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CD Review

Peter Warlock

Collected 78rpm Recordings

• Capriol Suite ¹
• Serenade for Strings ²
• Capriol Suite ³
• Serenade for Strings ⁴
• Capriol Suite ⁴
• Fantaisie #3 ⁵
• Four-Part Fantasia #9 ⁶
• The Curlew ⁷
• Captain Stratton's Fancy ⁸
• Oh Good Ale (The Toper's Song) ⁹
• Flow not fast, ye fountains ⁹
• There is a garden in her face ⁹
• O eyes, O mortal stars ⁹
• Come, my Celia ⁹
• Corpus Christi ¹⁰
• Sleep ¹¹
• Chop Cherry ¹¹
• The Fox ¹²
• Sleep ¹²
• Take o take those lips away ¹²
• Sweet and kind ¹²
• As Ever I Saw ¹²
• The Passionate Shepherd ¹²
• Corpus Christi ^13,14
• A Cornish Christmas Carol ¹⁴
• Six Nursery Jingles ¹⁵
• Milkmaids ¹⁶
• Captain Stratton's Fancy ¹⁶
• Sigh no More ¹⁷
• Pretty Ring Time ¹⁷
• passing By ¹⁷
• My Own Country ¹⁷
• Fair and True ¹⁷
• Piggesnie ¹⁷
• Sweet and Twenty ¹⁸
• Consider ¹⁸
• Sleep ¹⁸
• Rest Sweet Nymphs ¹⁹
• The First Mercy ²⁰
• Corpus Christi ²¹
• The Frostbound Wood ²²
• The Fox ²²
• Captain Stratton's Fancy ²³

¹ London Chamber Orchestra/Anthony Bernard
² NGS Chamber Orchestra/John Barbirolli
³ Joseph Szigeti, violin/Nikita Magaloff, piano
⁴ Constant Lambert String Orchestra
⁵ Pasquier Trio
⁶ Griller String Quartet
⁷ René Goossens, oboe/René Soames, tenor/Aeolian String Quartet
⁸ Peter Dawson, bass baritone/Gerald Moore, piano
⁹ John Goss, baritone/Diana Poulton, piano
¹⁰ The English Singers
¹¹ John Armstrong, baritone/International String Quartet
¹² Parry Jones, tenor
¹³ Anne Wood, mezzo/Peter Pears, tenor
¹⁴ BBC Chorus/Leslie Woodgate
¹⁵ Cecil Cope, bass
¹⁶ Roy Henderson, baritone/Eric Griffen, piano
¹⁷ Roy Henderson, baritone/Gerald Moore, piano
¹⁸ Nancy Evans, mezzo/Gerald Moore, piano
¹⁹ Truro County Girls School Chior
²⁰ Billy Neeley, boy soprano
²¹ Flora Nielsen mezzo/René Soames, tenor/Festival Singers/Leslie Woodgate
²² Dennis Noble, baritone/Gerald Moore, piano
²³ Oscar Natzke, bass
Divine Art Historic Sound DDH27811 2CDs 144m ADD

This is most certainly a labour of love and one of the most comprehensive collections of recordings dedicated to the genius of Peter Warlock, or Philip Heseltine which was his real name. In his short life, Warlock mesmerized the artistic community in the Britain of in between wars and these recordings are a testament to his undoubted talents and precocious facility for writing in markedly different styles.

The first CD includes some interesting comparisons in the form of the Capriol Suite and the Serenade for Strings but the peach of this disc is undoubtedly the classic recording of The Curlew with René Soames and Leon Goosens accompanied by the Aeolian String Quartet.

The second disc is packed choc-a-bloc with Warlock's songs which come across as sincere and particularly ravishing especially those associated with love such as "Come my Celia", "There is a garden in her face", "Take o take those lips away" and "Fair and True". We also have at least three different versions of "Captain Stratton's Fancy" whilst "Sleep" and "The Fox" come in two versions which enables us to compare and contrast such exquisite voices as Roy Henderson, Nancy Evans and Parry Jones.

The extensive booklet notes by Barry Smith and Giles Davis are a must read whilst there are some fascinating recording notes by Stephen Sutton from Divine Art which also reveal some of the performers reminiscences after all these years. Truly an outstanding historical issue which is definitely one of my recommendations for historical record of the year.

Copyright © 2010, Gerald Fenech