Peter Dawson (bass-baritone) - Repertoire

Repertoire

Dawson's repertoire was essentially adapted to the purposes of the recital platform, growing out of the late 19th-century tradition of the smoking concerts and Chappell Recitals. He was an advocate of singing in English, and he ensured that his diction was of the utmost clarity when he sang.

He owed to his vocal mentor Charles Santley a taste and technique perfectly suited to oratorio, of which Handel's Messiah was his favourite work. Handel standards ("O Ruddier than the Cherry"; "Why do the Nations?"; "Honour and Arms"; "Arm, arm ye Brave" and "Droop not Young Lover") and Mendelssohn ("I am a Roamer" and "It is Enough", from Elijah) remained constantly in his work. He sang Elgar roles in exemplary fashion, too, including "Oh My Warriors" and "The Sword Song" ("Leap, Leap, to the Light") from Caractacus. His concert operatic titles were principally The Prologue (from Pagliacci), "Iago's Credo" (Otello), "Even Bravest Heart" (Faust) –- written originally by Gounod for Santley -- "Largo al Factotum" (The Barber of Seville), "Non più andrai" (The Marriage of Figaro), "O Star of Eve" (Tannhäuser), the "Toreador Song" (Carmen), "Pari siamo" (Rigoletto) and "Within This Hallowed Dwelling" (The Magic Flute).

The art of the German Lied attracted him also, notably Schubert's "Der Erlkönig", "Ave Maria", "Who is Sylvia", "Sei mir gegrüsst", "Erstarrung", "Wasserflut", "Die Krähe" and "Ungeduld"; Schumann's "Die Beiden Grenadier", "Frühlingsnacht"; Carl Loewe's "The Clock", "Edward"; Brahms's "Die Mainacht", "Botschaft", "Ständchen", "Der Tod das ist die Kühle Nacht", "Blinde Kuh"; Richard Strauss's "Traum durch die Dämmerung" and Hugo Wolf's "Nun wandre Maria", "Verschwiegene Liebe". Russian standards also appeared in his recital programs, notably Tchaikovsky's "To the Forest", "None but the Lonely Heart", "Don Juan's Serenade", Rachmaninoff's "Christ is Risen" and Malashkin's "O Could I But Express in Song". Most of these songs were sung in English.

However, it was in British song that Dawson was especially famous, and his career helped to preserve the concert recital, and many of the older ballad type of songs, at a time when other forms of popular music were displacing the Victorian standards. He was particularly successful with the heartier, rollicking type of song, such as Off to Philadelphia, The Old Superb and Up from Somerset. He sang a good deal of the output of Stanford and Arthur Somervell, a few Sullivan vocal warhorses, and a select range of items by contemporary composers such as Percy French, Peter Warlock, Liza Lehmann, Granville Bantock, Eric Coates, Roger Quilter, Thomas Dunhill, Edward German, George Butterworth, Gustav Holst, Landon Ronald, Michael Head, Frank Bridge, Arnold Bax and W.A. Aitken.

Many songs became personally identified with him, including "The Floral Dance" (Katie Moss), "The Kerry Dance" (Molloy), "The Bandolero" (Stuart), "The Cobbler's Song" (from Chu Chin Chow), "In a Monastery Garden" and "In a Persian Market" (Albert Ketèlbey), "The Lute Player" (Allitsen), "The Old Brigade", and "On the Road to Mandalay" (Speaks and Hedgcock versions). His performance of the "Four Indian Love Lyrics" (Amy Woodforde-Finden) and his "Roses of Picardy" (Haydn Wood) were famous. He composed a number of songs himself, under the name J.P. McCall, most famously his setting of Rudyard Kipling's "Boots", which won the author's approval and was one of Dawson's greatest successes.

His recitals were also enlivened by the inclusion of many Australian songs, notably "Waltzing Matilda", "Song of Australia", "Clancy of the Overflow" and "The Rivetter" (Albert Arlen's settings), "Six Australian Bush Songs", and also Alfred Hill's version of the New Zealand Māori song "Waiata Poi".