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DCD34313
£15.99
Brindley Sherratt’s pre-eminence as an operatic bass is the result of two daring career shifts. Initially trained as a trumpeter, he gave up his first instrument as a student to become a singer. Yet even then, it was only in his mid-thirties that he left the professional security of a position in the BBC Singers to explore the world of opera.
Now, the voyage of discovery continues as Sherratt turns to the intimate medium of the song recital. With the superb pianist Julius Drake as collaborator, in Fear No More Sherratt draws on all of his accumulated technical and expressive wisdom to traverse death-haunted songs by Schubert, Mussorgsky and Richard Strauss before arriving at a final group of five twentieth-century English songs in which consolation and acceptance are the keynotes.
"As John Fallas puts it in his informative booklet note, 'not many singers recordtheir first recital album two decades into a successful international career' ... In short, though, it's been worth the wait ... Right from the start, one marvels at the sheer easy authority of Sherratt's voice, the richness, the baleful depths, the steadiness and smoothness across the range. One starts to look forward to the low notes: the D in an especially imposing 'Der Tod und das Mädchen', the D flat that concludes 'Im Spätboot'. But there's great deal more to the album than just that. With Julius Drake a superb partner at the keyboard, these are considered, affecting performances - as one would expect from an artist with Sherratt's experience. In the best sense, he's a reliable guide through all the songs ... Sherratt's interpretations have an imposing power all their own, the deep, oaky patina of the voice carrying with it a special emotional weight. This is perhaps especially true in the English songs, where his natural delivery brings special rewards: the gnarly authority conveyed in 'Sea-Fever', the grandeur of the climaxes of both 'Fear no more the heat o' the sun' and 'By a Bierside' or the easy swagger of 'Limehouse Reach'. They make for a rewarding conclusion to an imposing, impressive album. Here's hoping for a follow-up."
'If you’ve seen Brindley Sherratt in action, you’ll know him to be a consummate stage animal ...Sherratt performs Gerald Finzi’s masterly setting of Fear no Morewith a lugubrious relish for the text’s gloomier aspects, his obsidian bass the living personification of the Grim Reaper.The same sensitivity to words and feeling for the macabre informs his dramatic accounts of Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death. Trepak has a deliciously grisly swing while Field Marshall conjures the horrors of battle, both aided by Julius Drake’s flexible and colourful accompaniments. What makes Sherratt special is his careful avoidance of Gothic excess, something the voice could easily encompass were he a less thoughtful artist ...The first part of the disc shows him to be a fine Schubertian with a granitic account of Mayerhofer’s darkly despairing Fahrt zum Hades and a lollop through an Italian serenade to words by Metastasio. Death and the Maiden is another pearl and a chance to deploy his spinetingling pianissimo as the most seductive of spectres.He’s at his finest, however, in the concluding set of five English songs, including a bleak yet salty account of Ireland’s Sea Fever and an aching resignation in Michael Head’s Limehouse Reach. As he waves us off with a Falstaffian turn in Warlock’s Captain Stratton’s Fancy, we are already looking forward to volume two'
'Sherratt can do no wrong ... "Wenn endet diesel Qualen? Wann?” ends with one of those beautifully resonant low notes that are such a joy to encounter throughout the recital ...All credit to Drake for dealing with Schubert's demands so comprehensively in Der Schiffer, D 526 a better-known song, its storm visceral. But how fascinating to hear on of Schubert's Italian songs: L'Incanto degli occhi (The Wonder of the Eyes), slow, miraculous. The same - slow, miraculous - could be said of Auf Der Donau , D 563, a least initially: the variety of Drake's part, the entreaty of Sherratt's cries of "wo?" (where) in the more disturbed second stanza.The song Der Tod und das Mädchen, D 531, is one of Schubert's best known. Full of contrast, Sherratt and Drake make it into almost an operatic scena: Sherratt's “voice of Death” is truly disturbing ... Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Deathsounds as if it is in his bones from birth, though. Sherratt finds lyricism as well as inhabiting Shostakovich's world, his diction crystal clear, the drama of the final “Field Marshal” in contrast to the desolation of “Trepak” ... Billed as Sherratt's “debut song recital recording,” all I can say is what a way to start'
CLASSICAL EXPLORER
read the full review here
Release Date: 26 April 2024
Catalogue No: DCD34313
Total playing time: 58:20
Recorded on 26-28 March 2023 at Henry Wood Hall, London
Producer/Engineer: Paul Baxter
24-bit digital editing: Jack Davis
24-bit digital mixing & mastering: Paul Baxter
Piano: Steinway model D, serial no 607138 (2017)
Piano technicians: Marcus Dods & Nigel Polmear
Cover photography © Benjamin Ealovega
Session photography & videography: William Coates-Gibson / foxbrushfilms.com
Booklet & traycard design: Eliot Garcia
Booklet editor: John Fallas
Delphian Records Ltd – Edinburgh – UK www.delphianrecords.com
: PREVIEW
Schubert:Fahrt zum Hades
Category: Brindley Sherratt, Editor's Choices, Julius Drake, Song
The veteran bass discusses his diverse career and introduces his debut recital album, 'Fear no more'
Brin in recording sessions image foxbrush.co.uk
This is your first recital album despite being now 20 years into your operatic career. Why have you chosen to record this album now?
My career had a bit of a topsy-turvy' start to it. I started out as a trumpet player before joining the choir at St George's Chapel Windsor, which then led on to me joining the BBC Singers, who I sang with for 13 years. Things started to change when I got my first decent role. Publio in La clemenza di Tito at Covent Garden. After that I just took every day as it came, and never really thought about doing any recitals, still less an album. It wasn't until a colleague of mine introduced me to [pianist] Julius Drake, who really encouraged me to sing and play together.
How has the variety of your musical training influenced where you are now?
I really enjoyed my time with the BBC Singers, an incredible group which I'm so grateful to have been part of for so long. My favourite part about working with ensembles like the Singers was being part of a team, whereas being a soloist in an opera comes with a degree of separation. I now try to bring this community feel to any production I am part ot. The other thing I took from the BBC Singers was how to learn repertoire
extremely quickly, which has come in handy when learning different repertoire at the same time.
What do you like to do when you're not on stage?
I love anything to do with bikes, so I do a lot of cycling. I really enjoy being outside. too. We've just moved into a new house, so we've got a lot
of work to do with the garden, and well be ticking off a lot of bucket list destinations I've always wanted to visit as well including the Isle of Skye. On top of all that, I'm hoping to do some more writing. I've done a few articles about opera and singing and it's something I'm very passionate about. I find it very cathartic.
Have you seen any changes in the opera world since you began? Are there any challenges you have picked up on that younger people are facing entering the industry?
I get messages quite regularly from the younger generation of opera singers expressing their worries about getting work. and to an extent these struggles have always been the same for every generation, but I fear for the long-term future of singers in this country. Opportunities for singers seem to keep getting removed, the ENO situation particularly stirs me up, having sung with them for the best part of 10 years, and like many English singers I cut my teeth there. On top of that many of our great opera companies can no longer afford to tour. Everything appears to be shrinking down, which is disappointing when you look at the value that opera holds in society in nations like Germany. I'd like to get more heavily involved in the issues that British opera faces and to really make a difference if I can. I am lucky to have a profile and I'd like to use it for good
This article originally appeared in the March 2024 issue of Gramophone.
John Ireland's Sea Fever, performed by Brindley Sherratt and Julius Drake during recording sessions in London's Henry Wood Hall ...
