Rediscovering Madeleine Dring: A Serious Composer's Legacy Revived

Madeleine Dring, born in 1923, was a composer with an unconventional career that spanned theatre, pantomime, and cabaret. Despite her untimely death at 53, her music has been rediscovered, and her seriousness as a composer is now evident.

The album Through the Centuries: Songs of Madeleine Dring, performed by Kitty Whately and Julius Drake, features a wide-ranging survey of Dring's work, drawing on poets from Shakespeare to her contemporaries. Dring's ability to find distinctive new melodies for old classics, such as It Was a Lover and His Lass, is showcased, along with her knack for word-setting.

Whately's warm, supple mezzo-soprano brings these fervent outpourings to life, while Drake's piano accompaniment provides the perfect balance of support and independence. The album offers a variety of moods, from the passionate Love Is a Sickness and Echoes to the tongue-in-cheek Encouragements to a Lover and The Cuckoo.

The encore, Dring's arrangement of Cole Porter's In the Still of the Night, is a delightful addition, showcasing her skill in reinterpreting popular songs. This album puts paid to any idea that Dring was not a serious composer, instead highlighting her unique voice and contribution to classical music.