The Songmakers afloat in their gondola bob up and down in triple or compound time and one wonders whether the Venetians weren't sometimes 6/8-sick and whether they didn't have a few marching songs in their repertoire. Still, colour and sunshine, melody and grace are not to be sneezed at. Rossini captures the colour well enough, the Russians enjoy the sunshine, Mendelssohn and Jensen are gracefully melodious. But evidently the best souvenirs of Venice have been made in France. Side 2 opens with settings by Gounod and Massenet of de Musset's Venetian lyrics, and in this context they impress as not being merely sensitive but subtle. It's Gounod's Venise that provides the first reminder that this is a beautiful city. The slow sway of Faure's Barcarolle also catches the ambiguous beauty of Venice in a way that eludes (with the exception of Schubert) all the composers of Side 1. Then the miniature venetian song cycle by Reynaldo Hahn Turns out to be a delightful indulgence: No. 2 ( ''La barcheta'') will be remembered by some listeners through recordings by Georges Thill and the composer himself, but the whole little set of songs with its evocation of popular melodies and its stylish writing for voice and piano is a discovery well worth making.
The performances are stylish too, as one would expect, with never a note frome Graham Johnson at the piano that one would wish otherwise. Most of the solos go to anthony Rolfe Johnson and here, though 'stylish' is still the word, there is something about the style (or is it technique?), that I take to less happily. It's the 'swell' habit, the pressing of individual notes within the phrase. After a while it produces an almost physical sensation, so that what with the swaying and lifting of 6/8 rhythmns, particularly on the first side, one leaves the gondola with a slightly queasy relief on coming ashore.
'