[.ca] On This Island Songs By Britt

From Amazon.co.uk:
The song repertory of the English musical renaissance--from Stanford and Parry through to Howells, Warlock and early Britten--has largely been the preserve of male singers. So it makes a change to hear a light soprano such as Lynne Dawson wash familiar words with fresh, transparent-textured lyricism. Although there's something slightly tremulous and quavering in her vibrato, it's a charming voice and at its best in the folk-idiom of Peter Warlock's "Lillygay" songs, the innocent pleasures of Roger Quilter's "My Life's Delight" or Stanford's parodistic settings of Edward Lear (which he produced under the pseudonym Karel Drofnatzski). Whether she has quite the depth of feeling for the pastoral melancholy in so many other of these songs, or quite the sense of irony to bring off Britten's fabulously muscle-flexing cycle On This Island, is uncertain. But where the voice fails to deliver here and there, the pianist compensates with playing of real strength and insight. Malcolm Martineau is the complete accompanist: a one-man quality assurance, and as expert in his native British music as we all, these days, know him to be in French. --Michael White

Lovely music, beautifully performed:
This eclectic collection of British songs is radiantly performed by soprano Lynne Dawson. If you are the kind of music listener who is averse to classical sopranos, then you need to hear this glorious voice and decide if you have been exposed to the wrong ones. Miss Dawson's voice never veers unpleasantly into the warbly vibrato that has marred many a recorded performance. She always maintains a control of pitch that reminds this listener of the great contralto Kathleen Ferrier. This is the kind of recording that you will go back to again and again, finding new favorites as the years go by. Current favorite: her performance of Vaughan Williams's Silent Noon, a heartbreakingly beautiful interpretation.

• My own country - Peter Warlock
• The night - Peter Warlock
• Fair house of joy - Roger Quilter
• My life's delight - Roger Quilter
• Armida's garden - Hubert Parry
• My heart is like a singing bird - Hubert Parry
• La belle dame sans merci - Charles Stanford
• Sleep - Ivor Gurney
• King David - Herbert Howells
• Silent noon - Vaughan Williams
• Oh fair to see - Gerald Finzi
• Since we loved - Gerald Finzi
• As I lay in the early sun - Gerald Finzi
• Lillygay - Peter Warlock
• The lark in the clear air - Vaughan Williams
• Through bushes and through briars - Vaughan Williams
• The hardy Norse-woman - Karel Drofnatski (Stanford)
• The compleat virtuoso - Karel Drofnatski (Stanford)
• The aquiline snub - Karel Drofnatski (Stanford)
• Limmerich ohne worte - Karel Drofnatski (Stanford)
• On this island - Benjamin Britten