Kathleen Ferrier Kathleen Ferrier ARIADNE 5010 20th Century British Treasures Kathleen Ferrier contralto 20th Century Frederick Stoneade, Phyllis Spurrbc, Ernest Lushf piano Anna Pollak mezzo-sopranog, EOG Orchestra, Reginald Goodall conductorg British Treasures London Symphony Orchestra, Hugo Rignold conductorh 1 H Parry Love is a bablea 1:45 bl P Warlock Sleepa 2:51 Songs by 2 b bm a R Quilter Now sleeps the crimson petal 2:30 P Warlock Pretty Ring Time 1:21 Lennox Berkeley 3 R Quilter To Daisiesb 2:13 bn M Jacobson The Song of Songse 5:21 c Charles Villiers Stanford 4 R Quilter The Fair House of Joy 2:38 bo-bq E Rubbra Three Psalms, Op.61f [10:32] 5 R Vaughan Williams Silent Noona 5:01 Edmund Rubbra br-bt W Wordsworth Three Songs, Op.5f [6:25] 6 C V Stanford The Fairy Lougha 3:42 bu-co H Ferguson Discovery, Op.13f [7:44] Howard Ferguson 7 C V Stanford A Soft Daya 2:59 g Roger Quilter 8 C V Stanford La Belle Dame sans Mercid 5:37 cp B Britten The Flower Song, Op.37 2:41 9 F Bridge Go not, happy daya 1:40 cq-ct L Berkeley Four Poems of St Teresa of Ávilaf [14:08] Peter Warlock Please see inside booklet for full song details Total duration: 79:15 William Wordsworth Maurice Jacobson a BBC recital, June 5, 1952 b Recorded by Decca, December 1951. Issued M680 (September 1952) Ralph Vaughan Williams c Recorded by Decca, December 1951. Issued LX 3098 (November 1952) Benjamin Britten d BBC recital, February 16, 1948 e BBC recital, November 3, 1947 f BBC recital, January 12, 1953 g BBC broadcast, October 11, 1946 Hubert Parry h BBC broadcast, April 7, 1952. Previously unpublished recording Frank Bridge Audio Restoration and Mastering: Norman White Ariadne Disc compiler: Paul Campion Front cover: Kathleen Ferrier, 1947 Design: Andrew Giles Booklet Editor: Michael Quinn AAD Visit www.somm-recordings.com for further information Ariadne © & 2020 SOMM RECORDINGS · THAMES DITTON · SURREY · ENGLAND · Made in EU Kathleen Ferrier Howard Ferguson (1908-99) Discovery, Op.13f [7:44] 20th Century British Treasures bu The Freedom of the City 1:37 cl Babylon 1:36 a 1 Hubert Parry (1848-1918) Love is a bable, Op.152 No.3 1:45 cm Jane Allen 0:37 2 Roger Quilter (1877-1953) Now sleeps the crimson petal 2:30 cn Discovery 2:52 Op.3 No.2b co Dreams Melting 1:01 3 Roger Quilter To Daisies, Op.8 No.3b 2:13 g 4 Roger Quilter The Fair House of Joy, Op.12 No.7c 2:38 cp Benjamin Britten (1913-76) The Flower Song, (The Rape of Lucretia) 2:41 5 a Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) Silent Noon (The House of Life No.2) 5:01 Lennox Berkeley (1903-89) Four Poems of St Teresa of Ávila, Op.27h [14:08] 6 a Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) The Fairy Lough, Op.77 No.2 3:42 cq If, Lord, Thy love for me is strong 4:23 7 a Charles Villiers Stanford A Soft Day, Op.140 No.3 2:59 cr Shepherd, shepherd hark that calling 2:30 8 d Charles Villiers Stanford La Belle Dame sans Merci 5:37 cs Let mine eyes see Thee 3:50 9 a Frank Bridge (1879-1941) Go not, happy day 1:40 ct Today a shepherd and our kin 3:23 bl Peter Warlock (1894-1930) Sleepa 2:51 Total duration: 79:15 bm Peter Warlock Pretty Ring Timea 1:21 bn Maurice Jacobson (1896-1976) The Song of Songse 5:21 Kathleen Ferrier contralto ade bc f Edmund Rubbra (1901-86) Three Psalms, Op.61f [10:32] Frederick Stone , Phyllis Spurr , Ernest Lush piano Anna Pollak mezzo-sopranog bo Psalm 6, O Lord, rebuke me not 5:16 EOG Orchestra, Reginald Goodall conductorg bp Psalm 23, The Lord is my Shepherd 3:34 London Symphony Orchestra, Hugo Rignold conductorh bq Psalm 150, Praise ye the Lord 1:40 a BBC recital, June 5, 1952 William Wordsworth (1908-88) Three Songs, Op.5f [6:25] b Recorded by Decca, December 1951. Issued M680 (September 1952) br c Recorded by Decca, December 1951. Issued LX 3098 (November 1952) Red Skies 1:55 d e bs BBC recital, February 16, 1948 BBC recital, November 3, 1947 The Wind 1:03 f BBC recital, January 12, 1953 g BBC broadcast, October 11, 1946 bt Clouds 3:26 h BBC broadcast, April 7, 1952. Previously unpublished recording 2 3 over again she demonstrates for us how easily she can take the healthiest Singing on a human scale of fortes in a phrase, only to complete it with a most ravishing diminuendo. Kathleen Ferrier and 20th-century British Song The collection starts with an animated performance of Parry’s Love is a bable, accompanied by Frederick Stone, giving it a swaggering treatment. n writing these notes, I’m acutely aware of the position Kathleen Ferrier The main features one hears is her care with words, even in this anonymous Ioccupies for a still adoring public 67 years after her death, and I freely admit text, and her agility around a number of fast-moving lines… not necessarily to being one of them. As a child I was familiar with her voice, her singing. something one associates with her. People around me talked of her. She was loved. Later, as a teenage sixth- There’s a taste of what’s to come in her treatment of text and her careful former, we would find ourselves on occasion in debate about the merits and enunciation, though later one or two curiosities of pronunciation cause me demerits of her voice – those who liked the deep contralto of her singing and to wonder ‘Why?’ The vocal quality is always as smooth as silk throughout those who didn’t. Still later, I heard her colleagues speak of her warmth and the range, and the diminuendo which she calls upon over and over again, her popularity within the profession. never lets her down. It’s a complete winner. This collection of her work demonstrates most clearly how much more she From the now unfashionable Parry to three songs by the ever-popular Roger was than simply the singer of Che farò and Blow the Wind Southerly, beautiful Quilter. Now sleeps the crimson petal, the poem by Tennyson, is taken at a though those two items are. Listening to her again further confirms what I’ve leisurely pace and is none the worse for it. Today, such a tempo would seem often thought, that had she been allowed her full span of life and likewise at odds with our 21st-century pulse. But it’s right here. It allows her to relish career, under the guidance of Bruno Walter and John Barbirolli in particular, her text, to paint words with great loving care, and is worth listening to for she might well have become a very different singer from the one whose the final “lost in me” alone. Phyllis Spurr is beside her for these and one senses contralto lives with us to this day. an easy partnership. From the beginning she was blessed with an easy facility in the upper part of To Daisies is, for me, the first indication of something really special. She the voice, able to call on a lighter soprano quality when required. Over and summons up vocal qualities more often heard in a lighter soprano voice 4 5 – bearing in mind the contralto that is Ferrier and the dynamic range at word-painting from Ferrier. The final, vital, held high E flat on the word “song” her disposal, the gift of only the greatest of talents. The choice of key is is nothing less than exquisite, a challenge for any singer and here exemplary. interesting. High for her voice, but she handles it wonderfully and answers The atmosphere she creates earlier in the song for the “sunsearched growths” all the questions the song sets her. Appearances are deceptive, and on holds you in its gentle grasp as she leads you through a kind of psychedelic the face of it, To Daisies is not an exceptional song. In the hands, or rather description of all she sees. Frederick Stone is again the pianist offering the the mind and throat, of Ferrier however, its status is raised to that of a perfect support. considerable art song. Three songs of Charles Villiers Stanford follow. The first of these, The Fairy The Fair House of Joy leaves me with the impression that there is a smile on Lough, is full of great contrast, a mix of great outpouring appeals down to her face, and consequently in her voice, throughout. I’m minded to wonder the tiniest of voices for the most lovely effects. The echoes of this song, stay at this stage about the nature of great singers, and whether, in the course long with you. The final pp pianissimo, in a singer’s terms, seems simply not of singing long lines of melody and great phrases, they are aware of the possible, and yet there it is. There are big moments within the song too, and sheer beauty of the experience for others, and for themselves, in knowing I worry that she may have approached a phrase with too big a voice, only they are making those glorious natural sounds from some magic within their to have her produce once again that stunning diminuendo, and a line that own body. Often, within a sustained note, and it may be relatively short, she might have ended aggressively is brought to the most cultured conclusion.