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Track(s) taken from CDA67227

Oh fair to see, Op 13b No 2

composer
1929; part of the posthumously assembled Op 13b entitled Oh fair to see
author of text

Lynne Dawson (soprano), Malcolm Martineau (piano)
Recording details: August 2000
Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel, Hampstead, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Mark Brown
Engineered by Antony Howell & Julian Millard
Release date: May 2001
Total duration: 1 minutes 21 seconds
 

Other recordings available for download

Ian Partridge (tenor), Clifford Benson (piano)

Reviews

‘A top British soprano shines in a recital that should appeal well beyond her shores. The programme is delightful, and so are the performances’ (Gramophone)

‘The programme is well chosen, with familiar songs alongside some that have been unjustly neglected. Dawson’s performances are wholly intelligent, nicely phrased and display deep musical understanding: her account of Howells’s King David is particularly mesmerizing. She is most fortunate to have Malcolm Martineau as her accompanist: he is one of the finest currently before the public, and they are rewarded with an excellent, beautifully balanced recording … this recital will give much pleasure’ (International Record Review)

‘Taken with the unusual repertory and Lynne Dawson’s unusually fine singing, this becomes an easily recommended introduction to the world of English song’ (American Record Guide)

‘The most delectable recital of English song … a generous sequence of brief, tuneful songs that are totally charming, from Armida's Garden by Parry to Ivor Gurney's rapt setting of John Fletcher’ (The Guardian)

‘A rare and rich recital … the real joy of this recital is to hear Dawson's soprano thrilling to the expressive flexibility of her own language, particularly where the glorification of the voice is fused with linguistic excitement’ (The Times)

‘What a treat it is to hear [Dawson] singing English so expressively … Nothing is lovelier than her haunting unaccompanied singing of Vaughan Williams’ (The Sunday Times)

‘The really marvellous thing about the singing is that it captures a bubbly, warm, human individuality – a kind of vocal English rose’ (Manchester Evening News)
Oh fair to see is an aphoristic construction consisting of no more than two extended vocal phrases. Here, however, Finzi’s style has a greater contrapuntal succinctness (notably in the accompaniment), and the prose-like delivery of the vocal line with its careful placing of syllable and rhythm looks forward to the more spacious canvas of Intimations of Immortality which Finzi produced for the Gloucester Festival in 1950.

from notes by Jeremy Dibble © 2001

Other albums featuring this work

Songs by Finzi and his Friends
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