

Lotte Betts-Dean Playlist
Exclusively for RPS Members, we asked mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean – winner of the 2024 RPS Young Artist Award – to share what she’s listening to right now.
Click here to listen to her nine chosen tracks on Spotify, each of which comes with the insights from Lotte below.
Lotte's choices in her own words:
1. Antouni – Komitas
This is a recent discovery which captivated me immediately, on a very newly released Platoon/myrios album from pianist Kirill Gerstein, here joined by Armenian soprano Ruzan Mantashyan. This song is by Komitas, the Ottoman-Armenian priest, musicologist, composer, arranger and singer, and is the standout of the album’s Komitas bracket. Gerstein writes that the recording of this work, and the album in general, is “in Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, and in solidarity with victims of mass violence everywhere”. It was recorded in one take, and it is profoundly moving and powerful. A stunning performance from both artists.
2. Flames shards goo – ML Buch
I’m a bit obsessed with the Danish composer, producer, guitarist and vocalist ML Buch lately, and this is one of the songs I have on hi-ro at the moment. It’s from her latest album Suntub and the production and song-writing of this wonky, underwater electro-pop really got under my skin. This song seems to capture this aesthetic best on that album. Her previous album Skinned is also well worth a listen, especially Can’t Get Over You With You.
3. Amazing Grace – Pete Seeger
I came across this recording through a playlist made by the brilliant American alt-pop artist Caroline Polachek (also well worth checking out, if you don’t know her already!) and it blew me away. We all know this well-loved old spiritual, but this live recording by the legendary American folk singer and social activist Pete Seeger – in which the entire crowd joins in with forceful and sustained full harmony – is utterly breathtaking, almost overwhelming.
4. The City Full Of People – Cassandra Miller
This new work for 16 unaccompanied singers by Cassandra Miller was recently released on an album by Chamber Choir Ireland and Louth Contemporary Music Society, and it stopped me in my tracks when I first heard it. It is hauntingly beautiful, at once new and old. The material of the work is taken from Lamentations of Jeremiah by Thomas Tallis, split into sections that slowly unfurl meditatively through the choir. Another fab composer Lawrence Dunn described the piece as “witnessing Tallis through a gauze veil” which is pretty spot on.
5. Pure Bliss – Sara Glojnarić
Another relatively new work, this time by Croatian composer Sara Glojnarić. This title track from a new album of her works on the Kairos label is for ensemble with electronics, recorded by Klangforum Wien with conductor Tim Anderson. He explains that Sara collected each player’s “pure bliss” music, like a guilty pleasure, in any style. These references were woven into the new material, and it creates a shimmering and layered texture with recognisable fragments peeking through. It’s a really charming concept and the result is so gorgeous.
6. Pastorale – Germaine Tailleferre
George Xiaoyuan Fu is a beautiful pianist and his recent debut album just won the Newcomer Award at the BBC Music Magazine Awards. The whole album of French repertoire, titled Mirrors, is fantastic, but for some reason the understated and enchanting Pastorale by the only female member of Les Six, Germaine Tailleferre, has stood out to me so far. George has a lovely way of letting music speak for itself, and the production from the Platoon team here is beautifully warm and transporting.
7. Fotzepolitic – Cocteau Twins
The Scottish dream-pop/early shoegaze outfit Cocteau Twins was often on the hi-fi in my childhood home, and in the last few years I’ve really got back into them. This is one of my favourite tracks from their cult-status 1990 album Heaven or Las Vegas. The elated energy of this song is so thrilling and I always try to sing along to the strange and often incomprehensible lyrics. I’ve always felt so inspired by Liz Fraser’s instrumental-like vocals and playfulness with vocal production and range.
8. Arthur McBride – Paul Brady
I do have a bit of a preoccupation with folk music of all kinds so here’s another one — and conveniently in the same key as the Cocteau Twins’ track. I didn’t know the Irish folk singer Paul Brady (or this song) until recently, when a lovely publican from Cork introduced it to me after discovering that I sang for a living. It’s one of the most beautiful Irish folk melodies I’ve come across, which is stiff competition, and Paul’s delivery of it vocally is just so affecting and direct. It’s amazing how a fairly simple tune repeated through so many verses, with just a guitar, can remain completely entrancing from start to end. It’s just a perfect folk song and a reminder that less is often more.
9. Defiant, Tender Warrior – Charles Lloyd
Finishing up with some jazz: this beautiful new track from American saxophonist Charles Lloyd and band (Jason Moran on keys, Larry Grenadier on bass, and Brian Blade on drums) feels like a big aural hug. It’s from his new album The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow on Blue Note, which I’ve not even heard all of yet but look forward to! The recording and production is really “close” and full sounding, especially the pizzicato bass, and for me it has this immediately relaxing effect. There’s not much else to say about this one, it’s just very lovely music-making from seriously brilliant jazz musicians.
If you’ve enjoyed listening to Lotte's playlist, let us know. There may be a track it’s reminded you of, that you’d like to share with us in return. We’d be pleased to pass it on. Do get in touch with us at members@philharmonicsociety.uk.