Bright Phoebus

Released in 2015, Grapefruit’s 3-CD multi-artist British underground folk compilation Dust On The Nettles was widely praised, with a five-star review in The Times hailing it as “a delight from beginning to end”. A long-overdue follow up to that set, Sumer Is Icumen In tightens the mesh by focusing on the point when traditional folksong and the burgeoning late Sixties counterculture collided, largely courtesy of seminal acts like the Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention and Pentangle.

In 1601, English composer Thomas Morley published a volume of madrigals called The Triumphs of Oriana. The music was intended to honor the aging Queen Elizabeth I, referred to as Oriana for reasons about which historians disagree (one version of the story is given in the detailed and informative notes by Thomas Elias). Each madrigal concluded with some variant of the couplet "Then sang the shepherds and nymphs of Diana/Long live fair Oriana," allowing the composer (there were 23 different ones for the 25 pieces) to strut his polyphonic stuff at the end of the song.

In the wake of the recent, superb box set, it's hard to imagine a single disc being definitive of one of Britain's great folk singing groups. At best, you can touch on their different facets and legacy. But Definitive Collection actually does a splendid job. There are the hymns, the traditional songs, and some of the permutations (Lal and Norma, Mike, even the late Peter Bellamy), as well as tracks by Waterson: Carthy and Blue Murder, who carry on the flame of the original Watersons in many ways (especially Blue Murder, which is essentially Waterson:Carthy plus Barry Coope, Jim Boyes and Lester Simpson). The tracks are from their "Topic" albums (which means, because of licensing, nothing from the original, wonderful Bright Phoebus release is here), but all of those that are here are wonderful, and sung with such naturalness that they epitomize what folk singing should be about. There's no sense of premeditation about their performances. This is simply who they are, and their way of expressing themselves. It's not Mighty River of Song, which really is definitive, but as an introduction to the Watersons, and an overview of their massive achievements in folk music, this works excellently.

Beyond the Music is a special 15-CD edition celebrating contralto Marian Anderson, the first Black singer at the Met. On April 9, 1939, a cold Easter Sunday, a woman in a fur coat walked down the steps of Lincoln Memorial, ready to perform open-air after being refused the largest hall in Washington because she was Black. As contralto Marian Anderson raised her voice to sing the words of My Country, ’Tis of Thee to the 75,000 who gathered to listen to her, an unforgettable historic moment unfolded. The great voice of “The Lady from Philadelphia,” first discovered by her local neighborhood, took her to global fame on the stages of Europe, Asia, and America. She became the first Black woman to perform at the Met in New York, she sang for presidents and kings, was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and with her dignity, courage, and unwavering belief in equal rights she became an icon in her supportive role for the civil rights movement.

Sony Classical presents legendary soprano Kathleen Battle in nine of her foremost studio recordings in her ‘Complete Sony Recordings’. In the course of a remarkable career, launched in 1973 by mentor James Levine in their shared hometown of Cincinnati, Kathleen Battle has captivated international audiences. She has taken home numerous awards – among them five Grammys and London’s Olivier Award for her 1985 Covent Garden debut as Zerbinetta in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, the first American singer to win that prestigious prize – and become one of classical music’s best-selling artists.