensual contrasts of colour and range of textual expression...The partnership between singer and pianist, tested many times in concert and the recording studio, is one of give and take, collectively eloquent and ideally committed to extracting the essence of each song.” Classic FM Magazine, October 2011 ****

“Mark Stone is full and strong across his range, if lacking in variety. His diction is a model of clarity. Stephen Barlow partners him capably and sympathetically, though some of Delius's more complex pianistic effects would have benefited from a less close-up recording...But lovers of Delius's music should snap up this disc.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2011

“The baritone's tone is warm and rich without ever becoming fruity and, when Delius rises to an impassioned climax...Stone produces a noble flood of sound that is truly impressive...full texts are given in English and, where appropriate, in their Norwegian originals...Not that even the English is really necessary, as Stone's diction is so exemplary.” International Record Review, September 2011

“The remarkable thing about this first volume of the collected Delius songs, quite apart from the quality of Mark Stone's singing, is that so few of them are identifiable as the work of Delius...Stone has a remarkable voice, firm and finely focused, which he uses seductively over the widest dynamic and expressive range. His singing is ideally matched by the piano-playing of Stephen Barlow, the whole cleanly and clearly recorded, a credit to Stone Records.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2012

“The recital begins with Keats and ends with Shakespeare: that can't be bad. But it also begins with Stanford and ends with Parry; what would the modernists of their time have thought about that? They would probably not have believed that those two pillars of the old musical establishment would still be standing by in 1999. And in fact how well very nearly all these composers stand! Quilter's mild drawing–room manners might have been expected to doom him, but the three songs here – the affectionate, easy grace of his Tennyson setting, the restrained passion of his 'Come away, death' and the infectious zest of 'I will go with my father a–ploughing' – endear him afresh and demonstrate once again the wisdom of artists who recognise their own small area of 'personal truth' and refuse to betray it in exchange for a more fashionable 'originality'.
Likewise Finzi, whose feeling for Hardy's poems is so modestly affirmed in 'The dance continued'.
Does that song, incidentally, make deliberate reference, at 'those songs we sang when we went gipsying', to Jillian of Berry by Warlock (whose originality speaks for itself)? Jillian of Berry itself perhaps calls for more full–bodied, less refined tones than Bostridge's. One could do with a ruddier glow and more rotund fruitiness in the voice. Yet for most of the programme he isn't merely a well–suited singer but an artist who brings complete responsiveness to words and music. The haunted desolation of Delius's Twilight Fancies is perfectly caught in the pale hue of the voice which can nevertheless give body and intensity to the frank cry of desire, calming then to pianissimo for the last phrase amid the dim echoes of hunting horns in the piano part. Julius Drake plays with strength of imagination and technical control to match Bostridge's own.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“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