- Orchestra: BBC Concert Orchestra
- Conductor: Martin Yates
- Composer: Arnold Bax, Edgar Bainton, George Dyson, Hubert Parry, John Ireland, et al.
- Audio CD (22 Oct 2007)
- Number of Discs: 1
- Label: Epoch
- ASIN: B000WTBGFM
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 206,519 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
Amazon.co.uk allows you to pay for your items in your local currency. Restrictions apply. Learn More. |
Product details |
Track Listings
| 1. BAX: The Song of the Dagger (The Bard of the Dimbovitza) | |||
| 2. BAX: Welcome, Somer (Geoffrey Chaucer) | |||
| 3. BAX: Viking-Battle-Song (Fiona Macleod) | |||
| 4. IRELAND: Sea Fever (John Masefield) | |||
| 5. IRELAND: When Lights go Rolling Round the Sky (James Vila Blake) | |||
| 6. IRELAND: Youth's Spring-Tribute (from Marigold) (D G Rossetti) | |||
| 7. IRELAND: The Holy Boy: a Carol of the Nativity (Herbert S Brown) | |||
| 8. IRELAND: Hope the Hornblower (Sir Henry Newbolt) | |||
| 9. IRELAND: If There Were Dreams to Sell (Thomas Lovell Beddoes) | |||
| 10. IRELAND: When I Am Dead, My Dearest (Christina Rossetti) | |||
| 11. DYSON: Valour (John Bunyan) | |||
| 12. DYSON: Morning and Evening (Isaac Watts) | |||
| 13. DYSON: The Seekers (John Masefield) | |||
| 14. DYSON: Hymn to the Stars (William Habington) | |||
| 15. DYSON: Praise (George Herbert)BOUGHTON: Songs of the English | |||
| 16. Fair is Our Lot (Rudyard Kipling) | |||
| 17. The Coastwise Lights (`Our Brows are Bound with Spindrift') (Rudyard Kipling) | |||
| 18. The Price of Admiralty (`We Have Fed Our Seas') (Rudyard Kipling) | |||
| 19. BAINTON: Christmas Eve (Edward Carpenter) | |||
| 20. BAINTON: Little Heart within Thy Cage (Edward Carpenter) | |||
See all 21 tracks on this disc
| |||
Product Description
Album Description
This survey of music for baritone and orchestra includes songs written between 1903 and 1935, and includes a duet - featuring soprano Ailish Tynan - from Parry's opera Guenever, which dates from 1886. Works by composers such as Bax, Boughton and Bainton are heard and, in Boughton's case, we are treated to three songs from his early Kipling settings Songs of the English. These and many other delights are on offer, and the combined forces of Roderick Williams and the BBC Concert Orchestra under Martin Yates give impassioned performances of these glorious works.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
As with another Dutton issue containing songs and orchestral miniatures by John Ireland (Dutton CDLX 7246),what looks a promising issue on paper turns out to be sadly disappointing in reality; and, alas, for the same reason - a series of polite, careful performances that completely drain the music of any vitality. Roderick Williams has an undeniably polished and seductive voice - indeed concentrating on reproducing that may well be root of the problem - and in a career showing an admirable dedication to English song has made some excellent solo recordings, most recently for Naxos. But these orchestral settings need him to raise his game and offer much more than just irreproachably exquisite small-scale performances. By way of illustration, just listen to Stephen Varcoe accompanied by Richard Hickox in "Hope the Hornblower" on a rival Chandos recording; you can practically feel the sweat on the flanks of the horse and see the turf flying in a marvelously characterised and dramatised performance that really reeks of the chase; by comparison, this performance sounds exactly what it is - a carefully rehearsed and measured studio run-through. (And there's something odd about the flat and airless recording too, which doesn't help; Hickox's orchestra flows and laps excitingly round the singer, who here seems to be in a whole different acoustic from the band, who almost sound as though they've been recorded seperately behind a partition!). Similarly, Boughtons three songs are actually rather marvellous - Boughton was a fine tunesmith and an instinctive dramatist, with a powerful orchestral sense; but a song like Kipling's "The Price of Admiralty" ("if blood be the price of admiralty, Lord God, we ha' paid in full!) is actually remarkably curdled and rancorous: Williams sings it like a particularly well-bread curate announcing todays Hymn list. Similarly Bax's over-long and wincingly bloodthirsty Song of the Dagger probably needs the boldness and vehemence of a Chaliapin if it's ever to be more than fustian melodrama - but frankly it never even gets off the ground here; far from bloodthirsty, it's completely bloodless.
Unsurprisingly, the quieter songs come off better - "Sea Fever" is almost indestructible, though I'm still not sure whether the orchestral arrangment actually helps or hinders the mood; but then again, Williams' careful and cautious rendering of "When I am Dead My Dearest" is a pale thing compared to, say, Benjamin Luxon's truly bleak (yet still stoical and restrained) recording of the piano original on Lyrita.
I'm sorry to be so negative, but much of this music needs all the help it can get if it's not to actually reinforce the popular stereotype of English music as well-bred but bland; I'm not saying every singer should be Bryn Terfel, but music on this scale really needs vastly more vehemence and vigour than it gets here...Better luck next time, and as I wrote before, maybe try a swig or two of rum (and a plunge in the cold briny?) before recording any more sea songs...?
Unsurprisingly, the quieter songs come off better - "Sea Fever" is almost indestructible, though I'm still not sure whether the orchestral arrangment actually helps or hinders the mood; but then again, Williams' careful and cautious rendering of "When I am Dead My Dearest" is a pale thing compared to, say, Benjamin Luxon's truly bleak (yet still stoical and restrained) recording of the piano original on Lyrita.
I'm sorry to be so negative, but much of this music needs all the help it can get if it's not to actually reinforce the popular stereotype of English music as well-bred but bland; I'm not saying every singer should be Bryn Terfel, but music on this scale really needs vastly more vehemence and vigour than it gets here...Better luck next time, and as I wrote before, maybe try a swig or two of rum (and a plunge in the cold briny?) before recording any more sea songs...?
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Roderick Williams is intensely musical, has a beautifully controlled voice, and never exaggerates the points he is making. This makes him an ideal recording artist. Not everything on this disc is a gem -- I don't personally have time for Dyson or Boughton --, but a few of the items are breathtaking. The initial Bax song, a substantial piece written during the Great War, is one of the pieces in which he really had something to say. The Ireland items are all very beautiful, particularly the quite magical 'Youth's Spring Tribute', which has been little performed, even in the piano version. But the greatest find here, among so many novelties, is the twelve-minute extract (never heard before) from Parry's abandoned and unperformed opera Guinevere. It is a farewell from Arthur to Guinevere before he goes out to fight his last battle. The music with which he forgives her is deeply moving, and closes Act II of the opera in at atmosphere of calm rapture, a sort of lift into a higher sphere. It is a Wagnerian moment, though with Parry's characteristically English restraint.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Absolutely beautiful.
3 Dec 2008
Amazon Verified Purchase
Without question, something special and wonderful. Especially the Ireland pieces, but all are a delight. The fortunate will hear this CD.
Was this review helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
