Derek Hammond-Stroud is a noted lieder singer whose feeling for words, high degree of musicianship, and style distinguish his interpretations. He was for many years a pupil of Elena Gerhardt and Gerhard Hüsch with whom he made a detailed study of the German song Repertoire. His numerous recitals in partnership with Gerald Moore, Geoffrey Parsons, Erik Werba and Felix de Nobel include performances at the Royal Festival Hall; Wigmore Hall; Concertgebouw; Amsterdam and the Schubert-Saal, Vienna.
He has won international acclaim for his definitive Alberich in ‘The Ring’, Beckmesser in ‘The Mastersingers’ and for his classic portrayals of Melitone, Papageno, Bartolo, Rigoletto, Tonio, Sharpless and Faninal. Operatic engagements have taken him to the stages of Covent Garden, the Metropolitan, Munich State Opera, Theater an der Wien, the Netherlands Opera, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, and Glyndebourne. For ten years he was a principal baritone with the English National Opera.
His concert and oratorio performances include appearances at the Edinburgh, Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, Windsor and English Bach Festivals. In 1986 he inaugurated the Malta Festival of Music with a performance of Schubert’s ‘Die Winterreise’. He appeared regularly at the BBC Promenade Concerts, and has sung in Spain, Iceland and Denmark.
Derek Hammond-Stroud has sung under the personal direction of Sir William Walton on several occasions, notably in the BBC television premiers of his operas’ The Bear’ and ‘Facade’ at the Royal Albert Hall, the Aeolian Hall and at the Edinburgh Festival. In 1976 he was made an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music and in 1982 an Honorary Fellow of Trinity College of Music. He is the recipient of the Sir Charles Santley Memorial Gift and in 1987 was awarded the O.B.EGeoffrey Parsons has become established as one of the great accompanists of our time, and has given concerts in 41 countries and on all six continents, including twenty return visits to his native Australia and regular tours of the United States. Singers he has accompanied include Victoria de los Angeles, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Dame Janet Baker, Birgit Nilsson, Hans Hotter, Nicolai Gedda, Herman Prey, Jessye Norman, Gwyneth Jones, Margaret Price, Peter Schreier and Teresa Berganza. He has recorded extensively with many of these artists.
In 1974 he was made an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music, and in the Queen’s Jubilee Honours in 1977 he was awarded an O.B.E for his services to the performing arts.
Review from Musical Opinion Magazine July 2002 edition
To describe Schubert's setting of Wilhelm Müller’s 24 poems on the desolation of lost love and the decent of the poet into emotional oblivion as his Winter’s Journey progresses as perhaps the greatest work of music ever written may sound like an understatement. But then I think of the C major Quintet and wonder if it stands equally with Winterreise at the peak of musical creation, which is how I feel on the rare occasions that I hear a great performance of either work.
There are a small handful of recordings of Winterreise which hold me in thrall form the opening bar to the final note of Der Leiermann and now I have another.
This is a recording made in The Wigmore Hall on 24th January 1979 by the uniquely versatile Derek Hammond-Stroud partnered by Geoffrey Parsons, surely one of the greatest piano accompanists of the last century. The concert had been arranged by the Schubert Society of Great Britain who undoubtedly appreciated Derek Hammond-Stroud’s genius in the world of Lieder. That he was one of the finest international opera singers of his time, equally effective in Gilbert and Sullivan, Mozart, Richard Strauss and Wagner, to all of which he bought a vivid sense of theatre and characterisation, may well have persuaded the public that he might be over the top in Schubert. In fact, he projects Müller’s unhappy poet with the minimum of display and the maximum communicative musicianship.
His love for the text and innate understanding of Schubert’s deceptively straight forward settings is gripping while Geoffrey Parsons is the ideal musical partner in what is a wonderfully involving experience. While each song is an intrinsic part of the whole it is Hammond-Stroud’s bright sense of urgency in Die post which miraculously becomes the turning point between hopeful expectation and final degeneration.
That this remarkably well recorded live performance, which is still talked about with affection by those who were in the Wigmore Hall that evening, has sat on the shelf for nearly a quarter of a century is extraordinary.
Exegete is the label to be praised and will shortly be issuing the Schumann Song Cycles and Eliland (Alexander Von Fielitz) by another fine singer – Jeffrey Benton, both sung in his own English translations.
This Winterreise costs £10 and can be obtained from the address below or from ExegeteRecordings@BTInternet.com. It is strongly recommended.
Denby Richards