There are three things
that need to be said about this Lyrita
recording of the ‘Songs of John Ireland.’
Firstly this is a CD that most enthusiasts
of the composer’s music have been waiting
for since the invention of the compact
disc. My three old vinyl discs are care-worn
after nearly a third of a century’s
playing. I suppose that until the huge
programme of releases from Lyrita began
a year or so ago I hoped
that those LP records
would last the rest of my natural! This
brings me to the second point. There
is a second survey of the songs available
on Hyperion (CDA67261/2 [76:30 + 77:04]).
Naturally the day that this hit the
streets, I bought it and have enjoyed
it ever since. Yet the point remains
- apart from a few isolated songs here
and there, it was the Lyrita edition
that introduced me to what is probably
one of the most important corpuses of
English Song in the repertoire. No other
version is ever going to mean quite
as much to me as this present set of
three CDs. It is not my intention to
compare the Lyrita and Hyperion editions
save to insist that both are impressive
productions and both are required
additions to the libraries of all enthusiasts
of John Ireland’s music.
The third point is
how to approach these songs. I imagine
that the obvious answer is to work through
the songs in order as presented in these
three CDs – one after the other. Or
maybe a more constructive approach would
be to take them absolutely chronologically.
I certainly knew someone who insisted
on listening to these songs by poet.
And that may well be a good approach.
I remember delivering a lecture on John
Ireland and A.E. Housman: he did not
set many poems from ‘The Shropshire
Lad’ yet exploring this facet of the
composer’s output was extremely informative.
A brief look at the list of poets reveals
at least two other well represented
names: Christina Rossetti and Thomas
Hardy.
Interestingly there
are eighty tracks on these three CDs.
This compares to some 69 on the Hyperion
release. Of course the latter squeeze
more songs onto each CD – however I
understand that the Lyrita collection
is based on the premise – "three
for the price of two." So from
a money’s-worth point of view there
is not a lot of difference between the
two sets – apart from 11 songs! Yet
the layout of the Lyrita CDs is loosely
chronological by disc, whereas there
seems to be little rhyme or reason with
the Hyperion set. Furthermore the present
collection gives all the main song-cycles
whereas the ‘opposition’ does not. In
two instances on the Hyperion release
– including the important ‘The
Land of Lost Content’ - songs
are excerpted from their cycle which
I think is bad. I believe that if a
composer conceived the work as a group
then we should at least do him the courtesy
of listening to it as such.
I am not going to explore
each song or song cycle in detail. Rob
Barnett has given an excellent analysis
of most songs in his review.
However I want to point out four highlights
– in fact I would suggest listening
to these as an introduction to John
Ireland’s songs. Of course any critic
would probably write their own list
– but here is mine.
1. Sea Fever
2. If There were
Dreams to Sell
3. We’ll to the
Woods No More
4. Three Thomas
Hardy Songs
Sea Fever is
probably the most famous English art-song
in the repertoire – it is also Ireland’s
best known work. In fact many people
will know the song and will not be aware
of (or care?) who wrote it. It was a
pot-boiler. Yet in spite of its massive
popularity it is a truly great piece.
The steady rhythm for the piano accompaniment
brings to mind the swell of the sea:
the voice part begins tentatively but
gains in confidence as the ocean’s call
imposes itself on the singer. Of course
there is a touch of melancholy here
too. Anyone ‘going down to the sea’
is inevitably leaving family and friends
and his native land. Interestingly John
Masefield, the poet, did not appreciate
Ireland’s setting of this verse – in
spite of the massive royalties he received.
The song was published just before the
Great War and naturally the mood of
the times had a huge impact on the sales.
The sub-text of the song is certainly
a voyage to the ‘beyond’ – a trip many
sailors (and others) were to make in
the following four years. There has
been considerable debate about the speed
and the dynamics of this song. Some
singers adopt a somewhat broader tempo
than the signed ‘Lento.’ However Benjamin
Luxon sticks to the composer’s intentions
and gives a characteristically beautiful
rendition of this fine song.
If there were Dreams
to Sell was the first John Ireland
song that I consciously heard. One of
the ‘A’ level music students had chosen
this number for his 20th
century set piece and I was seriously
impressed. It was one of the works that
led me to be an enthusiast of Ireland’s
music. This song was composed at the
end of the First World War and reflects
some of the hopes and fears of the day.
The text was written by Thomas Lovell
Beddoes, and was originally called ‘Dream
Pedlary’. It suggests that the poet’s
ills (and he had many) would be stilled
by ‘a cottage lone and still’. It was
no doubt a dream that many men returning
from the trenches would have identified
with.
‘We’ll to the Woods
no More’ is a classic fusion of
words and music by A.E. Housman and
John Ireland. It is unusual in consisting
of two songs and a piano solo. The mood
of this cycle is typically a deep sense
of the fragility of life, love and friendship
that so influenced both men. The words
come from the poet’s ‘Last Poems’ rather
than the more famous ‘Shropshire Lad.’
The eponymous poem
is quite an unusual setting. It has
been described as a piano solo with
vocal commentary. This may be a slight
exaggeration but I can see the point.
The music is dark and well reflects
the words:-
We'll to
the Woods no more
The laurels all are cut,
The bowers are bare of bay
That once the Muses wore.
The year draws in the day
And soon will evening shut …
In Boyhood deals
with a similar mood – that of lasting
(or not as the case may be) friendships.
These words would have resounded with
the many men and women who had fought
in the Great War. Perhaps this is not
a sentiment that people would encourage
today – but for my money it is a fine
and moving poem that is skilfully set
to music. I quote the entire poem here
as I believe that these words are an
important key to understanding Ireland’s
music.
When I would
muse in boyhood
The wild green woods among,
And nurse resolves and fancies
Because the world was young,
It was not foes to conquer,
Nor sweethearts to be kind,
But it was friends to die for
That I would seek and find.
I sought them
far and found them,
The sure, the straight, the brave,
The hearts I lost my own to,
The souls I could not save.
They braced their belts about
them,
They crossed in ships the sea,
They sought and found
Six feet of ground,
And there they died for me.
The piano postlude,
‘Spring will not Wait’ is one
of Ireland’s smaller masterpieces. Every
note is well placed: the bitter sweet
nature harmonies virtually define the
composer’s style. If I could have only
one of the composer’s piano works it
would be this.
This is not a song-cycle
to listen to if you want cheering up,
but quite definitely one that is designed
to make you dwell on the deeper realities
of life and death. This is no bad thing
in these days of ‘GameBoys’ and so-called
‘Reality TV’.
Thomas Hardy’s Summer
Schemes is perhaps better known
in Gerald Finzi’s excellent song-cycle
Earth and Air and Rain. However
Ireland also set these words as a part
of his Three Songs to Poems by Thomas
Hardy.
Andrew Green writes
that Hardy’s poetry and Ireland's music
were made for each other – "most
essentially in terms of the introspection
and fatalism common to both."
Even the almost optimistic
Summer Schemes "carries
the very hallmark of fatalism, personal
insecurity, fear of commitment to the
future." Perhaps this is exemplified
by the lines:-
We shall,
[do all these enjoyable things]
I say; but who may sing
Of what another moon will bring!
This refrain
comes after an almost idyllic
exposition of a typical summer’s
days adventures.
Her Song tells
how a favourite lyric supported the
singer’s moods good and bad, lonely
and with her lover. It is a lovely song.
Weathers was
a popular text for setting - with versions
by Gerald Finzi, Sir Charles Hubert
Hastings Parry and Michael Head. For
once this is totally optimistic music
that quite simply rejoices in being
alive. Full of clichés, it is
nevertheless redolent of a lost English
countryside that we feel still existed
just a few months before we were born.
This is the weather
the cuckoo likes,
And so do I;
When showers betumble the chestnut
spikes,
And nestlings fly;
And the little brown nightingale
bills his best,
And they sit outside at "The Traveller's
Rest",
And maids come forth sprig-muslin
drest,
And citizens dream of the south
and west,
And so do I.
After listening to
these four works it is time to explore
in more depth. I would suggest looking
at the rest of the Housman poems. ‘The
Land of Lost Content’ is particularly
good. But do not expect to find a setting
of the title words! This comes from
the poet’s most famous work and my personal
favourite –
Into my heart
an air that kills
From yon far country blows:
What are those blue remembered
hills,
What spires, what farms are those?
That is the
land of lost content,
I see it shining plain,
The happy highways where I went
And cannot come again.
The listener will have
to turn to the songs of Arthur Somervell,
C.W Orr and Ivor Gurney for fine settings
of these words. Yet as a ‘signature’
it largely sums up Ireland’s music.
It is then up to the listener constructively
to explore the settings of poems by
Rossetti, Dowson, Masefield and many
others.
One of the problems
with both sets of CDs is the omissions.
There are over ninety songs in the Ireland
catalogue – and that means that ten
plus have been omitted from this collection.
I have checked the catalogue and am
reasonably convinced that nothing absolutely
vital to understanding Ireland’s songs
is missing. However, I am surprised
that his setting of Rupert Brooke’s
‘The Soldier’ has not been recorded,
and perhaps E.T. Cooper’s Songs of
a Great Cause. I accept that these
are not perhaps essential, yet for the
completist it is useful to have ‘everything’.
I appreciate that the present recording
is a re-release of the vinyl – complete
with the time limits imposed by this
medium.
Yet, notwithstanding
this minor moan, this is a superb CD
release. John Ireland is one of the
great song-writers of the Twentieth
Century – along with Gerald Finzi, Peter
Warlock and Benjamin Britten and others!
As such, it is surely essential that
a recording of this important music
is always available. At least we now
have two competing versions to choose
from. Yet there is no real competition.
Anyone who cares a whit for John Ireland’s
music will demand both. If, however,
songs are not the listener’s forte and
they choose to buy just one set then
it has to be the present Lyrita offering.
There are three reasons
for this: Firstly the programme – includes
all (bar one) of the song-cycles. Secondly
the performance from Alfreda Hodgson,
John Mitchinson (one or two reservations
here – I agree with Rob Barnett about
the ‘Neddy Seagoon’ effect), Benjamin
Luxon and Alan Rowlands is near perfect.
And lastly it is well produced, packaged
and engineered.
A fine addition to
the collections of all enthusiasts of
John Ireland’s music in particular and
British Music in general.
John France
see also review
by Rob Barnett
Reviews of other Lyrita releases
of John Ireland
SRCD.240
Ireland Tritons/The Forgotten Rite
SRCD.241
Ireland Legend/Overture Satyricon
SRCD.242
Boult conducts Bridge and Ireland
SRCD.2261
Ireland Songs
SRCD.2271
Ireland Chamber music
Ireland
Trust website
for details
Benjamin Luxon (baritone) (CD1; CD2);
John Mitchinson (tenor) (CD3); Alfreda
Hodgson (contralto) (CD3); Alan Rowlands
(piano)
