A critic wrote of
Peter Warlock
's songs that they could be sung by themselves with no accompaniment and were as satisfying as folk songs if done that way. That, of course, is not the same thing as saying that they were indeed like folk songs, and the comment points to what's distinctive about
Warlock
's style. The melodies are indeed folklike, but the accompaniment is as complex as that in any late 19th century German art song, even if
usually (although certainly not always) hews to diatonicism. This is an attractive set of
songs, covering all phases of the composer's all-too-short career. Mezzo-soprano
Anna Harvey
and pianist
Mark Austin
look great in the period graphics that go with the album, and they have a real rapport that is critical in performing
's pieces. There is a
world premiere here, a song called
The Magpie
that was later rewritten as
Yarmouth Fair
to avoid a copyright issue. However, the chief attraction is a set of English folk song settings by contemporary composer
Frederick Howe
, interspersed among the
as two entr'actes. These both naturally complement the
and contrast with it, setting off the ways in which
diverged from folk music and, indeed, from his pastoralist contemporaries in music whose concision was, despite the tonality, quite modern. With absolutely appropriate sound from Penn House in Buckinghamshire, this is a fine
release. ~ James Manheim