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Track(s) taken from CDA66941/2

O waly, waly

First line:
The water is wide, I cannot get o'er
composer
traditional Scottish
arranger
The British Isles: Vol 3 No 6
author of text
Somerset folk song

Lorna Anderson (soprano), Malcolm Martineau (piano)
Recording details: July 1994
St Alban's Church, Holborn, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Mark Brown
Engineered by Antony Howell
Release date: November 1994
Total duration: 3 minutes 45 seconds

Cover artwork: The green grass over him … (1994, watercolour inspired by Britten's folk songs). Jane MacKay (b?)
Reproduced by permission of the artist
 

Other recordings available for download

James Gilchrist (tenor), Alison Nicholls (harp)
Anthony Rolfe Johnson (tenor), Graham Johnson (piano)

Reviews

‘This is a superb collection … this will be one of my favorite sets of 1995’ (Fanfare, USA)

‘Delivered faultlessly. The Plough Boy whistles jauntily, the bluebells ring in The Ash Grove, the Miller of Dee sings at his workplace. Exquisite’ (The Leeds Guide)

«Interprètes exceptionelles» (Répertoire, France)

'El sonido es magnifico, y la recomendabilidad absolute por la belleza de la musica y el alto nivel de las versiones' (Scherzo, Spain)
Britten began arranging folksongs for his wartime recitals with Pears. The first volume was published in 1943 and all of the seven settings in it are dedicated to friends he and Pears had made in America. Down by the salley gardens is dedicated to Clytie Hine Mundy, Pears’s singing teacher in the United States. It is an Irish folksong, with words by W B Yeats. Britten’s setting is simple and understated, with the subtlest of harmonic touches conveying the folly of youth with touching pathos.

from notes by John Evans © 1986

Other albums featuring this work

Britten: Michelangelo Sonnets & Winter Words
CDH55067Download only
Romantic Residues
CDA67725
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