Henry Handel Richardson: Let Spring Come and other Songs
The Australian writer Henry Handel Richardson (1870–1946) was christened Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson: she adopted a male nom de plume in anticipation of professional prejudice. Although she made an international reputation as a novelist, she first trained as a pianist, and she wrote songs all her life – but they remained unpublished, so that her output as a composer has been completely overlooked. Her songs are straightforward and melodious, drawing their inspiration from Romantic German Lieder and Edwardian drawing-room ballads, lullabies and parlour songs in the manner of Bridge, Ireland, Quilter and other such composers.
Narelle Yeo, soprano (Tracks 1 –10, 14–18, 24–32)
Simon Lobelson, baritone (Tracks 11 – 13, 19 – 23)
Tonya Lemoh, piano
Listen To This Recording:
- Erster Verlust
- Unter der Linden
- Wenn ich scheiden muss
- Wiegenlied
- Eia im Sause
- Schlaf, Kindlein, Schlaf
- Vagabundenlied
- Christkindleins Wiegenlied
- Lied des armen Narren
- Wenn du meinem Schatzel kommst
- Ringel-ringel-rosenkranz
- Schusters Abendlied
- Irmelin Rose
- O nous achèterons
- Tuscan Lullaby
- A Toast
- A la mode
- Let Spring Come
- Dregs
- The Rolling English Road
- Peacock Pie
- The Irishman’s Song
- The King’s Men
- The Night of Trafalgar
- So We’ll Go No More A-roving
- Regret Not Me
- The Spring, my Dear
- There was an old new England cat
- At Kew
- Come Away, Death
- Vesperal
- Susannah Fry
FIRST RECORDINGS
The Music Trust :
‘These lovingly prepared premiere recordings offer a fascinating insight into a little-known aspect of a great Australian writer’s creative life. […]
Thanks to careful and loving performances by Narelle Yeo, Simon Lobelson and Tonya Lemoh (and the efforts of editors Bruce Steele and the late Richard Divall) we can now survey a range of Richardson’s songs, recorded here for the first time. […]
At its best, Richardson’s music has a simple dignity that can be extremely affecting, particularly in her settings of Walter de la Mare. […]
We should be grateful to Yeo, Lobelson and Lemoh, and to Toccata Classics for their advocacy and sensitive renditions of this work.’
—Gordon Kerry, The Music Trust