Christina Rossetti: Nigel Foster's London Song Festival turns its focus on the poet with soprano Susan Bullock and speaker Janine Roebuck

Christina Rossetti, drawn in 1866 by her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The Life and Loves of Christina Rossetti: Parry, Arthur Somervell, Juliana Hall, James Scott Irvine, Michael Head, Samuel Coleridge Taylor, Frederic Cowen, Charles Wood, Maude Valerie White, Martin Shaw, Thomas Dunhill, Cecil Armstrong Gibbs, Margaret Wegener, Ned Rorem, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Charles Ives, Liza Lehmann; Susan Bullock, Janine Roebuck, Nigel Foster; London Song Festival at Hinde Street Methodist Church
Reviewed 5 December 2025

In a rare recital appearance, Susan Bullock really brought out the sense of sung poetry in a programme dedicated to poet Christina Rossetti with settings of her poetry that focused largely on early 20th century British composers

Having celebrated the life and loves of American poet Sarah Teasdale as part of its current season [see my review], Nigel Foster's London Song Festival focused its attention on another poet, English this time. On Friday 5 December 2025 Foster was joined by soprano Susan Bullock and speaker Janine Roebuck for The Life and Loves of Christina Rossetti on what would have been the poet's 195th birthday. There were songs by Parry, Arthur Somervell, Juliana Hall, James Scott Irvine, Michael Head, Samuel Coleridge Taylor, Frederic Cowen, Charles Wood, Maude Valerie White, Martin Shaw, Thomas Dunhill, Cecil Armstrong Gibbs, Margaret Wegener, Ned Rorem, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Charles Ives and Liza Lehmann.

Born in 1830, the youngest of four siblings with poet/painter Dante Gabriel as one of her brothers and the sister of Lord Byron's friend and doctor, John William Polidori, as her mother, Christina Rossetti had a life full of just three things, illness, religion and poetry. A long teenage illness seemed to turn Rossetti towards an intense, austere type of religion, where she would come close to marriage twice, yet both times reject the suitor for religious purposes.

Much of her later work is devotional, but composers seem to have chosen widely from her output, and the evening wove together song and spoken text to narrate Rossetti's life. Janine Roebuck read from Rossetti's poetry and letters, whilst Nigel Foster filled in more practical gaps. The songs were chosen to link to this narrative, creating a sense of exploration. Parry's My heart is like a singing bird coming after she fell in love with Charles Cayley, Charles Wood's Boats sail on the rivers coming after Rossetti's description of Hastings where she went for her health, Martin Shaw's Over the sea and Thomas Dunhill's If hope grew on a bush after she rejected Cayley as he was an agnostic. The recital ended with a setting of one of Rossetti's best known poems, When I am dead, my dearest by Liza Lehmann.

Frankly, Christina Rossetti is someone it is difficult to always sympathise with. Certainly she was frequently ill, but her response was an intense, austere religiosity and composers in particular do not seem to have focused so much on her devotional poems.

One focus was on her lighter poems, notably Sing-Song: A Nursery Rhyme Book (1872). In 1916, a collection of 26 songs by 13 composers setting poems from the collection was published under the title Kookoorookoo and Other Songs. The first of these we heard was Parry's Brown and Furry. A delightful yet short evocation of a caterpillar that was certainly unlike the Parry that we know and love!

Susan Bullock sang the whole programme from memory, some twenty relatively unknown songs, with superb diction. It was clear that, whatever the music, this programme was about the words. Bullock's approach was that of sung poetry. Not only could we hear every single word (an achievement in itself), but Bullock was fully invested in their meanings. Usually to be found in larger theatres, Bullock clearly had no trouble recalibrating her art to the smaller venue and song-recital form.

Arthur Somervell's Young love lies sleeping (1901) had hints of the salon to it, though both performers took the piece entirely seriously with strong intent. Juliana Hall's Who has seen the wind, from her 2016 song cycle setting Rossetti's poetry, proved to be urgent and intense with fluid piano and short, dramatic vocal phrases creating powerful effect. Another contemporary piece, Canadian composer James Scott Irvine's Remember was written for Susan Bullock. This proved to be rather touching, with an engaging melodic felicity.

Michael Head's A green cornfield (1922) was dedicated to his sister Nancy, wife of composer Alan Bush. Rather lovely and deceptively simple, Head's song set his music in the service of shaping the words. Samuel Coleridge Taylor's Oh roses for the flush of youth comes from his Six Sorrow Songs (1904). With its haunting melody in the piano and serious melancholy in the vocal line, the piece created a rather striking effect. Then, Parry's My heart is like a singing bird (1909) almost erupted out of its conventional shell.

Frederic Cowen's He and She (1892) was dedicated to an American socialite and singer, Mary Frances (Fanny) Ronalds who famously had a relationship with Sir Arthur Sullivan from 1875 to his death. The song was rather lovely, though for all the seriousness of the subject perhaps a touch conventional too. Charles Wood's Boats sail on the rivers (from the 1916 collection) had an engaging sway to it, with the words simple at first but turning serious towards the end. Maude Valerie White's Did one but know (1926) ended the first half. The song sets one of Rossetti's sequence of sonnets reflecting on her love for Charles Cayley. White's music had great charm, but set in the service of the words, and Bullock certainly made the piece into a touching narrative.

The Rossetti Family (Christina, Dante Gabriel, Frances, William, Maria) photographed by Lewis Carroll, albumen print, 7 October 1863
National Portrait Gallery - NPG P1273(25b)

After the interval, Rossetti had rejected Charles Cayley despite loving him. We had Martin Shaw's Over the sea (1917) which was rather touching in its lyric melancholy with some powerful moments, then Thomas Dunhill's If hope grew on a bush (from the 1916 collection) which despite the simplicity of the nursery rhyme style words was moving and rather sad. In Cecil Armstrong Gibbs' The lamb and the dove (1952), Bullock showed her gifts as a storyteller, whilst the song itself was rather intriguing. Walter Parratt's If a pig wore a wig (from the 1916 collection) proved to be short, aphoristic and a complete delight.

Margaret Wegener (1920-2020) studied at University College London and made a life teaching from 1945 to 1980. Echo was written in 1994 and premiered by Georgina Anne Colwell and Nigel Foster. Wegener's music was always tonal, but here with an interesting voice to it, the result rather lovely. Too late for love from Coleridge-Taylor's Six Sorrow Songs was intense and striking, full of big emotions. There was a similar intensity to Ned Rorem's Up-Hill (from his 1981 Nantucket Songs), with Bullock really bringing out the sense of dialogue as the poem is cast in the form of question and answer, becoming increasingly serious. Rorem created a sense of the unsettling with his spare musical setting.

Vaughan Williams' Dreamland was written in 1897 and first performed in 1905. It was rather lovely, taking Rossetti's poem quite seriously, but hardly sounded like later RVW. This was something that applied to Charles Ives' Mirage (1902), which proved to be a rather striking piece yet not what we expect of Ives. We ended with Liza Lehmann's setting of Rossetti's When I am dead, my dearest. Rossetti wrote the poem when she was all of 18! Lehmann's song dates from towards the end of the First World War. Conventionally melody yet rather powerful, making the poetry matter.

It was interesting how few of these settings dated from Rossetti's lifetime. What did she think of turning her poetry into song, I wonder? But Foster and Bullock had cast their net widely, and the result was an engaging evening that focused very much on Rossetti's poetic voice. Janine Roebuck (herself a notable soprano till she retired) proved a fine reader for the poems not set to music, filling in much needed gaps.

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