I think Big Al says it right but,

I've never got what Benjamin Britten did with voices. I get what he did with orchestras, no problem, but when he wrote for voices he seemed to enter an experimental mode and remove anything which might be called a melody. So its interesting to hear his arrangements for folk songs. In a folk song the melody is set already. B B got creative with the accompaniment. I don't like what he did on piano in the first track but the guitar settings were much more accessible. Peter Pear's singing is what it is. 20th century art music singing and he is good at it. He's in tune (to my ears), his diction is chrystal clear his production of sound is stable throughout his range and there have been times when I wished the folk club singer I was listening to had at least one of those attributes. There's no big conclusion here but I used to find stuff like the first track unpleasant, now I don't. I particularly like counter tenor voice singing Baroque music. In a way I've turned into my opposite. Ho hum.