Songs - Vol 2

'Immediately appealing. Stephen Varcoe is the perfect singer for this repertoire. A treasure of a disc' (Fanfare)

'Maintains in each and every bar the high standards of the previous release' (BBC Music Magazine)

'Beautifully performed with excellent notes, this recording will convince even the sceptical of the true worth of these songs ... a most sensitive performance' (Gramophone)

'This collection, along with its predecessor has changed my life. Without any question, it contains some magnificent songs, settings that would grace any company under the sun ... voice and piano are in true partnership. I can only salute with deepest admiration Stephen Varcoe's sterling baritone, so utterly sympathetic to Stanford's every note, so undemonstratively secure, so responsive to word and musical line' (International Record Review)

This second disc of Stanford songs, promised when the first was issued in February, includes The Fairy Lough and the complete Songs of the Sea to words by Sir Henry Newbolt (Drake's Drum, The Old Superb etc). It also features all seven songs of A Fire of Turf - affectionate vignettes of Irish country life (Blackberry Time and The Chapel on the Hill). As with the first disc (CDA67123), this includes many songs of which we can find no evidence of previous recordings.

Stephen Varcoe has established a reputation as one of Britain's most versatile baritones and has sung in opera, concerts and recitals, covering a wide range of repertoire, in Europe, the USA and the Far East. His operatic appearances include Haydn's L'Infedelta Delusa in Antwerp, Debussy's Fall of the House of Usher in Lisbon and London and John Tavener's new opera Mary of Egypt for the Aldeburgh Festival (which was subsequently recorded).
He is widely known for his performances in baroque and contemporary music, and more particularly as a song recitalist. He is frequently to be heard on BBC Radio and European radio stations and seen on television performing works as varied as Bach cantatas, Schubert songs and Victorian ballads. His discography comprising more than fifty recordings includes Purcell, Handel and Bach with Pinnock, Gardiner, Hickox and Kuijken; Mozart with Marriner; Fauré with Rutter; Holst with Hickox, Richard Strauss with Norrington, recitals of Finzi songs with Clifford Benson and French songs with Graham Johnson, with whom he recorded Volume 2 in the Hyperion Schubert edition, a recording of English orchestral songs 'If there were dreams to sell' and Stanford's Stabat Mater, both with Richard Hickox.

Concert engagements include Fauré's Requiem with the Northern Sinfonia, Handel's Esther at the London Handel Festival, Messiah with The Brandenburg Consort, Bach's St Matthew Passion with the City of London Sinfonia, Handel's Jephtha with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Britten's War Requiem with the Aarhus and Odense Orchestras in Deninark, concerts with Malgoire in France, performances of King Arthur on a European tour with the Monteverdi Choir and Bach's Magnificat at the National Arts Centre, Canada. He took part in Jonathan Miller's dramatisation of Bach's St Matthew Passion in Spain and at the Festival d'Ambronay in France, a project recorded for BBCTV and issued on CD.