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CDA67337


Recording details: March 2002
All Saints, Durham Road, East Finchley, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Mark Brown
Engineered by Julian Millard
Release date: February 2003
Total duration: 77 minutes 28 seconds

EDITOR'S CHOICE (GRAMOPHONE)

'Most of these songs I had not heard before, nor, I suspect, have most listeners. Hyperion must be thanked for making them available' (International Record Review)

'Songs which gain in stature through being presented in sequence and superbly done' (Gramophone)

'lyrical, imaginative … Geraldine McGreevy’s soprano voice is sweet and pure' (Classic FM Magazine)

'two superb voices alive to Gibbs’s many moods, while Roger Vignoles accompaniments are a model of sensitivity and understanding' (BBC Music Magazine)

'Geraldine McGreevy and Stephen Varcoe are persuasive advocates … Roger Vignoles is the ideal accompanist, adding to the atmosphere of each song' (The Guardian)

'Stephen Varcoe sings with typical sensitivity … Roger Vignoles offers shapely, perfectly-scaled accompaniments' (Yorkshire Post)

'ces mélodies sont exquises sans être précieuses. La sensibilité est fine, l’expression nuancée mais sans artifice' (Monde de La Musique, France)

Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1889-1960)
Songs
Geraldine McGreevy (soprano), Stephen Varcoe (baritone), Roger Vignoles (piano)
LISTEN TO ALL EXTRACTS
1
The bells, Op 14 No 2  [3'07]
2
To one who passed whistling through the night  [1'57]
3
Summer night  [1'27]
4
The fields are full  [1'59]
5
Take heed, young heart  [2'03]
6
When I was one-and-twenty  [1'42]
7
The birch tree  [0'50]
8
Lullaby  [3'10]
9
The sleeping beauty  [3'00]
10
The ballad of Semmerwater  [4'21]
11
Tom o' Bedlam  [1'33]
12
The mad prince  [1'59]
13
Hypochondriacus  [1'14]
14
Neglected moon!  [1'59]
15
The rejected lover  [1'16]
16
Arrogant poppies  [1'30]
17
Sailing homeward  [1'50]
18
The tiger-lily  [3'08]
19
The splendour falls  [3'11]
20
Titania  [3'50]
21
Danger  [1'38]
22
Nightfall  [2'56]
23
Silver, Op 30 No 2  [3'00]
24
Mistletoe  [2'14]
25
The oxen  [2'51]
26
In the highlands, Op 9  [3'06]
27
By a bierside  [1'51]
28
Araby, Op 20 No 2  [2'13]
29
Ann's cradle song, Op 20 No 1  [2'37]
30
Five eyes, Op 15 No 2 or Op 9 No 3  [1'10]
31
The wanderer  [1'52]
32
The flooded stream  [1'45]
Four songs for a mad sea captain, Op 111
33
No 1: Hidden treasure  [1'04]
34
No 2: Abel Wright  [0'52]
35
No 3: Toll the bell  [1'46]
36
No 4: The golden ray  [1'27]
Born into the well-known 'Gibbs toothpaste' family, Armstrong Gibbs (he hated the Cecil with which his name is often prefixed) -- born 1889, died 1960 -- is a member of that wide category of English composers who, without pretensions to 'significance' or greatness, left much attractive and worthwhile music without which we would be much the poorer. Moderately prolific, his 'op' numbers extend to over a hundred. Much of his music, therefore, still awaits investigation and reassessment. He wrote over 150 songs, many of them to words by his friend Walter de la Mare, of which there are a dozen in this collection of 36, including the much-loved 'Silver' and 'Five Eyes'. The programme is shared between soprano Geraldine McGreevy and baritone Stephen Varcoe whose love for these songs is apparent in their affectionate performances with Roger Vignoles.