Kitty Stroker

SOMM Recordings continues its widely acclaimed championing of the music of Charles Villiers Stanford with a captivating collection of his Children’s Songs by mezzo-soprano Kitty Whately and baritone Gareth Brynmor John, accompanied by pianist Susie Allan.

Mezzo-soprano Kitty Whately trained at Chetham's School of Music, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and the International Opera School of the Royal College of Music.

Kitty Foyle, a hard-working white-collar girl from a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania low, middle-class family, meets and falls in love with young socialite Wyn Strafford but his family is against her.

The House of Life is a collection of six settings of sonnets by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882). I imagine that most collectors, like me, will associate it with male singers; among the versions in my own collection are top class recordings by Roderick Williams (review) and Anthony Rolfe Johnson (review). Here, however, Albion give us the first-ever recording of the complete set by a female singer. Now, you may object that at least two of the poems – the third and fourth – clearly express the thoughts of a man. There is a significant precedent, however. We learn from the excellent and thoroughly researched notes by John Francis that in December 1904 VW arranged a concert of his own works in what is now the Wigmore Hall in London. The programme included the first performance of The House of Life and the singer was a contralto, Edith Clegg, with Hamilton Harty, no less, at the piano. Countless female singers will have essayed the most famous song in the set, ‘Silent Noon’ but I wonder how many have sung the full set. When you hear these radiant performances by Kitty Whately you may be as astonished as I was that this is the first female recording of the six songs.

Kitty Kallen (born Katie Kallen; May 25, 1921 – January 7, 2016) was an American singer whose career spanned from the 1930s to the 1960s, including the Swing era of the Big Band years, the post-World War II pop scene, and the early years of rock 'n roll.