Comparison recordings:
Alfred Deller, Campion songs. l’Oiseau-Lyre LP
Rene Soames, Campion: ‘I care not for these Ladies’ DGG Archive LP
Drew Minter, ct; Paul Odette, lute. Campion songs. Harmonia Mundi HMU 907023

Having years ago been profoundly moved by Deller’s performance of Campion’s "Never Weather-beaten Sail" I eagerly plunged into listening to this disk hoping for more of the same. This was only to find that most of the songs are presented in multiple parts, with only "I Care not for These Ladies" sung as a solo, and not so well as on the other recordings. The style of the performances is hence a good deal more extroverted than Deller’s very intense personal versions. The Boston Camerata in this instance sounds to this reviewer like a talented amateur group.

Beginning with a rather solemn "Song of Joy," vocal ensembles are not first rate — well, maybe "Mother, I will have a Husband" and "Sing We and Chant It" are pretty good. The ladies do quite well in solos, sounding just a bit like boys, even at times leaning toward Elizabethan pronunciation. The men’s voices are accurate and open, their accents very American with the startling exceptions of "coomfort" and "loo-la-bye." Instrumentalists are all highly skilled if not always dazzling. Nowhere do we encounter that infectious sense of fun and mischief that some — for instance, the Baltimore Consort — regularly achieve.

Paul Shoemaker