So now onto James Newby and ‘Fallen to Dust’. I understand that Newby’s inspiration for this recording was singing Finzi’s ‘Fear No More the Heat of the Sun’ at his sister’s funeral. Any comment on this brave and noble undertaking is redundant, suffice to say that this is a serious and moving CD which gives much serious and moving pleasure.
Newby is/was a BBC New Generation Artist and won The Kathleen Ferrier Award in 2016 so we should be able to take his vocal quality for granted and it is certainly true that his voice gives much pleasure: his lyric baritone is generally rich and warm, particularly when he sings at mezzo forte or below, his diction is immaculate and his response to texts vivid, sensitive and intelligent. Above mezzo forte his tone tends to harden and the very top of his voice loses focus. Overall I find his voice rather anonymous – I recognize instantly the voices of, for example, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, John Shirley-Quirk, Sir Bryn Terfel and Sir Thomas Allen (my four favourite baritones) and I can’t say this of James Newby, although of course, I am still getting to know his voice and this situation could easily change. Despite these reservations, as I indicate above, I enjoyed this recital very much.
Despite the generally sombre mood of the recital, the material presented is wide-ranging. Highlights for me include Jonathan Dove’s ‘All You That Sleep Tonight’ (beautifully sung in a rapt mezza voce) Rebecca Clarke’s chilling ‘The Seal Man’ (Newby’s command of text and tone colour is exemplary here) and Arthur Somervell’s ‘Shropshire Lad’ settings, which suit him well. These settings might not be on the level of George Butterworth or Vaughan Williams, but they are sensitive and effective in the right hands. There have been distinguished earlier recordings by David Wilson Johnson and the ubiquitous Roderick Williams, but for me Newby’s is now the recommended version. I hope he will consider recording Somervell’s ‘Songs from Tennyson’s “Maud”’, a superior cycle in my view, I am sure the result would be admirable. Songs by Finzi have been sung more impressively elsewhere, notably by Bryn Terfel, although personal associations (see above) make Newby’s performance of ‘Fear no more the heat of the sun’ almost unbearably poignant.
Newby finishes his recital with some light relief – others might find Liza Lehmann’s ‘Henry King’ (whose chief defect was ‘chewing little bits of string’) more worthwhile than I did, but I enjoyed a rollicking performance of Wolseley Charles’ ‘The Green Eyed Dragon’, once, almost obligatory as a baritone/bass recital encore but now very much a collector’s item. Joseph Middleton’s contribution as accompanist is peerless throughout the entirety of this generously filled CD.
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