Percy Grainger's versions of folk songs are unusual: not precisely settings, nor harmonizations, nor uses of the song as a starting point, but containing elements of all three. They are quite appealing, especially in straightforward performances like the ones here, and it's a bit hard to understand why they don't show up more often on song recitals. The tune is generally maintained intact, while the piano hints at, or fully embodies, themes in the text, and a performance that balances voice and piano equally yields good ...
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Percy Grainger's versions of folk songs are unusual: not precisely settings, nor harmonizations, nor uses of the song as a starting point, but containing elements of all three. They are quite appealing, especially in straightforward performances like the ones here, and it's a bit hard to understand why they don't show up more often on song recitals. The tune is generally maintained intact, while the piano hints at, or fully embodies, themes in the text, and a performance that balances voice and piano equally yields good results: that's what soprano Claire Booth and pianist Christopher Glynn achieve here, and at Grainger's best, he could be almost Schubertian. Booth, a singer of many different voices, here adopts a clear, fresh, youthful sound that fits the young female protagonists of many of the songs. The tunes were mostly collected in the English countryside by Grainger himself and will be familiar to listeners from the British Isles and North America, sometimes under different names: the Irish Tune...
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