MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively Classicsonline AmazonUK AmazonUS

 

John Ireland (1879-1962)
Great Things (Hardy) (1925) [2:20]; Three Songs to Poems by Thomas Hardy (1925) [6:31]; Sea Fever (Masefield) (1913) [2:35]; The Bells of San Marie (Masefield) (1919) [2:21]; The Vagabond (Masefield) (1922) [2:03]; Santa Chiara (Palm Sunday: Naples) (A. Symons) (1922) [2:25]; Tryst (in Fountain Court) (A. Symons) (1928) [4:05]; During Music (Rossetti) (1928) [2:16]; Marigold (Impression for Voice and Piano) (1913) [2:31]; Youth’s Spring-Tribute (Rossetti) [3:54]; Penumbra (Rossetti) [4:10]; Spleen (Dowson) [3:03]; I have Twelve Oxen (anon.) (1918) [2:01]; We’ll to the Woods (Housman) (1927) [7:34]; Five Poems by Thomas Hardy (1926) [10:00]; The Cost (Cooper) (1916) [1:47]; When I am dead (C. Rossetti) (1924) [1:50]; The Salley Gardens (Yeats) (1929-31)) [2:10]; Tutto è sciolto (Joyce) (1932) [1:53]; If there were dreams to sell (Beddoes) (1918) [2:33]
Roderick Williams (baritone); Iain Burnside (piano).
rec. 23-25 July 2007, Potton Hall, Westleton, Suffolk. DDD
The English Song Series - 18
NAXOS 8.570467 [65:32]

 

Experience Classicsonline


My war story about John Ireland songs goes back a long way, in fact about 36 years. I was at school in the sixth form. My best friend in those far-off days was rehearsing his ‘O’-level set-songs during lunchtime. He was in mid strophe when I entered the music classroom. After he had finished he asked me if I liked it. “Hmm”, I mumbled, “sounds OK to me … what is it?” He stood on his dignity. “If there were dreams to sell…” he replied. “Who is it by?” I asked tentatively. The look of disgust remains with me to this day. “John Ireland”, he said. “John who?” I rejoined. He walked out the door of the class without further comment. Well, a few weeks later I discovered an old Saga LP that contained a selection of Ireland’s music and I got stuck in. Another friend played The Island Spell to me on my piano and Grove helped. Soon, I guess, I knew more about him that my friend George did. And then, a bit later, I discovered the Lyrita edition … but that is another story.

Alas, there is no suggestion anywhere on the cover of this CD as to whether this is the start of a series or a one–off recital. As it is a part of the ‘English Song Series’ it is my guess that it is a standalone CD. And this is a pity as there is sufficient scope to issue two further CDs that would complement those produced by Lyrita and Hyperion.

The collection has been assembled as a recital rather than in any kind of poet-defined or chronological order. In that sense it is possible to listen to this CD from end to end. Yet I do believe that a solid hour of John Ireland songs is probably a little too much to take in at a single sitting. As always in these cases I suggest a pause about halfway through. Make a few phone calls, look out the window at the spring sunshine, and more importantly pour yourself out a glass of real English ale to sip whilst listening to the second half of the recital. I would recommence my listening with ‘I have Twelve Oxen’.

It is hard to select what is a highlight on this CD - the whole production is excellent and beyond reproach. However a few referential markers may be helpful. Roderick Williams has included a few pot-boilers. Where would any recital of Ireland’s songs be without Sea Fever and If there were dreams to sell? And my favourite Ireland setting is ‘We’ll to the Woods no more’ with its enigmatic epilogue for solo piano. Surely this work is critical to any understanding of the composer’s life and work?

The Salley Gardens is a song that has been often set, I guess. However Ireland’s has the edge over the more ‘folk-song-like’ realisation by Benjamin Britten.

It is interesting that one third of this CD are settings of words by Thomas Hardy – his Great Things set to a ‘rollicking’ tune, the Three Songs and the ‘biographical’ (for Ireland at least) Five Poems. John Masefield is well represented with his ubiquitous Sea Fever, his The Bells of San Marie and The Vagabond. Surely these are redolent of the ‘open road’ dream that many aesthetes held in Edwardian times as perhaps best epitomised by W.H. Davies ‘Autobiography of a Super-Tramp’. Look out for superb settings of texts by James Joyce, the Rossettis, Arthur Symons and Ernest Dowson.

It is impossible to fault this CD save in one particular. The singing exceeds what I felt Roderick Williams would bring to the project – the accompaniment is just right – producing a perfect balance between the two performers. Take it from me, it is all too easy to ruin a song like Sea Fever with a ham-fisted bashing of the ivories; Britten once said that you need a strong fist to play Ireland. The programme notes are informative, and more to the point are sympathetic in their exploration of the emotionally and sexually charged nature of the composer’s life: the implicit homo-eroticism is handled sensitively by Andrew Burn. The only downside is the fact that there are no song texts provided. I am lucky to have these in the Lyrita Edition, the Stainer & Bell Complete Edition and my collection of poetry books – but a newcomer to these songs may well enjoy being able to follow the progress of each setting. Naxos must not assume everyone is an enthusiast of English song – at least not until they hear this CD!

This disc contains some of the best interpretations of John Ireland’s songs that I have ever heard – including my school friend’s! It is an absolute must for anyone who claims to be an enthusiast of English Song. But do not throw out your Lyrita or Hyperion editions – for Naxos are some 60 songs shy of the total in Ireland’s catalogue!

John France 

 





 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.