SOMM RECORDINGS is proud to announce the release of Kathleen Ferrier: In Celebration of Bach, a collection of historic performances with Britain’s favorite classical singer of the 20th century very much the star attraction. It includes the first recorded appearance of Ferrier singing Magnificat, with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Volkmar Andreae in the Grosser Musikvereinssaal, from the legendary 1950 International Bach Festival. A rarity in Ferrier’s repertoire – she had sung it only once before and was never to again – the Magnificat was a work the much-loved singer felt a close affinity with, joyfully declaring: “Oh! The Magnificat – I am in my element in this sort of music!” The occasion was a significant one for the singer, as Ferrier authority Paul Campion notes in his extensive, detailed and informative booklet notes: “It was a considerable honor for Ferrier to be invited... what was quite astonishing was that of all the 15 soloists taking part [she] was the only non-native German speaker.... Her international success was indeed at its zenith.” London’s fabled Kingsway Hall provides the venue for two memorable Cantata performances – No. 11, Praise our God, and No. 67, Hold in affection Jesus Christ – recorded by Ferrier in 1949 with tenor William Herbert, bass William Parsons and Dr Reginald Jacques’ Cantata Singers and Jacques Orchestra. From the same venue and period, Jacques and the Cantata Singers offer a bewitching encore in the sublime Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring. Paul Campion, author of the authoritative Ferrier: A Career Recorded provides specially commissioned booklet notes.
SOMM RECORDINGS announces the release of Kathleen Ferrier in New York, historic performances of Mahler and Bach by the much-loved contralto during her triumphant visits to the United States in 1948 and 1950. Recorded live on Ferrier’s only appearances in Carnegie Hall in January 1948, four months after her acclaimed performance at the inaugural Edinburgh International Festival, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde reunited her with the conductor Bruno Walter and saw her making first appearances with tenor Set Svanholm and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Re-mastered by Norman White and Adrian Tuddenham, this remarkable account pre-dates Ferrier’s often-reissued 1952 recording by four years and finds her in exhilarating fresh voice – a vivid, vital display of a great artist at her peak. Accompanied by pianist John Newmark in New York’s Town Hall in 1950, three songs by JS Bach – Vergiss mein nicht, Ach dass nicht die letzte Stunde and his arrangement of Gottfried Stölzel’s Bist du bei mir – are taken from Ferrier’s final visit to the US. Also included are excerpts from a revealing 80th birthday interview with Bruno Walter in which he discusses his friendship and collaborations with Mahler and recalls his first meeting and subsequent association with Kathleen Ferrier. Illuminating booklet notes are provided by Ferrier authority and discographer Paul Campion, who also compiled the disc. SOMM’s previous Ferrier releases include Bach’s Mass in B minor, songs by Brahms, Chausson and Mahler and Kathleen Ferrier Remembered, a first release of BBC Radio recordings of Lieder and British songs. Kathleen Ferrier in Celebration of Bach was acclaimed by Gramophone as “an important addition to Ferrier’s discography... one of the most beautiful things she ever committed to album”.
Kathleen's Ferrier's legacy of recordings has been well-known and widely-admired for over 60 years. So it seems amazing that, after so long, a treasury of previously unpublished and little-circulated BBC broadcasts is now being released. In typical fashion, SOMM leads the way in remembering great composers and artists of the past and Kathleen Ferrier is one of hte most divinely gifted among them. These recordings are from two sources. Several are from BBC's own archives and include Ferrier's first broadcast of Rubbra's Three Psalms, Op. 61, of which she was the dedicatee, five Schubert Lieder, four by Brahms and Parry's Love is a bable, recorded at the 1948 Edinburgh Festival, which makes a delightful conclusion to the album. The other source is the remarkable collection of Kenneth Leech, a composer and engineer who, from the 1930s to the 1950s, recorded numerous broadcasts, mainly using Bakelite and metal discs - the usual way for an enthusiast to preserve radio programmes at that time. This collection is stored at the National Sound Archive in the British Library.
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REVIEW:
Listening to these newly retrieved from BBC broadcasts and never released before, I am struck over again by the great contralto’s overriding characteristic – her natural, unfettered generosity. In song after song, she gives all of herself, nothing held back. She simply soars.
New to her discography on this release are six English tracks – three Psalms that Edmund Rubbra wrote for her in 1946, and others by Stanford, Parry, and the lesser-known Maurice Jacobsen, a mentor of hers. The songs belong to an almost forgotten era of English simplicity and Ferrier delivers them in the most idiomatic fashion, without advocacy or ornament.
I would not want to be without this record of an immortal artist, and nor will you once you have heard it.
One of the most famous English contraltos of the twentieth century sadly passed away at a young age. However, she left behind several memorable recordings, including those made with some of the greatest conductors of the period. These recordings are meticulously restored from the original sources.
in 1952 Kathleen Ferrier made her last and perhaps greatest record... four arias each of Bach and Handel. The (engineers) ensured the utmost fidelity (Penguin Guide Rosette) "This is a recording that honours all concerned and in which Ferrier shows the English art of oratorio singing at it's finest. She is in superb voice and is accompanied with scrupulous artistry by Boult and the L.P.O.... The finest thing of all is All is Fulfilled... The hushed way (she) sings "This mournful night" and the sudden broken utterance "It is finished", dwell long in the memory. Having listened to contraltos singing Return, O God of Hosts at competitions, I can pay no higher compliment to Ferrier than to say I felt I was hearing it for the first time... It is rare that a disc gives such satisfaction in almost every respect" (Gramophone)
SOMM RECORDINGS’ acclaimed series of re-mastered recitals by the much loved, fondly remembered contralto Kathleen Ferrier continues with Kathleen Ferrier: 20th Century British Treasures. Featuring recordings made for Decca and the BBC between 1946 and 1953, it 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 that brings a lifetime’s experience to bear in an insightful analysis of Ferrier’s dexterous and treasured talent, accented by the distinctive tones of her native Lancashire. The earliest recording, from 1947, is of Benjamin Britten’s ‘The Flower Song’ from The Rape of Lucretia, the latest, from 1953 (both BBC recitals), includes Howard Ferguson’s lovely five-part Discovery, three songs by William Wordsworth and Edmund Rubbra’s Three Psalms, specially written for Ferrier. Pieces by defining proponents of British song including Parry, Stanford, Vaughan Williams, Roger Quilter, Frank Bridge and Peter Warlock complete a crucial celebration of Ferrier’s inimitable contribution to the genre. 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 music.
