Hyperion Records

An anthology, in the original Greek, means a collection of flowers; and the garden tended here by Felicity Lott and Graham Johnson contains many species from around the globe: violets, rosemary, mimosa, periwinkles, lilies, daisies, roses, jasmine, immortelles, sunflowers, snowflowers, saffron, primroses, walnut and orange-tree blossom, laurel, carnations, lilac, strawberries, cornflowers, convolvulus, cyclamen, broom, lilies-of-the-valley, marigold, iris and pinks. And these flowers grace gardens in Germany, France, America and England.

There are six songs each by Schumann and Wolf, and delights from four French composers. In the English part of the disc we range from Haydn Wood's well-known Roses of Picardy to the humorous Red Roses and Red Noses by Lord Berners, a take-off of Thomas Moore's The last rose of summer.

The anthology ends irreverently with Cabbages, Cabeans and Carrots, a music-hall song prefaced in the score with the words: 'I think all these Flower Songs are ridiculous'!