Cavalcade of English Singers - Volume 1
Georg Frideric HANDEL (1685-1750)
Acis and Galatea - Love sounds the alarm [4:30]; Love in her eyes sits playing
[4:52]
Jephtha - Deeper and deeper still [4:12]; Waft her angels [4:40]
Walter Widdop (tenor) with orchestras conducted by Lawrance Collingwood, and
George W Byng, rec. 1925-30
Alexander’s Feast - Revenge! Timotheus cries [6:22]
Trevor Anthony (bass)/LSO/Malcolm Sargent, rec. 1948
Henry PURCELL (1659-1695)
The Blessed Virgin’s Expostulation [7:48]
Isobel Baillie (soprano); Arnold Goldsbrough (organ), rec. 1941
The Tempest - See! the heavens smile [3:49]; Arise, ye subterranean winds
[3:31]
Norman Allin (bass) with orchestras conducted by Robert Ainsworth and Charles
Prentice, rec. 1929
Joseph HAYDN (1732-1809)
The Creation - With verdure clad [4:23]
Henry BISHOP (1786-1855)
Should he upbraid [4:06]
Dora Labette (soprano) with orchestra, rec. 1932
Georg Frideric HANDEL
Messiah - He shall feed his flock [3:44]
Felix MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847)
Elijah - O rest in the Lord [3:27]
Clara Butt (contralto) with orchestra/Stanford Robinson, rec. 1929
Felix MENDELSSOHN
St. Paul - But the Lord is mindful [3:27]
Christoph Willibald von GLUCK (1714-1787)
Orfeo ed Euridice - Che farò [4:20]
Edith Furmedge (mezzo-soprano) with orchestra, undated
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1759-1795)
Don Giovanni - Mi tradi quell’ alma ingrate [3:27]; Non mi dir [4:11]
Evelyn Scotney (soprano) with orchestra/George W Byng, rec. 1926
rec. where noted, between 1925-48
DUTTON CDBP 9797 [71:48]
This is a roll-call of some of the great and good British singers of the first
half of the twentieth century in recordings ranging from early - the Furmedge
sides aren’t dated - - to 1948. Some of the names are very familiar
- Butt, Baillie, Widdop - whilst others are much less so: Scotney, Furmedge,
Anthony. The theme is operatic and oratorio, predominantly the latter. Another
distinguishing feature is the frequently ad hoc nature of the orchestral backing
- usually anonymous bands directed by competent directors.
Widdop’s Handel is one of the finest around. This heldentenor had the
gift of real style in oratorio. His recordings of Handel in fact pre-date
those of his sort-of rival, Heddle Nash, and are every bit as effective, if
not, at some moments, more so, given the greater heft in Widdop’s armoury,
and the stronger placement of his lower register. This confident, masculine
singing is a real tonic in Acis and in the Jeptha extract it exemplifies the
British Oratorio tradition at something near its zenith. His plangency and
pathos belie his Wagnerian reputation. This is wonderful singing, and one
returns to him again and again with no loss of admiration, though in this
transfer the voice seems fractionally lighter than I’m accustomed to
hearing.
Trevor Anthony essays Timotheus in stout, beefy fashion accompanied by Malcolm
Sargent, in the only post-war recording, made in 1948. The voice doesn’t
have the amplitude of Malcolm McEachern, who famously recorded this on a Vocalion
in the early 1920s, but the ‘ghastly band’ referred to in the
B section of the aria was not present in 1948, given Malcolm Sargent’s
direction - whilst it assuredly was back in somewhat chaotic studio circumstances
in 1924. Isobel Baillie’s remarkably modern-sounding voice can be heard
in the double-sided The Blessed Virgin’s Expostulation, as it
was invariably known: pure, striking, luminous and accompanied by Arnold Goldsbrough
at the height of the war, in 1941.
I’ve tried very hard over many years to like Norman Allin, but I just
can’t manage it. He’s also to be heard in volume two of this series.
He sounds, to me, as lugubrious as ever in his two outings. Dora Labette shared
something of Baillie’s purity of tone, though not that remarkable sustained
intensity that came with it. Nevertheless she was an admirable singer, heard
here in Bishop and Haydn; and she has that rather rare commodity; real charm.
We journey backwards with the next two singers. Clara Butt can be heard in
her 1929 recordings. Obviously she was long past her (remarkable) best - for
which one needs the discs made many years earlier. Heavier, indeed sometimes
marmoreal now, this is still noble and valiant. Edith Furmedge can be heard
in Mendelssohn and Gluck, where the transfers are too cloudy. She was a solid
mezzo, who sang on the abridged Joe Batten recording of The Dream of Gerontius
[Dutton CDLX7044]. Finally there’s Evelyn Scotney, whose 1926 discs
reveal a most attractive singer, though I’m not so sure about her pitching.
This is another good selection in Dutton’s familiar style. The transfers
are smooth and attractive, though as so often I find them too airless. No
notes.
Jonathan Woolf
And a review of Volume 2 as well ...
Cavalcade of English Singers - Volume 2
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1759-1795)
The Magic Flute - O Isis and Osiris [3:45]; Within this hallowed dwelling
[4:25]
Norman Allin with orchestra/Lawrence Collingwood, rec. 1926
Gioachino ROSSINI (1792-1868)
The Barber of Seville - Can it be? Dare I believe thee? [5:22]
Miriam Licette (soprano) and Dennis Noble/orchestra/Clarence Raybould, rec.
1927
Charles GOUNOD (1818-1893)
The Queen of Sheba - Lend me your aid [6:57]
Frank Mullings (tenor) with orchestra, rec, 1916
Giacomo MEYERBEER (1791-1864)
L’Africana “O paradise”
Gaetano DONIZETTI (1797-1848)
L’elisir d’amore “Down her soft cheek a pearly tear”
Heddle Nash (tenor) with Orchestra conducted by Hamilton Harty and Lawrence
Collingwood, recorded 1926
Richard WAGNER (1813-1883)
Lohengrin “In distant lands” narration
Die Meistersinger “Morning was gleaming” Prize song
Joseph Hislop (tenor) with orchestra/John Barbirolli, recorded 1929
William WALLACE (1812-1865)
Highlights from Maritana
’tis the harp in the air [3:13]; The Angelus [3:06]; Of fairy wand had
I the power [3:28]; Pretty Gitana 3:09]; Alas! Those chimes [3:15]; Turn on,
old time [3:13]; Yes! Let me like a soldier fall [2:47]; In happy moments
day by day [2:40]; There is a flower that bloometh [3:14]; Scenes that are
brightest [3:00]; Sainted mother [3:25];
Finale (Act II): What mystery? [3:28]
Miriam Licette, Clara Serena, Heddle Nash and Dennis Noble/Orchestra and Grand
Opera Company/Clarence Raybould, recorded 1931
rec. 1916-31
DUTTON CDBP 9802 [75:20]
This is the second in the ‘Cavalcade’ series from Dutton, a roster
of stalwart British singers whose names resonate down the ages (to those in
the know), or are unknowns to those not versed in singers of this generation
from Britain. Talking of which, Joseph Hislop, of whom more in a moment, would
be getting hot under his sporran to find himself described as an ‘English’
singer.
Things actually begin with a real English bass, Norman Allin. As I’ve
admitted before, I don’t ‘get’ Allin. In fact the pitching
here seems to make him even more lugubrious than usual. It’s a shame,
as the intrinsic roundness and depth of the voice is good. I just don’t
recall him singing anything really mobile. He’s followed by the charming
duo of Miriam Licette and Dennis Noble, a far more sprightly couple altogether.
The translation is frightfully English, but then things were sung in the vernacular
so one can hardly blame the singers. They make a very plausible pairing indeed
in their Rossini. We head to the stygian depths of 1916 for Frank Mullings,
one of the most remarkable and unshackled of all British tenors. His Gounod
doesn’t showcase the more truculent side of his singing, which never
beautiful in itself, is almost always highly communicative.
Hislop next in a well known Wagnerian pairing presided over by the knowing
Barbirolli. It was made in 1929. Scottish birth aside, one would never put
Hislop above Walter Widdop as a British Wagnerian. Some people rather dislike
his voice in fact, a view I’ve never shared. It’s a personable,
useful bit of singing. The rest of the disc is given over to recorded extracts
from William Wallace’s Maritana. This has been reissued before
but makes a useful entry here, given that it includes Licette, Nash, Noble
and also Clara Serena in the 1931 highlights set presided over by Clarence
Raybould. Licette has the charm for Of fairy wand had I the power -
though I think her very best singing comes in Scenes that are brightest
- and Noble has the masculine presence for it too. Nash has the youthful ardour
for Yes! Let me like a soldier fall which is the one piece from Maritana
that’s been extracted for recital reissues devoted to the tenor. Clara
Serena is stalwart but has pitching problems.
An interesting disc then, that presents individual singers then corrals some
of them in that excerpted 1931 production. The transfers are typical Dutton
- very clean and smooth - I like it less so, with more air. The notes consist
of the plot of Maritana - useful, I suppose, for those unfamiliar with
it. I know this is a lower price release, but artist biographies would have
been better, unless Dutton’s rationale is that they’re preaching
to the converted.
Jonathan Woolf
A roster of stalwart British singers whose names resonate down the ages.