The sea and the ships: a celebration of the first ship’s weather forecast broadcast on British radio; Jess Dandy, Gareth Brynmor John, Nigel Foster, Simon Butteriss; London Song Festival at Hinde Street Methodist Church
Reviewed on June 21, 2024
A wonderfully varied homage to the sea and the fascination of English and Irish composers with the sea, with works from Elgar to Noel Coward and Frederick Delius to contemporary composers Julian Philips and Martin Bussey.
After celebrating the 200th anniversary of the invention of the Mackintosh last year (see my review), Nigel Foster and the London Song Festival celebrated the 100th anniversary of the first ship’s weather forecast broadcast on British radio with The sea and the shipsa programme of English songs performed by alto Jess Dandy and baritone Gareth Brynmor John, with pianist Nigel Foster and speaker Simon Butteriss. The programme began with Ronald Binges Passing by and ended with Noel Cowards Sailing away and in between songs and arrangements by René Atkinson, Ivor Gurney, Michael Flanders and Donald Swann, Michael Head, Peter Warlock, John Ireland, Frederick Delius, Edward Elgar, Martin Bussey, Rebecca Clarke, John Glover-Kind, Julian Philips, Steven Mark Kohn, Gerald Moore, Charles Villiers Stanford and Michael Tippett.
We began with a tribute to the Shipping forecast with the two singers in Ronald Binges Passing bywhose instrumental version is played on the radio before the actual weather forecast; charming and very homely. Simon Butteris’ reading of the weather forecast itself was interrupted by three songs, each relating to one of the areas mentioned. Jess Dandy has really invested in The waters of the Tynea traditional song in a very art song-like arrangement by René Atkinson, then Gareth Brynmor John strutted in Ivor Gurney’s Thomas Hardy setting, The Night of Trafalgaran early song that is more reminiscent of Peter Warlock. Finally, the two soloists joined forces for Flanders and Swann’s Rockallher deadpan delivery and superb diction make the most of the work’s delightful ambiguity.
Ships and sailors started with Michael Heads The Ships of Arcadia Dandy gave us a beautiful line paired with a rich, focused tone, then John boasted again in Heads A dog’s lifebut also invest in the touching moments. Noel Cowards Has anyone seen our ship (first sung by Coward himself with Gertrude Lawrence in the review Tonight at 8:30) the two singers presented a rather serious version of the song, which was funny because it was so dry. John returned to the sea shanty style with a real Warlock, the grandiose ode to rum, which Captain Stratton’s Fantasythen Dandy John Irelands gave us Sea Feverher rich tone and her feeling for Masefield’s poetry expressed the lyrical melancholy of the work.
Nights by the sea showed John in Delius’ Summer nightsrich romanticism and an element of mystical rhapsody that sometimes didn’t sound like Delius at all. Then Dandy in Song for sea slumber from Elgar’s Sea picturesDandy’s impressive contralto voice takes us back to a sound world that Elgar would have recognised in this song, and the piano version adds a touch more intimacy.
There was more Elgar, Dandy continued with Where corals are out of Sea picturesfor the section on The magic and mystery of the sea. Here Foster emphasized the engaging dance-like element of the accompaniment and complemented Dandy’s lyrical singing. Then John presented us with another Hardy setting, this time The Phantom Rider by contemporary composer Martin Bussey. A complex yet tonal work that was a wonderfully effective free arioso. The first half ended with Jess Dandy in Rebecca Clarke’s The Seal Man (Score more by John Masefield.) Dandy gave us a truly haunting narrative that ranged from nerve-racking intimacy to quasi-operatic style.
The second half began with The charm of the seapaired with John Glover-Kind’s wonderfully suggestive Oh, I love being by the sea with Julian Philips’ Emily Dickinson setting, Ah, silver everywhere by Philips’ Fast partitions (a song cycle premiered by Foster in 1998) which featured a striking, mysterious piano that complemented John’s sensual, intense singing voice.
Divided by the sea paired with Steven Mark Kohn’s traditional song arrangement, Ten thousand miles awaywith John highlighting the elements of art song in Kohn’s arrangement, with another traditional song, this time arranged by pianist Gerald Moore, The wind blows from the south. This was memorably associated with Kathleen Ferrier, here Jess Dandy was serious and completely herself.
On the way home began with Stanford’s On the way home out of Songs of the sea. John and Foster expressed the song’s poetry and surprising complexity. Then Dandy Michael Heads sang The mouthThe cuteness of Heads The Ships of Arcadia to give us something where time seems to stand still and slowly approaches a dignified rapture.
The last section was The embrace of the sea with two further musical settings by Emily Dickinson from Julian Philips’ Fast partitions sung by John. The water followed him was intense and quite disturbing, while My river flows to you was impulsive with almost jazz-like rhythms as it approached an intense climax. In between, Dandy gave a strong, strange and mysterious portrayal of Full Thread Five by Tippett’s Songs for Ariel (written for an Old Vic production of The storm with Alastair Sim and Eileen Atkins)
We ended with more Noel Coward, the slightly disturbing but still delightful Sailing away where Coward proclaims that the solution to all of life’s problems is to “sail away”!
Throughout the performance, narrator Simon Butteriss provided the connective tissue between the songs with a series of poignant and sometimes devastating pieces of poetry and prose, sometimes very small and very eclectic in the choice of authors, including Jacques Cousteau, Arthur Ransome, Walt Whitman, Samuel Johnson, John Masefield, Virginia Woolf, Rabindranath Tagore, Shakespeare, Robert Frost, Longfellow, Sylvia Plath, Swinburne, Sara Teasdale, Langston Hughes and Mark Twain, as well as Dickens’ Dombey and Son, Darwin’s Voyage of the Beagleand Camus’ The plague.
All in all, a thoughtful and imaginative evening that kept the focus where it was needed: on the songs.
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