ARTHUR SOMERVELL (1863-1937): Maud, WILLIAM STERNDALE BENNETT (1815-1875): 6 Songs, Op. 23, from Op. 35: Indian Love, Winter's Gone and Dawn Gentle Flower, HERBERT HOWELLS (1892-1983): 5 Songs, Op. 7, 3 Rondeaux, Op. 12.

Description: A two-disc set of which one is a 78-minute reading of a long narrative poem with no texts is a tough sell, even when Maud is full of murder, madness and suicide, but it must be offered for the attractions of the 77-minute song disc: Somervell's 1898 setting of twelve chunks of it is powerfully conceived and makes its demands on the pianist as well; Bennett's songs are somewhere between Mendelssohn and Schumann and the English parlor while Howells' early (1913 and 1915) sets are further evidence of his early genius at word-setting. 2 CDs. (NOTE: Disc 2 is a reading by Gabriel Woolf of Tennyson's complete monodrama Maud.) No texts. Stephen Roberts (baritone), Terence Allbright (piano).