Folk Songs of the British Isles Traditional Songs Janis Kelly (soprano), Yvonne Howard, Maria Jagusz (mezzo), Nicky Spence, Wynne Evans (tenor), Mark Llewelyn Evans (baritone), Michael Pollock, John Wilson (piano) SOMM SOMMCD 0668 79:47 mins
This is a labour of love. Friends of the late viola player Gwyn Williams and his wife Stephannie have honoured them with a compilation of British folk songs, some never recorded before, which reflect their lifelong passion. Designed as a circular tour of the British Isles, it takes in a few familiar songs, plus many more which most listeners will never have heard. Tenor Nicky Spence, mezzo Yvonne Howard and baritone Kevin Whately – better known as Inspector Morse’s assistant – are among the performers.
The idea is a good one, but this album is rather amateurish, with patchy liner notes carrying no systematic musicological detail, and with some of the songs conveyed without words in easy-listening instrumental arrangements. But there are pleasures and discoveries here too. For example, I had never before heard the Irish love song ‘She moved through the fair’ with its modal tonality. Here, too, are ‘Blow the wind southerly’ and ‘The foggy foggy dew’, very satisfyingly sung by Yvonne Howard and Wynne Evans. And here is Burns’s beautiful ‘My love is like a red, red rose’ sung by Spence, and also the hauntingly ambiguous ‘Last rose of summer’. Britten’s inimitable piano arrangements are called on again and again.
Michael Church