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It would be hard to find a more versatile group than The King's Singers. Who else is as much respected for their Beatles arrangements as their Weelkes? Romance du Soir, with its olden-day popular songs of love, is the group's attempt at ''plugging the gap between our recent serious and light recordings''. If only all artists could find such an elegant way of bridging these two musical worlds.
As the title suggests, this is a disc tinted with candlelit tenderness, and the tone is correspondingly mellow. There is variety aplenty though, both in the breadth of repertoire, which spans from the fifteenth century through to the twenty-first, and in the colours and textures the individual pieces offer. Some, such as Saint Saens' ''Serenade d'Hiver'' and Arthur Sullivan's ''The Long Day Closes'', will be familiar to Kings Singers fans, but there are also little nuggets of newly-discovered gold resting amongst the old repertoire. The quartet that gives the disc its title, Saint-Saens' ''Romance du Soir'' manages dainty lushness in the way that only the French can. Then there is Ludwig Senfl's adorable ''Ach Elslein'' (''To Elsie, my dear little Elsie''). Senfl may not be a familiar name now, but in 1534 this song was one of 121 new songs published in Nuremburg by 'famous' composers, and the simple lament would melt the hardest heart. Another highlight is the four-song A Lover's Journey cycle, composed for the group in 2001 by Libby Larson.
Everything, from the enthusiastically informative programme notes to the sound itself, shouts of the extraordinary musicianship that has kept this group at the top of the musical heap for forty years. The balancing of voices, their almost-eerie technical perfection, their awareness of the relationship between text and harmony, their musical inquisitiveness and joyful unstuffiness... I could go on. It's a wonderful programme, and a disc I shall be returning to often. --Charlotte Gardner
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Review
This sweetshop full of lollipops offers some favourites from the King's Singers' vast repertoire of melodious part songs, sung with their trademark lustrous tone and precise, yet unforced, clarity. Yearning songs of love and loss range from the 16th century to today, with some particularly fine contemporary examples from Libby Larsen. Schubert, Schumann, Bairstow, Elgar and Saint-Saëns are all represented, and who can resist the rich sonority of Arthur Sullivan's "The Long Day Closes"? --Stephen Pritchard, The Observer, 22 February 2009
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Romance du Soir, an outstandingly successful recital.,
By
This review is from: The King's Singer: Romance du Soir (Audio CD)
Here's a stunning display of unaccompanied part-singing by six consummate vocal artists. The repertoire mixes lighter items (a nimble, witty account of Saint Saens Serenade d'hiver) with more serious (a brace of exquisitely melancholy John Wilbye madrigals). Nestled snugly between is A Lover's Journey, four bright, technically busy settings described by contemporary American composer Libby Larsen as `my Valentine to The King's Singers'. Plucked from obscurity, Bairstow's Music when soft voices die (for a pair each of tenors and basses) exudes a tender sentience, the four singers effortlessly eliding the demands of clear enunciation with flexible unfolding of the longer melody. Sullivan's the Long Day Closes beautifully shaped and shorn of sentimental Victoria accretions, draws the curtain down on an outstandingly successful recital.
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5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review) 2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
King's Singers continue to roll.,
By Larry Thompson "choir boy" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The King's Singer: Romance du Soir (Audio CD)
Well, the boys have done it again. I own many of their albums, from their earliest to their latest and I'm never dissapointed. Being a fan of English madrigals, I am particularly taken with their interpretation of John Wilbye's WEEP,WEEP MINE EYES. This group's sound has remained consistent despite frequent changes in membership. They are as perfect as perfect can be.
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