Catalogue Connection: 25048

John Goss was one of the best loved of all British singers of his time, a lyrical baritone with an exceptionally wide repertoire. He was a much admired early broadcaster and died in 1953 at the age of 62.

This fascinating CD from Divine Art attempts, with conspicuous success, to recreate his art between the wars in accordance with the style brought to them, quite often accompanied, as here, by a male voice quartet. I do not wish to appear superior, but I enjoyed this CD much more that I thought I would: here are some lovely songs by 20 th -century British composers, many of whom write with Goss specifically in mind, notably by Peter Warlock and E J Moeran, alongside traditional ballads and sea songs, French and Elizabethan songs, and lieder by Mozart, Schubert and Franz.

hroughout, Giles Davies sings impeccably, with a fine sense of style, and is admirably accompanied by Steven Devine. The recording quality is also excellent, and performance notes and texts are included. This is a really delightful CD, which is wholeheartedly recommended.

Christopher Cook

John Goss (1891-1953) was one of the most important British musicians & colourful personalities of the inter-war era. Singer, scholar & a lover of life, he was adulated by the composer’s whose music he championed, including Warlock, Delius & Moeran. Goss was also responsible for the revival of the British Ballad in the 1920’s & together with Warlock, was the driving force in resurrecting the English Jacobean & Elizabethan Lute Song Repertoire. He was a great entertainer & an innate musician & performer.

This CD is a celebration & dedication to this wonderfully talented character & the items chosen are perhaps many that Goss himself might have included in his recitals. The 28 tracks include Early English Ballads, Elizabethan Songs, Lieder by Mozart & Schubert, English Songs (mainly by Warlock) & Traditional Ballads & Sea Songs.

For Giles Davis, this is obviously a labour of love & he manages to squeeze out all the emotional & musical expressiveness of the repertoire in question. Stephen Devine & the Goss Male Quartet lend sympathetic support throughout. This is certainly a fitting tribute to one of Britain’s most lovable yet astoundingly neglected artists.

One does not have to delve very far into Peter Warlock before coming across the name of the singer Jon Goss (1891-1953), but this new CD conceived and sung by the enterprising Giles Davies explores the far wider range of repertoire that Goss promoted than just the songs by Peter Warlock.

In his Anthology of Song , published in 1926, Goss unashamedly states ‘ It is simply a collection of songs I am fond of. Most singers could compile a similar collection, and many singers should’. This CD is a similar collection of Giles Davies’s from the repertoire of John Goss, and incorporates his ‘Goss Male Quartet’ just as Goss used his Cathedral Male-voice quartet, created from fellow singers in the choir of Westminster Cathedral under R R Terry.

From the choice of Warlock, my only query is, why has ‘The lady’s birthday’ been omitted? Surely, it is one of the most hilarious of Warlock songs: ‘ A song sung by Mr Platt at Sadler’s Wells and arranged (at least 150 years later) for Mr Goss and the Cathedral Male-voice Quartet by peter Warlock at Eynsford on Derby Day 1925.’ Maybe they are considering it for a volume two!

Throughout, the singing is exemplary, the diction faultless, and a wide range of tone and colour coupled with the wide range of repertoire means that one’s mind is always kept captivated. The pianist, Steven Devine, also has a vivid sense of colour and there were moments when I wondered how many different instruments he was playing, the Elizabethan songs are almost lute-like, and the end of Schubert’s ‘The grave-diggers longing for home’ has the depth and resonance of a real double bass.

There are early and traditional English and French ballads, and sea songs (an especially moving ‘Shenandoah’ of which a 78rpm record Warlock sent to Delius, and in this recording incorporates a touching new coda by Danny Gillingwater, in which the ‘rolling river’ continues to ripple gently as the voyagers depart).

There are German Lieder, and English songs, including some of the songs Warlock dedicated to Goss, and others by Moeran, and Rebecca Clarke, together with Van Dieren’s ‘Der Asra’, a favourite of Goss’s that echoes Warlock’s interest in Bartók and cultivates three subtly contrasting voices of a narrator telling the story of a ravishingly beautiful Sultan’s daughter who asks a slave where he is from , only for the slave to ehar that his brethren, the Asra, are those who die for love.

This disc is a tribute to the great baritone John Goss. Born in 1891, Goss was heavily involved in promoting and performing the music of several contemporary composers, including Warlock, Delius and Moeran, while also helping to resurrect English ballads. Here, baritone Giles Davies is accompanied by the Goss Male Quartet and pianist Steven Devine on songs that Goss would have sung (indeed, some of them were composed for him). The disc opens with three early English ballads. There is a wonderfully dreamy quality to the gorgeously-performed Three Ravens , but the Quartet’s exhuberant high spirits are in danger of brimming over into histrionics on Agincourt and Here’s a Health to His Majesty . A French ballad and three Elizabethan songs follow, and Davies excellently captures the feeling of melancholy in I die whenas I do not see her . The ensuing Lieder are also beautifully sung, especially Schubert’s Totengrabers Heimweh , in which singer and pianist build up a terrific sense of tension from the beginning, with Davies both meltingly tender and full of passion. It is, however, early twentieth-century English songs that are given the fullest representation on this disc. Davies’s love and knowledge of this repertoire shines through clearly in pieces such as Moeran’s Dream of Death (in which Davies achieves a particularly beautiful tone), the brilliantly-sung As ever I saw , and the rousing Captain Stratton’s Fancy , both by Warlock. The disc closes with five traditional ballads and sea-songs. The American folk-song Shenandoah –a Goss favorite ” is here given a lovely performance, with a delightful coda composed by Danny Gillingwater (who also wrote the arrangements of the early ballads). On Blow ye Winds, Heigh Ho! Davies demonstrates his aptitude for characterisation, and the quartet is superbly boisteous. The rather tinny recorded sound and piano do not do the performers justice. Nevertheless, the selection of songs is a very fine one, and the fact that the disc also contains detailed, interesting and well-written notes is a bonus.