Down by the Salley Gardens: 20th Century English Songs Bejun Mehta

Editorial Reviews

Bejun Mehta had a rich musical career even before he switched voice type from baritone to countertenor in the late 1990s. He had been an acclaimed boy soprano, studied as a cellist, and been a successful record producer, with his album of Janos Starker playing the Bach cellos suites winning a Grammy. As a countertenor he has forged an impressive international career since the turn of the century, joining the burgeoning ranks of outstanding countertenors that began to appear about that time. Mehta has a natural, unmannered voice that's strong and even throughout his range. Vaughan Williams' "Bright is the ring of words" puts both the power and subtlety of his voice on display. The album doesn't particularly showcase the coloratura suppleness of which he is capable, except in the goofy faux-Handelian setting of "Old Mother Hubbard" by Victor Hely-Hutchinson. These songs are notable for a straightforward, graceful lyricism that's well-suited to Mehta's unaffected voice. He brings plenty of expressiveness to the emotionally varied repertoire, from the heated romantic fervor of Roger Quilter's "Take, o take those lips away," to the melancholy of the title track. It's only in Michael Tippett's realization of Purcell's "Music for a while" that Mehta's interpretation falls short; he doesn't convey the oddness of the combination of the music's gorgeous lyricism and creepy strangeness. The title track refers not to the famous setting by Britten, but a version by Ivor Gurney. One of the appeals of the album lies in the relative unfamiliarity of most of the repertoire and the real obscurity of some of it, and it's a pleasure to have it brought to light. Julius Drake, a masterful accompanist and a frequent collaborator of Mehta's, plays with deftness and idiomatic sensitivity. The sound of Harmonia Mundi's CD is clean, open, and nicely ambient. Stephen Eddins, All Music Guide

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