Songs grouped in the following categories:
Shakespearean settings
Famous poets
Songs to words by Lionel Lewin
The beginning
Tennyson
The ‘Liederkreis’ of Sullivan and Tennyson
Songs from the stage
Songs in foreign tongues
Others

This exceptional recording gathers the finest young vocal talents in a unique programme of songs by Sullivan, many of them very rarely recorded. Currently widely acclaimed for key operatic title roles in the UK and abroad, the ‘deeply touching, outstanding’ (The Guardian) soprano Mary Bevan, the ‘elegant yet intense, impeccable’ (The Guardian) tenor Ben Johnson, and the ‘increasingly impressive’ (The Financial Times) bass-baritone Ashley Riches – who here appears on Chandos for the first time – span fifty years of Arthur Sullivan’s large non-operatic vocal output. They are accompanied by the UK pianist David Owen Norris, who regularly appears in highly praised concerto performances at the BBC Proms. This album continues to celebrate the Shakespeare anniversary but also presents a wide variety of poets, drawing on texts from a vast range of sources, through the voices of today’s greatest rising stars.