Recordings of Lennox Berkeley's music

Kathleen Ferrier: 20th Century British Treasures

Kathleen Ferrier: 20th Century British Treasures album cover Format: CD
Label: Somm Recordings
Release date: December 2020
Catalogue no: ARIADNE 5010

SOMM Recordings’ acclaimed series of re-mastered recitals by the fondly remembered singer continues with Kathleen Ferrier: 20th Century British Treasures. This features recordings made for Decca and the BBC between 1946 and 1953 and includes a previously unpublished recording of Ferrier’s passionate performance of Lennox Berkeley’s Four Poems of St Teresa of Ávila. ... Sir Thomas Allen, the distinguished interpreter of British song and Trustee of the Kathleen Ferrier Awards, contributes an extensive booklet commentary. Pianist Julian Jacobson, son of composer Maurice Jacobson, whose melancholy but sensuous The Song of Songs is heard in a 1947 BBC broadcast, also provides a personal poignant note on Ferrier’s championing of his father’s work. The music is sung with all the passion and tenderness we have come to expect from that glorious contralto voice, confirming Our Kaff’s reputation as a warm-hearted, vivacious, modest and courageous woman with a wicked sense of humour.

Review by John Pitt, New Classics