Roy Henderson (baritone) - Distinction in Opera and British Music

Distinction in Opera and British Music

He then began to obtain many engagements both in opera and in oratorio. He had seasons at Covent Garden, including Wagner roles, in 1928 and 1929. In 1929 at the Delius Festival under Sir Thomas Beecham, Henderson distinguished himself and was acclaimed by Delius as the unequalled interpreter of Zarathustra in A Mass of Life. His performances of Delius's Sea Drift (a part created by Frederic Austin) were also considered masterly. Beecham had recorded this work with the baritone Dennis Noble in 1928, but this was not issued owing to unsatisfactory acoustics. In 1929 the Decca record company was established by (Sir) Edward Lewis, and in May 1929 Henderson was recruited to record the work as one of Decca's first issues.

He also became very distinguished in works by Ralph Vaughan Williams, including A Sea Symphony, Dona Nobis Pacem, Sancta Civitas and Five Tudor Portraits; in those of Edward Elgar, especially The Dream of Gerontius, The Kingdom, and The Apostles; in Bach's St Matthew Passion and St John Passion; and in Mendelssohn's Elijah. He took part in first performances of many British works, including composers Vaughan Williams, Dyson, Cyril Scott, E. J. Moeran, Arthur Bliss and Patrick Hadley. He gave the first performance of Bliss' Serenade for Orchestra and Voice, under Malcolm Sargent, at the Queen's Hall during the first Courtauld-Sargent series, 1929-1930. He gave the premiere of Delius's Idyll: Once I walked through a populous city at the Queen's Hall Promenade Concerts in October 1933 with Dora Labette, under Sir Henry Wood. For the Royal Philharmonic Society he performed Moeran's Nocturne (for baritone, chorus and orchestra) under Adrian Boult in 1936, and Dona Nobis Pacem and the Sea Symphony (with Isobel Baillie) under Ralph Vaughan Williams at the composer's 70th birthday concert in November 1942.

From 1930 to 1937, he was chorus master of the Nottingham Harmonic Society under Sir Hamilton Harty, from whom he learned many lasting lessons. He also conducted the Huddersfield Glee and Madrigal Society, the Bournemouth Municipal Choir and the Nottingham Oriana Choir, one of the very few which sang only from memory. Over these years, he was also attempting to fulfil very many singing engagements at major concerts and festivals, and teaching in both London and Nottingham, and in the flush of his early success, he became over-extended in his work. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in around 1932.

In 1934, he took part with Kate Winter, Linda Seymour and Parry Jones in the recording of Stravinsky's Les noces, under the composer's direction

In 1936 he was the baritone soloist in the premiere performance (and the first of very few in the composer's lifetime) of Constant Lambert's Summer's Last Will and Testament, under Lambert's direction.