Was this recording of Quilter songs (Complete Folk-Song Arrangements and Complete Part-Songs for Women's Voices) a vanity project for soprano Amanda Pitt? It is hard to explain in any other terms, for her voice is not pleasant to hear. It is a pinched, badly produced, squally sound - the sort of standard one would expect in a not very gifted singing student. Why Naxos permitted this travesty of a recording under their label is a mystery.
The majority of the songs on this CD are sung by the aforesaid Amanda Pitt (soprano). The other singers in this project are of a better standard - in the case of Philip Langridge, beautiful to listen to. This recording is not worthy of his excellent career and lovely tenor voice. The other two singers - mezzo Joanne Thomas and baritone David Wilson-Johnson - are not bad, either, although the mezzo doesn't get a single solo. The lack of a solo for Ms Thomas is glaringly evident when compared to the ten (10) solos which Ms Pitt sings. (10 out of 21 solos - definitely an unfair ratio. Of these ten solos, several could have been given to the mezzo to sing - they were certainly not beyond the average mezzo range.)
The rest of the album consists of duets - thirteen of them. Eleven of the thirteen duets are soprano/mezzo, and in spite of the mezzo's voice (from what one is permitted to hear of it) isn't bad, the duet performances are frankly awful, chiefly because of Ms Pitt. Even the superior quality of Philip Langridge's singing cannot save the two duets he sings with Amanda Pitt.
It's artistically an insulting and atrociously unbalanced distribution of material.
Look for the John Mark Ainsley/Lisa Milne recording of Quilter songs & arias. Admittedly, it doesn't include most of the duets on this CD, but oh, the sheer pleasure of hearing well-trained and lovely voices give Quilter a worthy treatment!