Somervell and Beethoven CD reviews
NORMAN STINCHCOMBE'S RAVE REVIEWS OF SOMERVELL AND BEETHOVEN CDS
SOMERVELL: Williams / Allan (Somm Recordings SOMMCD 06150 ★★★★★
Mention Come into the garden, Maud and most music lovers will groan and grimace, with memories of amateur tenors warbling Michael Balfe's cringingly twee setting. Here we have the version by Sir Arthur Somervell in his setting of thirteen lyrics from Lord Tennyson's narrative poem Maud. While Balfe trivialized, and re-wrote, Tennyson's crepuscular verse, Somervell embraces the darker elements. Roderick Williams brings to life the death-devoted narrator with utter conviction, his warm baritone caressing the songs' romantic ardour, but never letting the drama teeter into melodrama. Susie Allan embraces Somervell's full-blooded piano part – no Victorian front parlour tinkling here. Somervell's Maud demands a hearing by anyone interested in English song. Poems from Housman's A Shropshire Lad have been set may times but Some