Roger Quilter's circumscribed but genuine and beautifully wrought art has given Britain a songwriter who invites comparison with Duparc. Perhaps the faint whiff of lavender-water hangs over an hour's recital of this Edwardian drawing-room music, so cultivated and restrained in style but the principal impression is of how well Quilter knew his limitations and kept within them. His settings of Shakespeare are among the best that exist; and it says much for ''Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal'' that, even though we now know Britten's erotic and sensuous setting of this Tennyson poem, Quilter's casts its own spell in spite of a bowdlerized text.
But his To Julia cycle is perhaps his master-piece, containing three songs, ''To Daisies'', ''The Night Piece'' and ''Cherry Ripe'', that deserve a place in anyone's anthology of the best British settings of verse. Of the 31 songs on this disc, very few are failures and some, such as the setting of Maquarie's ''Autumn Evening'', will come as an exciting discovery to many listeners.
Recorded in The Maltings, Snape, this disc is technically a joy to hear, the voice and piano ideally balanced. David Willison's accompaniments merit only the highest praise—to sample their poetic quality at its most alluring, listen to ''Autumn Evening'' (from Op. 14). Benjamin Luxon is also a sensitive interpreter, wholly in sympathy with the music, his diction irreproachable. Whenever he sings forte, the vibrato that is today an inescapable feature of his singing is distressingly evident. Otherwise this fine baritone's inimitable warmth of voice and personality are dominant.'