Don’t confuse this recital with a mere collection of nursery-rhyme ditties; it’s a wonderful and very well-performed and recorded compilation of some of the more musically sophisticated songs ever inspired by classic children’s literary sources. The texts are drawn from the likes of Edward Lear (The Owl and the Pussycat); Rudyard Kipling (A Smuggler’s Song, My Boy Jack); Walter de la Mare (Five Eyes, Tit for Tat, and Full Moon, in brilliant settings by Cecil Armstrong Gibbs, Benjamin Britten, and Herbert Howells); Hilaire Belloc (Henry King); A.A. Milne (Vespers, The Engineer, Buckingham Palace); Lewis Carroll (How doth the little crocodile); Robert Louis Stevenson (The Swing, My bed is a boat, Singing); and J.R.R. Tolkien (Bilbo’s Last Song and Namárië, both set by Donald Swann, the latter sung entirely in Elvish).
And these are just a handful of the 35 selections, given musical life by some of the last century’s finest song composers and realized vocally by two very talented singers and a pianist who are very adept at capturing the particular style and spirit–playful, serious, humorous, dramatic–of each selection. The voices are pleasingly light and warm and personable, happily free of distracting mannerisms or indulgences that would overwhelm the direct simplicity of the words and music. If anything, there could be a bit more expression in some songs, such as the spooky Five Eyes, which soprano Elizabeth Atherton delivers just a bit too gently. And while baritone Roderick Williams certainly projects the melodrama of Henry King, perhaps both he and Atherton could have done more with varying tone quality to enhance the character of a tune or two.
I realize that there’s a fine line between this and, as mentioned above, distracting overindulgence, and I’d much rather hear the kind of uniformly inviting, respect-for-the-song performances we get here than an all-too-common “all-about-me” show. (For sheer perfection in how to sing this type of music, including impeccable diction, listen to Williams’ nifty delivery of Granny, or the 28-second Malice at Buckingham Palace, both by Spike Milligan and Mervyn Dale.)
The only thing missing here is the song texts–a forgivable omission, I suppose, given both singers’ very clear diction and the extensive liner-booklet that would have been necessary to reproduce texts for 35 songs. Even though it’s always nice to have the texts in front of you as you listen (not every word is understandable!), they are all available online at the record label’s website–and the notes do contain much very interesting information on texts, composers, and music. A delightful discovery; highly recommended! [1/15/2007]
