British bass-baritone Tristan Hambleton and pianist Simon Lepper’s latest release on Delphian has quickly attracted international attention, earning “Record of the Week” on Swedish Radio and BBC Music Magazine’s “Vocal Choice.”
The album Day of these Days – The British Isles Reflected in Song presents a thoughtfully curated programme that highlights Hambleton’s hallmark clarity of tone and textual sensitivity. Britten’s This Way to the Tomb stands out for its rhythmic vitality, while Stuart MacRae’s I Know Not How It Is with You forms the emotional centre of the recording. Richard Sisson’s The Silver Swan offers contrast in a lighter vein, and works by Huw Watkins and Sally Beamish demonstrate the breadth of Hambleton’s expressive range, with particular depth in the lower register.
A poised account of Thomas Adès’s arrangement of Purcell’s By Beauteous Softness provides an elegant close. Supported by Delphian’s refined production, the album has been widely described as a “rewarding and thoughtful recital.”
