Fiona Maddocks 

Bejun Mehta: Down by the Salley Gardens – review

American countertenor Bejun Mehta extends his repertoire with this collection of early 20th-century English songs, writes Fiona Maddocks
  
  


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.

 

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