Each song a story to be told: James Newby & Malcolm Martineau’s Shipping Forecast at SongEasel in Elephant & Castle

SongEasel at St Matthew’s Church, Elephant & Castle Jocelyn Freeman

The Shipping Forecast – Elgar: Sea Pictures, Chabrier, Duparc, Medtner,
Rachmaninov, Bantock, Ireland, Tippett, Eric Coates, Ives, Kurt Weill, Charles Trenet; James Newby, Malcolm Martineau; SongEasel at St Matthew’s Church, Elephant and Castle
Reviewed 21 May 2026

A sea theme gives us a feast of story-telling in music from James Newby and Malcolm Martineau with Elgar’s Sea Pictures alongside Loewe ballads and a wide-ranging selection of songs

The Shipping Forecast continues to provide a remarkable source of musical inspiration for recitalists. In 2024, Nigel Foster’s London Song Festival celebrated the centenary of the first Shipping Forecast to be broadcast on British radio [see my review], and now baritone James Newby and pianist Malcolm Martineau are celebrating with their own take on the subject.

They brought their Shipping Forecast programme to Jocelyn Freeman’s Song Easel on Thursday 21 May at St Matthew’s Church, Elephant and Castle. The programme featured three of Carl Loewe’s ballads (this year is his 230th birthday) along with songs from Elgar’s Sea Pictures, and songs by Chabrier, Duparc, Medtner, Rachmaninov, Bantock, Ireland, Eric Coates, Tippett, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Ives, Kurt Weill and Charles Trenet.

The programme was divided into four parts, each one beginning with one of Elgar’s Sea Pictures – Mysteries of the Deep, Invitation to Voyage, Exotic Isles and Desert Island Discs.

Mysteries of the Deep began with Sea Slumber Song from Elgar’s Sea Pictures. Whilst Elgar premiered the work with in its orchestral guise with soloist Clara Butt, the first London performance (also with Butt) featured Elgar on the piano, so the piano version does have some currency. Newby and Martineau made it entirely believable as a song with the calm beauty of the opening drawing you in and leading to some compelling moments. We then moved on to Carl Loewe with Der gefangene Admiral, dramatic ballad about an admiral imprisoned far from the sea. In the five verses Loewe really varies the mood, and Newby gave us some strong story telling using the words and colour in the voice along with more histrionic elements. He is a vivid storyteller, using his whole body, and throughout the evening I was struck by his ability to draw us into the world of the song. Each song a story to be told.

Medtner’s Meerestille from 1907 sets text by Goethe (in German) about an eerie calm sea, with Medtner’s gorgeous, complex harmonies creating a distinct atmosphere around Newby’s hypnotic voice. Granville Bantock’s Song to the Seals is one of his Songs of the Western Isles. This was folksong as art song, engagingly performed. Each verse ended with which seemed like melisma, or perhaps a rendering of the original Gaelic. Cheryl Frances-Hoad’s Rita the Pirate was altogether more dramatic and vivid. The song is from Frances-Hoad’s 2016 song cycle The Thought Machine setting words by Kate Wakeling and premiered at the Oxford International Song Festival (then the Oxford Lieder Festival). It began with vivid swagger from Newby and developed into a quasi-operatic narrative with a dramatic tour de force at the end.

James Newby

Invitation to Voyage began with In Haven from Elgar’s Sea Pictures. Here, the sentimentality of the words (by Elgar’s wife) remains a problem but with Newby’s beautifully phrased delivery and Martineau’s characterful piano the whole remained convincing. Duparc’s L’Invitation au voyage (setting Baudelaire) took us to a far more sophisticated, exotic world. The seductive shimmer of Martineau’s piano and Newby’s concentrated, beautiful tone allied to some finely floated high notes successfully drew us into this alluring world before both opened up in the second verse. Carl Loewe’s Die Uberfahrt (The Crossing) was an intriguing piece with Uhland’s poem talking about a ferry crossing but drawing in hints of the Styx and ghosts. Aspects of the writing were quite Schubert-like and Newby’s performance beguiled us with the story.

John Ireland’s Sea Fever is rightly a classic and here Newby projected the words above all, the vivid performance carrying us along. This part finished with something far more taxing. Charles Ives’s The Swimmers written just eight years after the Ireland and taking us into a more expressionist world. Martineau’s restless vibrant piano supporting the intense declamatory vocal line leading to a terrific declaimed climax. This little piece took song far out of its traditional box.

Exotic Isles opened with the sentimentality of Browning’s Sabbath Morning at Sea as set by Elgar from Sea Pictures. Newby took the words entirely seriously so that he and Martineau created a compelling story with a wonderfully expansive final verse. Chabrier’s L’Ile heureuse was very different, but it was still about the (French) words with Newby delivering them with relish, yet his and Martineau’s fluidity really shaping the phrases. Tippett’s Songs for Ariel were originally from a performance of Shakespeare’s The Tempest at the Old Vic in 1962. Did an actor really sing these? Martineau made the piano at the opening of Come unto these yellow sands really conjure the fantastic, with Newby singing with vivid relish. Full fathom five was concentrated, dark and serious, then Where the bee sucks featured Martineau’s edgy piano alongside Newby’s wonderful swagger.

Rachmaninov’s Ostrovok (This Island) featured long lyrical expansive vocal lines supported by a relatively discreet piano. This group ended with the final Loewe ballad, this time a Goethe setting, Der Zauberlehrling which featured a sort of sorcerer’s apprentice but this time with water involved. A terrific story, told with histrionic relish.

Desert Island Discs began with Where corals lie from Elgar’s Sea Pictures. Arguably the most memorable of the songs, but here it was more than just a lovely melody as Newby made the story the thing. Eric Coates’s Sleepy Lagoon began as an orchestral piece in 1930, and it is best known as the theme tune to Desert Island Discs on the radio. But American songwriter Jack Lawrence added words in 1940, though these did not really add to the piece’s charm. The voice was the focus of the traditional song, Blow the wind southerly, sung unaccompanied. Kurt Weill’s My Ship (from Lady in the Dark) was one of the surprises of the evening as transferring the song to baritone worked well, with Newby and Martineau giving us a fine combination of words and music. We ended with Charles Trenet’s La mer, from 1943. This was sung, rather than crooned (thank goodness) but still the words were all.

We were treated to an encore, Cole Porter’s The Tale of the Oyster, which was a cue for more vivid story telling!