From soulful first to sociable last, these part-songs are a delight for listeners as for singers. All who have warbled their way “through bushes and through briars” or taken tuneful farewell of their “little turtle dove” will know what pleasures they can bring, though no doubt many will reflect that the pleasure might have been heightened if their own group had numbered among them a few singers half as expert as those who perform so musically and intelligently on these recordings. The London Madrigal Singers and the Baccholian Singers of London both have Ian Partridge as a member, and that is a pretty good start. There may be others who are shared, and certainly the groups have in common a fine discipline that feels like instinct, a care for homogeneity of tone and style, and a keen appreciation of the civilized use of words, music and human society that such things betoken.
The two CDs bring together, very suitably, three LPs recorded within a few years of one another. They were welcomed in their time, though Trevor Harvey had some pertinent observations to make about the first. This is of Christopher Bishop’s madrigal singers in the Vaughan Williams folk-song arrangements, where TH wanted more pace and more passion. “The singers must seem possessed by the thought of what the words really imply” in “The springtime of the year” (Five English Folksongs), and “this lack of intensity in interpretation becomes more serious in The Turtle Dove”. As he says, “the music should move on a bit”; and (as he does not say) it isn’t merely a question of the set tempo but the literalness of the reading – a quaver equals a quaver and that’s it, whereas the idiom essentially involves flexibility in the treatment of words and music.
For the rest, these performances deserve only praise. The Baccholians are particularly good in their rhythmic alertness, catching perfectly the subdued excitement of the Wassail song and the tricky syncopations of The song of the blacksmith. And what fine, fresh, considered and considerate compositions they are! The Six Choral Folk Songs of Holst are rich in variety, while the Six Choruses with strings have an equally satisfying unity. The Dirge for Two Veterans is a masterpiece, and indeed much could be said about them all which will have to go unsaid. Fortunately, it is hearing rather than ‘saying’ that really matters, and hearing is highly recommended.
'