The Harmonious Echo: Songs by Sir Arthur Sullivan
Mary Bevan (soprano), Kitty Whately (mezzo), Ben Johnson (tenor), Ashley Riches (bass-baritone), David Owen-Norris (piano)
Like soprano Mary Bevan, tenor Ben Johnson and baritone Ashley Riches, [Whately] brings clear diction and a good range of tone to the material – much of it forgotten today...in Whately’s visionary...
The Harmonious Echo: Songs by Sir Arthur Sullivan
Mary Bevan (soprano), Kitty Whately (mezzo), Ben Johnson (tenor), Ashley Riches (bass-baritone), David Owen-Norris (piano)
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Like soprano Mary Bevan, tenor Ben Johnson and baritone Ashley Riches, [Whately] brings clear diction and a good range of tone to the material – much of it forgotten today...in Whately’s visionary...
About
Although most widely remembered for his operettas in partnership with W.S. Gilbert, Sir Arthur Sullivan was the most famous of all British composers of the nineteenth century. He was revered as a composer of oratorios, and was urged by Queen Victoria to compose a grand opera. The result, Ivanhoe, achieved 155 consecutive performances (in an opera house especially built for it). Achieving equal success in his lifetime, his substantial legacy of songs fell into neglect in the twentieth century, but as this album demonstrates Sullivan’s endlessly fertile melodic gifts withstand comparison with those of any other song composer. David Owen Norris and his quartet of outstanding young British singers deliver this fascinating programme with terrific style and panache.
Contents and tracklist
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Awards and reviews
August 2021
Like soprano Mary Bevan, tenor Ben Johnson and baritone Ashley Riches, [Whately] brings clear diction and a good range of tone to the material – much of it forgotten today...in Whately’s visionary performance, ‘The Lost Chord’ registers as the masterpiece it is.
Jan/Feb 2022
The performances on The Harmonious Echo are uniformly admirable. All of the vocalists sing with a lovely tonal quality, secure technique, and sensitivity to the text and music. While it is true that these songs are in a sentimental vein, the artists never overplay that aspect.
July 2021
With very few exceptions, they come across as fresh and vivid, in thoughtful, committed performances from four excellent young British singers. Norris’s accompaniments are tasteful in the best sense.
29th May 2021
This second volume of Sullivan’s songs performed by Norris, Bevan, Johnson and Riches brings the melodic inventiveness of his popular operettas to the Victorian salon, with beguiling results.
