I remember the 1949 recording by Ferrier of "Blow The Wind Southerly" very well, for it was always being played on the radio - as was her English version of "Che Faro Senza Eurydice" ("What Is Life" from Gluck's opera, "Orfeo ed Euridice".

As a boy at the time, I thought her voice rather mournful and solemn, and imagined her to be so in person. I found out much later in life that, in fact, she was a lively, funny, very talented woman - and incredibly famous - who died tragically young. Her singing of Mahler's "Das Lied von der Erde" is stunning.

"Blow the Wind Southerly" is a traditional English folk song from Northumbria. It tells of a woman desperately hoping for a southerly wind to blow her lover back home over the ocean to her. Roud number 2619.