Gramophone Awards 2024
Shortlisted - Song

Brindley Sherratt (bass), Julius Drake (piano)

Schubert: Fahrt zum Hades, D526 (Mayrhofer)
Schubert: Der Schiffer, D536 (Mayrhofer)
Schubert: 3 Gesänge, D. 902: No. 1, L’incanto degli occhi
Schubert: Auf der Donau, D553 (Mayrhofer)
Schubert: Der Tod und das Mädchen, D531
Strauss, R: 6 Lieder, Op. 56: No. 3, Im Spätboot
Mussorgsky: Songs and Dances of Death
Ireland: Sea Fever
Finzi: Let Us Garlands Bring, Op. 18: No. 3, Fear no more the heat o' the sun
Gurney: By a bierside
Head, M: 6 Sea Songs: No. 2, Limehouse Reach
Warlock: Captain Stratton's Fancy

Brindley Sherratt’s pre-eminence as an operatic bass is the result of two daring career shifts. Initially trained as a trumpeter, he gave up his first instrument as a student to become a singer. Yet even then, it was only in his mid-thirties that he left the professional security of a position in the BBC Singers to explore the world of opera.

Now, the voyage of discovery continues as Sherratt turns to the intimate medium of the song recital. With the superb pianist Julius Drake as collaborator, in Fear No More Sherratt draws on all of his accumulated technical and expressive wisdom to traverse death-haunted songs by Schubert, Mussorgsky and Richard Strauss before arriving at a final group of five twentieth-century English songs in which consolation and acceptance are the keynotes.

"Sherratt possesses that rare gift – a genuine bass voice that carries its lyrical, expressive clarity from its ringing high notes right down to a full-toned basso profundo delivered without a trace of muddiness..This is a true partnership of two experienced musicians at the peak of their powers." - BBC Music Magazine, June 2024