Berkeley, L: The Horseman

Finzi: Since we loved

          The sigh

          At Middle-Field Gate in February (from I Said to Love)

Gurney: Down by the Salley Gardens

Hely-Hutchinson: Old Mother Hubbard - Set in the manner of Händel

Howells: King David

               The Widow Bird

               The Little Boy Lost

Purcell: Music for a while, Z583 arr. Tippett

             Lord, what is man?, Z192 arr. Britten

             Let the night perish (Job's Curse), Z191 arr. Britten

Quilter: It was a lover and his lass

              Three Shakespeare Songs, Op. 6

              Hey, ho, the wind and the rain (No. 5 from Five Shakespeare Songs, Op. 23)

              Take, O take those lips away

Stanford: La Belle Dame sans merci (John Keats) (1877)

Vaughan Williams: Linden Lea

                              Bright is the Ring of Words (No. 8 from Songs of Travel)

Warlock: Jillian of Berry

This programme offers a vivid and varied cross-section of English song, ranging from the Edwardian aesthetic of Quilter and early Vaughan Williams to the intensely expressive style of Howells and Finzi. The Purcell realisations by Britten and Tippett, meanwhile, are products of two great 20th-century composers engaging with their musical heritage. In all these different styles, Bejun Mehta shows the same verbal and vocal mastery that won such acclaim for his debut Handel recital on harmonia mundi.

“Mehta may not possess the most extensive of vocal paintboxes but he does gradate the shades at his disposal to good effect: pastels rather than oils. In Drake he has a partner who draws suitable sounds from the piano.” International Record Review