John Eliot Gardiner, The Monteverdi Choir - Danny Boy: Songs & Dancing Ballads by Percy Grainger (1996)
John Eliot Gardiner, The Monteverdi Choir, English Country Gardiner Orchestra - Danny Boy: Songs & Dancing Ballads by Percy Grainger (1996)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 323 Mb | Total time: 74:58 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Philips | # 446 657-2 | Recorded: 1994, 1995
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 323 Mb | Total time: 74:58 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Philips | # 446 657-2 | Recorded: 1994, 1995
Percy Grainger was a weird dude. This is most evident in his orchestrated choral music, here under the direction of John Eliot Gardiner leading his Monteverdi Choir and further aided by the English Country Gardiner Orchestra from 1996.
Grainger’s choral arranging of British Isles folk songs are thickly textured, often with complexly jazzy, chromatic part writing which is always intriguing, if not a bit unexpected. Even if the chorus is only ooh-ing or aah-ing, as it often does either behind solo singing or as a choral feature, Grainger never blandly makes the chorus merely accompaniment or background, and all of it is terribly difficult to perform. The 9-minute Bride’s Tragedy seems the apex of Grainger’s modernist, complex choral writing and orchestra work, with bouncy mixed-meters and challenging harmonies abounding.
Most of the choral numbers here are orchestrated, often by what Grainger terms as room music. This can be in the form of brass bands, chamber strings, percussion, five clarinets alone, any combination of individual winds, brass, and strings; plus harmonium is always an instrument he writes into this music as an option for performances. In this recording, the brass astounds in the Song of Solomon and the Merry Wedding, the thrumming of Shallow Brown is indeed quirky, and the homespun piping in the Scotch Reel is most toe-tappingly satisfying. This unusual instrumentation only adds to the bizarre cacophony of Grainger’s musical settings, instances where I can understand one reviewer’s two-star rating who says they wanted a pure choral style with simple accompaniment to showcase the attractive simplicity of these folksongs; Grainger will not give you this!
This idea is only perpetuated by this performance by the Monteverdi Singers based out of England. Far from a pure, homogenous sound in the English cathedral style, the Monteverdi Singers sing lustily in a rustic, ‘salt of the earth’ manner, full of character and rhythmic vigour with plenty of vibrato. It is a most exciting approach to this music, one that is constantly engaging and gives the music an electric immediacy built towards eccentric characterizations. Towards the end of the program, the chorus even break into accents during the barroom Lost Lady Found, the cockney Danny Deever, and the men’s chorus gives a full-throated Drunken Sailor. Of course, this suits much of the folk-song topics at hand, ones of gallows humour and tumescent sexuality alongside rousing sea chanties and minstrelsy. This is offset by the intimately lovely a cappella, modal Gaelic tune ‘Nighean’ and the titular County Derry, which Grainger's choral arrangement has no words.
The music is littered with vocal solos, here taken directly within the Monteverdi Singers, and while professional soloists would have been appreciated, the members add to the individualistic, rustic atmosphere. Grainger was enthusiastic for Stephen Foster in his time, and we get an anglicized Camptown Races, whose minstrelsy roots are a bit cringy today, but the lullaby midsection raises the musical material.
Philips’ recording of Sir John Eliot Gardiner leading extroverted and entertaining performances of Grainger’s choral music is excellent for those looking for rustic singing and wryly-themed, complex choral writing. Even more appealingly, at 75 minutes, this is a lot of music and it all comes in good sound too.
Performer:
The Monteverdi Choir
English Country Gardiner Orchestra
John Eliot Gardiner, conductor
Track List:
Percy Grainger (1882-1961)
01. I'm Seventeen Come Sunday
02. Brigg Fair
03. Love Verses from The Song Of Solomon
04. The Merry Wedding
05. Shallow Brown
06. Father and Daughter
07. Mo Nighean Dubh
08. The Bride's Tragedy
09. Irish Tune from County Derry
10. Scotch Strathspray and Reel
11. The Lost Lady Found
12. The Three Ravens
13. Danny Deever
14. Tribute to Foster
Exact Audio Copy V1.6 from 23. October 2020
EAC extraction logfile from 4. May 2022, 1:46
John Eliot Gardiner & The English Country Gardiner Orchestra / The Music Of Percy Grainger - Danny Boy
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==== Log checksum 94C36C4E6B30CCB484E8A6736542A5588269B56169419A7E4F227B593A10F08D ====
John Eliot Gardiner, The Monteverdi Choir - Danny Boy: Songs & Dancing Ballads by Percy Grainger (1996)
Thanks to the original releaser