Following on from two highly praised collections
of light-music
classics — “Dicky
Bird Hop” and “Chasing
Moonbeams” — for
EM Records, Paul Guinery has quarried his
extensive music archive of
solo piano gems for a third selection
he’s called “Finger Prints”.
Previous generations could identify with the
Viennese adage of taking
serious music lightly and light music
seriously. This was appreciated in the UK as
well, with many
home-grown composers applying their abundant
talents and skills to feed an appetite for music
whose primary aim was
simply to entertain.
Guinery’s extensive knowledge of the
repertoire and his
sizeable collection of original sheet-music
have informed broadcasts
he has made of this repertoire for
BBC Radio 3’s flagship
“Breakfast” programme. There was
an enthusiastic response
from listeners clamouring for
more, proving that light music is still much
appreciated — and missed.
“Why don’t we
hear this sort of music these
days?” was a common response. The genre
has been neglected to
the extent that, apart from film scores, it
barely exists today. High time, then, for a
further exploration of
its charm, inventiveness and
craftsmanship.
For full details of this recording, including a track listing and audio extracts, please visit this page.
A perusal of a catalogue of English-language
musical settings quickly reveals
the powerful attaction composers have had to
the verse of Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The poetry
is rich in imagery, playing upon
the threads of grief, love,
redemption, and, perhaps most important to the
settings on this disc, inner turmoil. The
longer poems present narratives with strongly
drawn characters and narrative
arcs befitting a song-cycle; it is no
wonder that the three composers represented on
this
disc — Maude White, Arthur
Somervell and Liza
Lehmann — could not resist
setting portions of two of
Tennyson’s best-known works,
“In Memoriam” and
“Maude”.
The former poem, “In
Memoriam”, was one of
Tennyson’s most popular works
during his lifetime, and explores the
range of emotions that fan out from the
central feelings of grief after the
passing of a loved one. Tennyson’s
musings on death, eternity, light and
darkness suited the morbid obessions of
the Victorian era, particularly after
the death of Prince Albert and the
resulting protracted mourning modelled
by Queen Victoria, who was said to have
adored the poem. “Maud” is,
in its own way, a similarly brooding
work, a tale of a young man’s
unhealthy obsession with his young
neighbour and the ensuing death and
madness that results.
This recording offers three World
Premières, being the
first-ever recording of the four Maude
White songs and the first
recordings by a tenor of the two
significant cycles by Lehmann
and Somervell. Full details of the disc,
including audio extracts and a track
listing, are available on
this page.
“Finger Prints” (EMR CD088)
and “Splendid Tears” (EMR CD087) are
both available for purchase through our
online shop — please
follow
this link
.