SUSAN GRITTON sings French songs of BRITTEN, FINZI & DELIUS

Susan Gritton one of Britain’s leading lyric sopranos, performs a programme of French songs by three British composers. She is accompanied by The BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Eward Gardner, current Musical Director at English National Opera. Finzi’s Dies Natalis has texts by the 17^th century poet Thomas Traherne and is usually associated with the tenor voice but was actually premiered by a soprano. Delius’s A Late Lark was written for the soprano voice and is a setting of a W E Henley poem reflecting on the serenity of death. The other two works are Britten’s early Quatre Chansons françaises and the later better known song cycle Les Illuminations. Susan Gritton is performing in Dialogues des Carmélites at the Bayerische Staatsoper between February 17 and April 23 2010.

The Musical Director of ENO here conducts a superb programme of works by three English composers.

The quintessence of Finzi, Dies natalis sets texts by the seventeenth-century poet Thomas Traherne, which reflect the joy and wonder of a newborn child’s innocent perspective on the world. The richly textured, resourceful string writing and the long melodic lines are hallmarks of Finzi’s style. The subtle inflections of the word-setting and lyricism have attracted many leading vocalists both in concert and on disc. Although particularly associated with the tenor voice, Dies natalis was premiered by a soprano, and it is increasingly performed with the original voice type.

Here, for the first time on disc, is the version of Delius’s A Late Lark for soprano voice and it is currently the only available recording of the work. A setting of W.E. Henley’s poem ‘I.M. Margaritæ Sorori’, it offers a lovely lyrical reflection of the serene acceptance of death and is especially poignant as it was one of Delius’s last works. Eric Fenby, Delius’s friend and amanuensis, recalls that one day after he had read the poem through to Delius, ‘and had finished playing his setting, [Delius] said, “Yes, that is how I want to go.”’

Susan Gritton, one of Britain’s leading lyric sopranos, who also appears on Chandos’ Grammy Award© winning recording of Paul Bunyan, here includes the Quatre Chansons françaises, the most significant work of Britten’s juvenilia. The songs, to texts by Verlaine and Hugo, were composed between June and August 1928 when Britten was a mere fourteen, and demonstrate the flair for instrumental colour that was to become the hallmark of the mature composer. The album is completed by the later song cycle Les Illuminations which offers a further development in his exploration of the orchestral song cycle, a genre that Britten was to make very much his own during his career.