This appealing collection contains one of Britten’s latest works (Phaedra) and some of his earliest (folksongs), all splendidly sung by Felicity Palmer; also included is one of the first masterpieces of Britten’s maturity, Les Illuminations. This latter, it may be recalled, originally was written for soprano, and fine as Jill Gomez certainly is, it’s nevertheless hard to get Peter Pears’ voice out of your head in this music. Still, Gomez has the measure of this hallucinatory, quasi-homoerotic poetry, and she makes the big numbers such as “Being Beauteous” very much her own. I also like both her timbre and her French diction. You can really her the words in Villes and Parade, and with excellent accompaniment both here and in Palmer’s noble and moving account of Phaedra, I can recommend this “on demand” production from Arkivmusic.com without reservation. Happily, it also comes with original notes, texts, and translations, and the sonics are just fine. [9/27/2007]
