The American Bejun Mehta, particularly well known for the more predictable Baroque countertenor repertoire, now steps elegantly into the field of early-ish 20th-century English song. These 23 tracks, intelligently chosen and not all familiar, include Herbert Howells, Gerald Finzi, Peter Warlock and Vaughan Williams, with Purcell arrangements by Tippett and Britten. Mehta's gift for mood and atmosphere is heard in the light beauty of Quilter's "It was a lover and his lass", the sweet melancholy of Gurney's "Down by the Salley Gardens" or the veiled mystery of Lennox Berkeley's "The Horseman". Pianist Julius Drake provides customary alert, expressive accompaniment.
