Ireland is a country
whose magical beauty gives rise to song.
Some of the most charming of these songs
are collected here, performed, aptly
enough, by an Irish artist. Ann Murray
was born in Dublin and holds an honorary
Doctorate of Music at the National University
of Ireland.
The compilation comprises
a thorough mixture of traditional songs,
both unaccompanied (such as the stunningly
beautiful She moved thro’ the fair),
or in settings ranging from those by
well known Britishers such as Stanford
and Britten to lesser- known composers
and arrangers (Herbert Hughes and Sir
John Stevenson), as well as a few original
songs. It is an excellent selection,
providing good contrasts and a wonderful
insight into the fable of traditional
life in Ireland.
Murray has a lovely
clear, pure voice, both powerful and
quite sweet-sounding, with wonderful
enunciation, and a very nice Irish accent
that she adopts appealingly for Phil
the Fluter’s Ball, The stuttering
lovers and the gorgeous Ach,
I dunno. Fairly virtuosic (listen
to the Britten arrangements), given
to evocative word-painting (the word
"brightness", for example,
in The Meeting of the Waters)
and very flexible, she is the perfect
choice for this disc. Songs vary from
very light, athletic and vivacious such
as The Leprechaun and I have
a bonnet trimmed with blue, or the
comic Phil The Fluter’s Ball
and The cork leg, in both of
which Murray and Graham Johnson (in
the brilliant piano parts) capture the
humour well, to dark, heavy, and dramatic
(The falling star and The
stolen heart) – all of which she
invests with passion and the most accomplished
singing.
The original songs
- Galway Bay by Arthur Colahan,
Phil the Fluter’s Ball by Percy
French, Mother Machree by Chauncey
Olcott and Ernest Ball and Gortnamona
by Philip Green - are just as enchanting
as the traditional ones – particularly
the charming and frolicsome Phil
the Fluter’s Ball and the touching
Mother Machree.
A truly delightful
collection, given an outstanding performance,
this is a disc that is set to become
a favourite ...
Em Marshall
Ann Murray (mezzo-soprano), Graham Johnson
(piano) 
