Whately/Phan/Tilbrook
(Signum Classics)
A superb survey of Clarke’s lyrical, long-overlooked songs reveals a composer of depth and drama
Rebecca Clarke’s songs have been edging on to the radar recently, but this recording, led by the mezzo-soprano Kitty Whately, tenor Nicholas Phan and pianist Anna Tilbrook, is the first time they have all been assembled together.
It’s quite a body of work – nearly 60 songs, dating from the early 1910s to the 1940s, after which Clarke largely stopped composing. Around a third of them are recorded for the first time, several are settings of German poetry that Clarke wrote as a student in London; some show her feeling her way towards her own sound, but the best – for example, the quietly imaginative Aufblick – are already distinctive.
