Born in 1923, Madeleine Dring studied at the Royal College of Music under Herbert Howells and Vaughan Williams. Her unconventional career spanned theatre, pantomime and cabaret, but was cut short by her death from a brain aneurysm at 53. Already considered a maverick, much of her music remained unpublished until the late 1990s, threatening to condemn her to obscurity.
Now mezzo-soprano Kitty Whately and pianist Julius Drake have released a wide-ranging survey that puts paid to any idea that Dring was not a serious composer. Drawing on poets from Shakespeare and his Elizabethan contemporaries to the composer's own peers, the album showcases Dring's knack for word-setting and her ability to find new melodies for old chestnuts such as 'It Was a Lover and His Lass'.
Whately's warm, supple voice takes these fervent outpourings in her stride, while spotless diction and an intense connection to the text draw the listener into an intoxicating world of rediscovered micro-dramas. Drake knows just when to give the piano its head and when to offer more self-effacing support.
The album offers plenty of variety: 'Love Is a Sickness' throbs with unconsummated passion, while 'Echoes' features bluesy, melismatic lines. By contrast, there is fun to be had with the tongue-in-cheek 'Encouragements to a Lover' and Shakespeare's 'The Cuckoo'. As an encore, Dring's arrangement of Cole Porter's 'In the Still of the Night' is as welcome and piquant as an olive in a dry martini.
