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SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURY ENGLISH LYRICS   Martin Hindmarsh (tenor) Alan Cuckston (piano) FEW 116CD

Available from Foxglove Audio.  10 Springwood Road, Rawdon, Leeds, LS19 6BH, UK
Telephone and fax 0113 250 7282,
e-mail foxgloveaudio@btinternet.com.


 

This disc is splendid ... with one exception. But, nevertheless, I have not enjoyed a song recital as much as this for many years and I recommend it.

The five songs by Parry included some wonderful surprises. Shall I Compare Thee to A Summer's Day has a fine piano accompaniment and effective vocal line although the tonic chords at the end may be too many. Willow, Willow, Willow is nostalgic in style and, perhaps, the repetition of the word 'willow' is excessive. And Yet I Love Her 'Till I Die is a beautiful, sensitive song but I do question some of Parry's vocal intervals and how low notes are used for the important personal pronoun followed by a leap which dispels the romantic atmosphere. But it is a good song. To Blossoms may have benefitted from more rubato but Rosaline is simply magnificent. I had to play it twice. Not only is it a very fine poem by Thomas Lodge but Parry does it justice. It has contrast and is both compelling and very touching.

Roger Quilter's Seven Elizabethan Lyrics Op 12 of 1908 is in a different class. Here is a consistent and superb composer of songs. His music always fits the words and sometimes to amazing perfection and often his accompaniments, which are very supportive and basic in design, are so effective. And, Quilter never wallowed! The gem of the set is My Life's Delight. One can only admire Quilter's evident expertise in song writing. The Faithless Shepherdess is another fine song capturing again the rare joy of both the singer and the piano being equal.

In the setting of Ben Jonson's By a Fountainside the composer avoids the 'watery style' of Liszt, Debussy and Ravel and provides a simple and relevant accompaniment. There are some glorious harmonies in Fair House of Joy which briefly hints at Elizabethan keyboard music.

The disappointment is the Four Old English Lyrics of Delius. The songs are too intense and the words are not well set. To Daffodils has a curious vocal line clearly at odds with Herrick's text and the song lacks space. As to the next song It Was A Lover and His Lass it is simply awful. The words do not fit the music and it is absolutely excruciating. In fact it was so ghastly that I consulted several of my colleagues who agreed that this was poor composition although one did say that these songs were very difficult 'to bring off'. If you want to hear a good setting of the next song So White, So Soft, So Sweet is She (a setting of Ben Jonson), you should investigate Irving Fine's choral song cycle The Hour Glass. Delius has no idea. The final song Spring does not work either.

Peter Warlock's Sweet and Twenty is a welcome relief after the Delius. But this song needs more space. The Merry Month of May by E.J. Moeran is a fine song with a superb piano part. One brief section before the final reprise does not quite work but it is an attractive piece by a very gifted composer.

The performances are very good. I think Martin Hindmarsh is rather stretched in the Delius but that is the composer's fault not his. Do buy this disc. It has a lot to offer.

Reviewer

David Wright

Performances

Recording

Reviewer

David Wright

Performances

Recording


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