John Ireland - The Songs

Benjamin Luxon, baritone
Alfreda Hodgson, contralto
John Mitchinson, tenor
Alan Rowlands, piano

Label: Lyrita
Copyright: 2007 Lyrita Recorded Edition, England
Catalogue number: SRCD.2261
UPC/EAN: 5020926226129
Format: CD
Analogue / Digital recording: ADD
Number of discs: 3
Total playing time: 3 hours 3 mins
Price: £ 29.99 (+ postage & packing)

Recorded at Smith Square, 8 - 10 August 1972, 24 July 1973, November 1973, 16 August & 12 September 1978
Producers: James Walker, Michael Woolcock, Andrew Cornall, Engineers: Colin Moorfoot, Simon Eadon, John Dunkerley, John Pellowe

Although John Ireland wrote concerted chamber music, orchestral works and choral pieces he devoted much of his long creative career to piano music and songs, and it is in these works that the essential Ireland ismost comprehensively to be found - they give the fullest picture of his multifarious musical personality and creative range. The piano, after all, was his instrument and the medium of his most self-revealing thought - we hear this also in his songs since poetry for him, who had a nice and searching taste in literature, must necessarily be interpreted by both participants in a song ...

"Ireland's artistry as a songwriter has never been presented with such mastery. Rowlands is attentive and idiomatic at every turn. He sensitively colours, accentuates and intensifies. Listen to his unassertive advocacy in the last of the Hardy Poems, 'Dear, Think Not that they will forget you'. I had heard only one of the original LPs and was delighted with the singing of Benjamin Luxon whose voice was in good heart at the time of the sessions ..." Rob Barnett, www.musicweb-international.com Click here to read the full review

"... 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!" John France, www.musicweb-international.com Click here to read the full review

"The recordings are some thirty years old now but they reflect the high technical standards Lyrita became renowned for in the LP era, standards which are strongly reflected in this new CD issue. The artists too are of the highest calibre and are noted exponents in this field. For example, the pianist Alan Rowlands may not be a household name nowadays, but he also recorded Ireland’s complete piano music for Lyrita, and these performances await issue next year. At any rate he proves an idiomatic and sensitive accompanist to his singers, always capturing the nature of the song and allowing the phrasing to articulate the style and meaning ... While there are other recorded performances ... which are of the highest quality, those collected here by Lyrita make a significant contribution to the catalogue of English music ..." Terry Barfoot, www.musicweb-international.com Click here to read the full review