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Songs Remembered Songs by Handel, Rowley, Thiman Gibbs, Boughton, Besley and others  Joan Busby Mezzo Soprano John Grundy Piano Haining Records  obtainable from: Joan Busby, Easter Haining, Ormiston Hall, Tranent, East Lothian EH35 5NJ £6 incl. postage

 



The now out-moded practice of an evening's gathering of family and friends around the drawing-room piano when members contributed their particular party-piece is something I have always longed for again - it brings back memories of such much loved melodies as 'Down Vauxhall Way', 'Big Lady Moon', 'The New Umbrella' as well as the unashamedly sentimental 'Three Fishers' and even 'Dolly Gray' - now only found in boxes of tattered sheet-music in the back of second-hand bookshops.

With its apt title, this evocative disc from Haining Records goes a long way to recreating these lost evenings. There is sentiment here - but nothing of sentimentality. Handel (the most popular 'Art Thou Troubled' and the Minuet from 'Berenice', the latter to English words by Clifford Bax) sits easily with Martin Shaw, Thiman, Armstrong Gibbs, and Rowley - and the magic of Head's 'Little Ships of Arcady' and Ireland's little known 'the Ferry', the whimsical 'Second Minuet' and 'Serenade to a Beautiful Day' provide just that touch of 'pop' - and the songs are sung with unaffected charm by the Edinburgh mezzo Joan Busby, accompanied by John Grundy. If the sound is slightly 'boxy' no great matter, - just imagine the candle-light, the warm fire, and hot buttered crumpets to come.

Reviewer

Colin Scott-Sutherland

Reviewer

Colin Scott-Sutherland



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