This collection brings together rarities and surprises from the\nDecca/Argo Britten discography, a collection notable as much for\nthe infrequency with which much of this music is performed, as it\nis for the fact that many of these are world-premiere recordings of\nBritten’s music. The source material itself is extremely rare and\nvirtually every recording represented here is, in its LP/EP format,\na collector’s item, largely from the Argo catalogue. The all-vocal\nprogram opens with Voices for Today which Britten wrote to mark the\n20th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations. His\ndevotion to excellent music for children is represented by a\ncollection of songs, including five from Friday Afternoons and sung\nby the boy alto John Hahessy. It was Hahessy who was chosen over\nNorma Procter to sing the alto part in Britten’s Canticle II\n‘Abraham and Isaac’. The earlier Procter/Pears/Britten version,\nrecorded in 1957 but not released at the time in favour of the\nHahessy recording; it is included on this collection. In later\nyears, it was perhaps inevitable that other British singers would\nbe compared with those who created and inspired Britten’s work,\nnotably Ferrier, particularly after her early death. Pamela Bowden\nwas one of those singers: she studied with Ferrier’s teacher, Roy\nHenderson, in London, and was hailed as the singer’s successor. She\nis represented by A Charm of Lullabies and it seemed sensible to\ninclude the remainder of the music on her original EP – two songs\nby Purcell – as bonus tracks for this release. A rare spoken-word\nappearance is made by author (and speaker) T.H. White, who reads an\nextract from his book The Sword in the Stone to an accompaniment of\nBritten’s music.

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