An excellent release from Signum Classics of songs by composers
ranging from Bridge and Harty to Ireland and Barber, this disc
features soprano Ailish Tynan accompanied by Iain Burnside.
Initial impressions are good: the disc and booklet are well-presented,
with full notes and, importantly, words to all the songs. The
notes are by Philip Lancaster and are superb: invaluable in
setting the featured songs in context; describing the growing
feeling of national identity in Ireland at the end of the 19th
century, and the resultant nationalist cultural movement led
by figures such as W. B. Yeats.
Although only a couple of the composers featured here are actually
Irish - the rest are English and American. All the poems set
are Irish, predominantly, though far from exclusively, by W.
B. Yeats and James Joyce. There are also a number of arrangements
of traditional Irish folktunes (by Moeran, Pendelton, Britten
and Herbert Hughes), often from Thomas Moore’s nineteenth-century
collection of Irish Melodies, which publication provided
words which could be set to traditional Irish airs that had
lost their original lyrics.
The songs featured have been carefully chosen and well-programmed;
the result being a disc of attractive, atmospheric and evocative
music. The only work which for me slightly jars is John Cage’s
The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs (a setting of
James Joyce for voice using only three pitches, and piano lid
accompaniment) - whichsits a little at odds with the
other, more lyrical, songs.
Irish-born and bred Ailish Tynan has a strong accent that, unsurprisingly,
works extremely well here. She has a strong voice, and an excellent
air of drama, as demonstrated in the whispered sections of Barber’s
Solitary Hotel. She is also due full marks for enunciation,
communication, and liveliness - in The Tinker’s Daughter,
for example she creates a good sense of fun and vibrancy, and
her accent is joy to hear. The only criticisms I have are of
very prominent, gasping, breath-taking - which sometimes detracts,
and the fact that she is late coming in at the start of The
Minstrel Boy - very minor quibbles in the scheme of things!
Iain Burnside is as sensitive an accompanist as one would hope
and expect.
Highlights of this disc for me are the gorgeous To Eire
by Arnold Bax, Bahnhofstrasse by C. W. Orr, and Flood
by Herbert Howells - all these beautiful songs here given glowing,
radiant performances. Certainly a disc that will strongly appeal
to any lover of English song or of the enchanting, mysterious
country that is Ireland!
Em Marshall-Luck
Track listing
Thomas DUNHILL
Cloths of Heaven [3.08]
Samuel BARBER
Solitary Hotel [2.41]
Frank BRIDGE
Lean out of the Window [1.47]
arr. Edmund PENDELTON
Bid adieu [3.08]
arr. E.J. MOERAN
The Roving Dingle Boy [2.15]
Arnold BAX
To Eire [4.19]
arr. Benjamin BRITTEN
The Last Rose of Summer [4.20]
E.J. MOERAN
The Tinker's Daughter [1.39]
John CAGE
The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs [2.50]
Herbert HOWELLS
Flood [1.52]
C. W. ORR
Bahnhofstrasse [2.28]
arr. Herbert HUGHES
Marry Me Now [1.26]
arr. E.J. MOERAN
The Lost Lover [2.34]
arr. Benjamin BRITTEN
Avenging and Bright [1.47]
arr. Herbert HUGHES
Oh Men from the Fields [3.02]
Samuel BARBER
St lta's Vision [3.25]
arr. Benjamin BRITTEN
The Minstrel Boy [2.07]
John IRELAND
Tutto e Sciolto [2.01]
Herbert Hamilton HARTY
The Stranger's Grave [3.45]
arr. Benjamin BRITTEN
Sail on, sail on [3.00]
Samuel BARBER
The Desire for Hermitage [3.24]
arr. Benjamin BRITTEN
At the mid hour of night [2.43]
arr. Benjamin BRITTEN
The Salley Gardens [2.52]
Ailish Tynan (soprano), Iain Burnside (piano) 