Composer: Charles Villiers Stanford
Performer: Kitty Whately, Gareth Brynmor John, Susie Allan
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Somm
Catalogue: SOMMCD0655
Release: 2022
Size: 1.3 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
A Child’s Garland of Songs, Op. 30
01. No. 1, Bed in Summer
02. No. 2, Pirate Story
03. No. 3, Foreign Lands
04. No. 4, Windy Nights
05. No. 5, Where Go the Boats?
06. No. 6, My Shadow
07. No. 7, Marching Song
08. No. 8, Foreign Children
09. No. 9, My Ship and Me
4 Songs, Op. 112
10. No. 1, Spring
11. No. 2, The Silence
12. No. 3, The City Child
13. No. 4, The Vision
6 Songs, Op. 175
14. No. 1, A Song of the Bow
15. No. 2, Drop Me a Flower
16. No. 3, The Winds of Bethlehem
17. No. 4, The Monkey’s Carol
18. No. 5, Lullaby
19. No. 6, The Unknown Sea
Songs from “The Elfin Pedlar”, Book 1
20. No. 1, Two Little Stars
21. No. 2, The Pedlar
22. No. 3, Little Snowdrop
23. No. 4, The Piper of the Spring
24. No. 5, Speedwell
25. No. 6, The Dream Ship
Songs from “The Elfin Pedlar”, Book 2
26. No. 1, Summer
27. No. 2, What Do You See?
28. No. 3, The Piper
29. No. 4, The Secret Place
30. No. 5, Night
31. No. 6, The Dust-Man
32. Witches’ Charms
33. Summer’s Rain and Winter’s Snow
34. Fairy Lures
35. The Hoofs of the Horses
36. A Japanese Lullaby
37. Worship
38. The King’s Highway
Stanford, as his biographer and British music authority Jeremy Dibble comments in his authoritative notes, “was very much alive to the importance of children’s participation in music” following the transformative introduction of signing to the school curriculum in 1870. This delightful compendium of songs intended for children reveals the composer to be as acutely sensitive to his eclectic choice of texts as to his intended audience.
It features premiere recordings of the early, Robert Louis Stevenson-set A Child’s Garland of Songs, Op. 30, the mid-period Four Songs, Op. 112 and later Six Songs, Op. 175, together with seven other standalone songs, including the simple pastoral message of Summer’s Rain and Winter’s Snow and delightfully capricious Fairy Lures.
Somm Recordings’ previous Stanford recordings include his String Quintets and complete String Quartets with the Dante Quartet, praised by Gramophone for their “ardent, alert and thoroughly lived-in performances”, and Partsongs with the Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir led by Paul Spicer, which Limelight described as “excellent… beautifully sung”.