Madeleine Dring - Through the Centuries (Kitty Whately; Julius Drake)

Information

Composer: Madeleine Dring

1. Love is a sickness
2. Echoes
3. Encouragements to a Lover
4. The Enchantment
5. Melisande
6. My true-love hath my heart
7. Love and Time: No. 1, Sister, awake
8. Love and Time: No. 2, Ah, how sweet it is to love!
9. Love and Time: No. 3, I feed a flame within
10. Love and Time: No. 4, The Reconcilement
11. Weep you no more, sad fountains
12. Seven Shakespeare Songs: No. 1, The Cuckoo
13. Seven Shakespeare Songs: No. 3, Take O take those lips away
14. Seven Shakespeare Songs: No. 2, It was a lover
15. The Faithless Lover
16. Four Night Songs: No. 1, Holding the Night
17. Four Night Songs: No. 2, Frosty Night
18. Four Night Songs: No. 3, Through the Centuries
19. Four Night Songs: No. 4, Separation
20. Cole Porter - In the Still of the Night

Kitty Whately, mezzo-soprano

Julius Drake, piano

Date: 2026

Label: Chandos

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English mezzo-soprano Kitty Whately presents an album of songs by Madeleine Dring, highlighting the composer’s versatile and theatrical output. Born in 1923, Dring studied at the Royal College of Music under Herbert Howells and received guidance from Gordon Jacob and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Her career in theatre showcased her ability to craft memorable numbers quickly, though her early death at fifty-three limited the wider recognition of her work compared with contemporaries such as Elizabeth Lutyens and Grace Williams. Collaborating with pianist Julius Drake, Whately explores a broad selection of Dring’s repertoire, concluding with Dring’s interpretation of Cole Porter’s In the Still of the Night.

Mezzo-soprano Kitty Whately (b. 1983, London) has established a versatile career spanning opera, choral music, and lieder, recognized early as a BBC New Generation Artist (2013–2015). Daughter of actor Kevin Whately, she trained at Chetham’s School of Music, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and the Royal College of Music International School, with early appearances including Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro at the Verbier Festival Academy. She has performed widely in Britain and internationally, championing contemporary works by composers such as Mark-Anthony Turnage, Sally Beamish, and Jonathan Dove, while also recording extensively. Whately co-founded the charity SWAP’ra, supporting women and parents in opera, reflecting her commitment to both performance and advocacy.

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