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Track(s) taken from CDA67261/2

I have twelve oxen

composer
1918
author of text
early English

Lisa Milne (soprano), Graham Johnson (piano)
Recording details: September 1998
Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel, Hampstead, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Arthur Johnson
Engineered by Mike Clements & Mike Hatch
Release date: June 1999
Total duration: 1 minutes 47 seconds
 

Reviews

‘Perhaps these discs will at last bring the best of his songs back into live recital’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘Three excellent young British singers share the treasures recorded here under the sage aegis of Graham Johnson. Lisa Milne's bright, keen soprano is lovely, John Mark Ainsley is a model of style and verbal clarity and young Christopher Maltman continues to show the promise that won him the Cardiff Lieder Prize in 1997’ (The Sunday Times)

‘A welcome, long overdue event. Excellent introduction to unduly neglected repertoire’ (Classic CD)

‘Ireland was a songsmith to rival the finest this country has produced, and Hyperion's generous anthology will hopefully encourage others to explore this rewarding and rapt repertoire’ (Hi-Fi News)
Less reflective in character is I have twelve oxen (1918), a setting of an early English text from the days when oxen (clearly of many different colours and hues according to the poem) strode these lands. The poet does nothing more than show them off to a 'little pretty boy'. On more than the surface this seems robust, high-spirited stuff (and can be sung and played as such) but intriguingly the song is marked 'Allegretto grazioso' by Ireland, emphasised by 'con grazia' in the opening bar. One commentator has even referred to the 'gentleness' of the setting.

from notes by Andrew Green © 1999

Other albums featuring this work

A Treasury of English Song
This album is not yet available for downloadHYP30Super-budget price sampler — Deleted
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