Britten: Phaedra; A Charm of Lullabies; Lachrymae; Two Portraits; Sinfonietta – review

Connolly/Rysanov/BBCSO/Gardner(Chandos)Most people will, I suspect, be drawn to this disc by the thought of Sarah Connolly singing Phaedra, the cantata that Britten wrote in 1975 for Janet Baker, with whom Connolly has often been compared. And she is indeed very fine in it, albeit more self-dramatising than Baker and therefore less sympathetic. The real stunner, however, is Lachrymae, Britten's Reflections on a Song of Dowland, originally written for viola and piano in 1950, though given here in...

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