The main problem with
this Dunelm disc of songs and poems
from the Great War is the sound. The
disc has been compiled from two live
recordings and, regrettably, this shows
rather badly although apart from some
clearing of throat before the first
piece, the audience are remarkably well-behaved.
The sound, however, is terribly muffled
and unclear, although this is not surprising
when one reads that most of the tracks
were recorded on cassette tape and mini-disc
and then transferred!
The opening unison
song I want to go home is beleaguered
by the problems that face church hymns
countrywide: audience dragging behind,
audience occasionally out of tune, ladies
who clearly fancy themselves as sopranos
warbling out above their fellow members
of the audience and such like.
Jeremy Huw Williams
sings the solo tracks on the disc, and
does so extremely well. As a general
rule, the Gurney songs are invested
with the right kind of emotion – passion
bubbling just under the surface, but
never over the top. His voice is a pleasant
one, rich, deep and sophisticated, and
he captures the spirit of the songs
very well in his emphases and word-painting.
My only quibbles with
the Gurney set relate to In Flanders.
He does not bring enough restraint and
control to the song (such as the "rain"
of "sun or rain"). More use
should have been made of the dramatic
pause, and the result is not as effective
or as powerful as it should be. This
is one of those songs that has the power
to strike the listener right through
the heart, choke them with freezing
emotion in the very first few lines
– but here it is devoid of the capacity
to move, which is a great pity.
The Geraint Lewis songs
are very good if a little derivative
– very traditional in sound, they seem
to shy away from any hint of modernity.
A little more of the piano wouldn’t
go amiss – the balance is very much
biased towards the singer. The new songs
from the English Poetry and Song Society
competition are fairly impressive and
bode well for the future of English
solo song, I felt. Geoffrey Kimpton’s
Winter Warfare is quite innovative
especially in the piano accompaniment,
and John Williamson’s Before the
Battle and I stood with the Dead
are effective and powerful. Duncan Reid’s
I did not Lose my Heart combines
a traditional sound-world with the very
occasional twist in the piano, which
works well, and Attack by Dennis
Wickens is most atmospheric. Both the
Margaret Wegener and Hugh-Jones songs
are also good. The high standard of
singing brings out the best in all of
these pieces.
Unfortunately, the
beautiful John Ireland songs that follow
are even worse in terms of sound quality.
These were recorded "live"
on cassette tape in 1993 and the sound
detracts significantly from the performance
– all these songs are expertly performed
by Jeremy Huw Williams, full of vivacity
and soul. The disc concludes with another
unison song – Kern’s They Didn’t
Believe Me, which is dogged by the
same rather foreseeable problems as
the first track.
The main faults I can
find are ones that have been either
created or exacerbated by the venue
and recording – the words are not terribly
clear as a result of the muffled sound,
and in places Huw Williams seems to
be producing far too much vibrato –
a factor that is probably exaggerated
by the acoustic.
I would have no hesitation
in recommending this disc were it better
produced – if the sound was half-decent,
and the sleeve-notes and back more professional
and less like a good home-production
- see, for example, the reference to
‘Carl Mielsen’s’ (who’s he?) Third
Symphony in the sleeve-notes. It
is otherwise a beautifully programmed
and extremely well performed disc, with
some excellent singing and accomplished
and sympathetic accompaniment from Nigel
Foster.
Em Marshall
Jeremy Huw Williams (baritone), Nigel Foster
(piano) 
