Heather Harper (1930-2019) was a Northern Irish soprano, one of the major British singers of the later twentieth century. She was admired in Britten, Mozart, Mahler, Strauss and contemporary music.

In the Pristine catalogue she appears in Britten’s War Requiem, Nocturne and Our Hunting Fathers, linked directly with the composer’s own performing world.

Harper’s singing combined clarity, poise and emotional concentration. Britten’s music especially benefits from a voice able to carry innocence and steel in the same phrase.

Her page is essential. Harper brings a cool, luminous soprano line to Pristine’s Britten shelf.