by John Morel (baritone)
John Morel
John Morel was born in London and began his singing career as a choir-boy. At the age of ten his beautiful soprano voice was in great demand both at important church functions and at festivals. When his voice broke he took up the study of the piano, but later began seriously to study singing, first in London, then in Rome and Milan, and for a short period in Paris. His range of musical sympathies is very wide, for he sings perfectly in five different languages.
Robert Franz
This composer was born at Halle, within a week or two of the Battle of Waterloo, and died in 1892. He is considered one of the most important composers of German lieder ; at his best sometimes ranking with Schumann and Brahms. Although Franz wrote over 250 songs, his name is comparatively unknown in England. Mendelssohn, as did Schumann, praised his early songs very warmly, but was not so appreciative of the later ones, which he complained lacked melody-a more or less meaningless criticism, as history has shown so many times.