More songs my father taught me
Drawing-room songs that make their mark again, thanks to such a strong advocate
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Henry Somerset, Thomas Sterndale Bennett, Annie Fortescue Harrison, Traditional, Alan Murray, Guy d' Hardelot, Haydn Wood, Eric Coates, Carrie Jacobs-Bond, Alonzo Elliott, John Liptrot Hatton, Odoardo Barri, James Lynam Molloy, Amy Woodforde-Finden, Wilfred Sanderson, Arthur (Seymour) Sullivan, Herbert Hughes, Frederick Clay, Chauncey Olcott, Mary Sheldon, W(illiam) H(enry) Squire, (William) Vincent Wallace
Genre:
Vocal
Label: Hyperion
Magazine Review Date: 8/2003
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 79
Mastering:
Stereo
DDD
Catalogue Number: CDA67374
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
(The) Water of Tyne |
Traditional, Composer
Malcolm Martineau, Piano Thomas Allen, Baritone Traditional, Composer |
I heard you singing |
Eric Coates, Composer
Eric Coates, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Thomas Allen, Baritone |
Will you go with me |
Alan Murray, Composer
Alan Murray, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Thomas Allen, Baritone |
O men from the fields |
Mary Sheldon, Composer
Malcolm Martineau, Piano Mary Sheldon, Composer Thomas Allen, Baritone |
(A) Song of Sleep |
Henry Somerset, Composer
Henry Somerset, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Thomas Allen, Baritone |
(The) Green Hills o' Somerset |
Eric Coates, Composer
Eric Coates, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Thomas Allen, Baritone |
Mountain Lovers |
W(illiam) H(enry) Squire, Composer
Malcolm Martineau, Piano Thomas Allen, Baritone W(illiam) H(enry) Squire, Composer |
I'll sing thee songs of Araby |
Frederick Clay, Composer
Frederick Clay, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Thomas Allen, Baritone |
Mother Machree |
Chauncey Olcott, Composer
Chauncey Olcott, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Thomas Allen, Baritone |
Roses of Picardy |
Haydn Wood, Composer
Haydn Wood, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Thomas Allen, Baritone |
There's a long, long trail a-winding |
Alonzo Elliott, Composer
Alonzo Elliott, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Thomas Allen, Baritone |
(The) Old Brigade |
Odoardo Barri, Composer
Malcolm Martineau, Piano Odoardo Barri, Composer Thomas Allen, Baritone |
Yes, Let me like a soldier fall |
(William) Vincent Wallace, Composer
(William) Vincent Wallace, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Thomas Allen, Baritone |
Because |
Guy d' Hardelot, Composer
Guy d' Hardelot, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Thomas Allen, Baritone |
Love's old sweet song |
James Lynam Molloy, Composer
James Lynam Molloy, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Thomas Allen, Baritone |
Star of God |
Eric Coates, Composer
Eric Coates, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Thomas Allen, Baritone |
Friend o'mine |
Wilfred Sanderson, Composer
Malcolm Martineau, Piano Thomas Allen, Baritone Wilfred Sanderson, Composer |
Simon the Cellarer |
John Liptrot Hatton, Composer
John Liptrot Hatton, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Thomas Allen, Baritone |
Time to Go |
Wilfred Sanderson, Composer
Malcolm Martineau, Piano Thomas Allen, Baritone Wilfred Sanderson, Composer |
Echo |
Henry Somerset, Composer
Henry Somerset, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Thomas Allen, Baritone |
(The) Songs of Today |
Thomas Sterndale Bennett, Composer
Malcolm Martineau, Piano Thomas Allen, Baritone Thomas Sterndale Bennett, Composer |
Just A-Wearying for You |
Carrie Jacobs-Bond, Composer
Carrie Jacobs-Bond, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Thomas Allen, Baritone |
Down by the Salley Gardens |
Herbert Hughes, Composer
Herbert Hughes, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Thomas Allen, Baritone |
Orpheus with his lute |
Arthur (Seymour) Sullivan, Composer
Arthur (Seymour) Sullivan, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Thomas Allen, Baritone |
(4) Indian Love Lyrics, Movement: Pale hands I loved beside the Shalimar (Kashmiri S |
Amy Woodforde-Finden, Composer
Amy Woodforde-Finden, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Thomas Allen, Baritone |
In the gloaming |
Annie Fortescue Harrison, Composer
Annie Fortescue Harrison, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Thomas Allen, Baritone |
(The) Star of the County Down |
Herbert Hughes, Composer
Herbert Hughes, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Thomas Allen, Baritone |
(A) Perfect Day |
Carrie Jacobs-Bond, Composer
Carrie Jacobs-Bond, Composer Malcolm Martineau, Piano Thomas Allen, Baritone |
She moved through the fair |
Traditional, Composer
Malcolm Martineau, Piano Thomas Allen, Baritone Traditional, Composer |
Author: John Steane
Many of us who were brought up in a similar culture tended rather to dissociate ourselves from it, cultivating a taste for more developed musical forms and more complex modes of expression. Thomas Allen’s father himself would have been aware of the ‘highbrow’ disdain which (I understood from my own elders) dated back certainly to the early 1900s, when these songs were in their heyday. But now their time really does seem to have come around again. A musically knowledgeable audience (as Sir Thomas confirmed two or three months ago at London’s Wigmore Hall) can not only enjoy them but feel free to do so, without apology or an uneasy sense of indulgence. Their limitations can be recognised – in subject-matter and treatment there’s almost an unwritten contract between composer, listener and performer that they won’t disturb – but, equally, we now seem to feel open to the attractions of such frankly melodic music and such unabashed kindliness of feeling.
Other singers over recent decades have given the songs an airing from time to time, but Thomas Allen is the very man to do it. His voice, which is still amazingly beautiful in quality and still under such masterly control, is so ‘central’ in character, and his own appearance and manner are so eminently likeable, that he embodies the ideal drawing-room visitor for such an evening. And age has brought an authority, which doesn’t need to urge us (because it is so natural and evident): ‘If it’s good enough for him…’
At the Wigmore he chose for an encore In the gloaming, enhanced now by Andrew Lamb’s notes, which tell the story of its composer’s love for a lord: very touching in its heartfelt directness. He also included the unaccompanied She moved through the fair, and that too was a highlight, as it is here. Otherwise, both recitals, the live and the recorded, have had the inestimable benefit of Malcolm Martineau’s accompaniments, always alert to whatever of harmony, rhythm or melodic counterpoint enlivens the plain-looking scores, and revealing that there is usually more than you might think.
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