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Track(s) taken from CDA67374

Mountain Lovers

First line:
Little white star on the mountain heather
composer
William Henry Squire (1871-1963)
1908
author of text
Frederic Edward Weatherly (1848-1929)

Sir Thomas Allen (baritone), Malcolm Martineau (piano)
Recording details: January 2002
Champs Hill, West Sussex, United Kingdom
Produced by Mark Brown
Engineered by Julian Millard
Release date: June 2003
Total duration: 3 minutes 39 seconds

Cover artwork: At the Piano. Robert Beyschlag (1838-1903)
Anthony Mitchell Paintings, Nottingham / Fine Art Photographic Library, London
 

Reviews

‘Other singers over recent decades have given the songs an airing from time to time, but Thomas Allen is the very man to do it’ (Gramophone)

‘With piano-playing by that most sensitive of accompanists, Malcolm Martineau, Sir Thomas Allen brings high art to these songs … with an affectionate regard to mood and feeling, and with a touching lyrical sincerity’ (The Daily Telegraph)

‘A fitting tribute to this repertory that one of the finest operatic voices of our day has chosen to record it’ (Classic FM Magazine)

‘I must confess that, what with the beauty of Thomas Allen’s voice and the lovely accompaniment of Malcolm Martineau at the piano, a tear welled in my eye more than once. Another distinguished release from Hyperion’ (Liverpool Daily Post)

‘Hyperion here brings us Sir Thomas Allen caressing 29 well-loved parlour songs with his warm, expressive baritone … Malcolm Martineau provides his usual sympathetic and well-etched pianistic support’ (Birmingham Post)

‘Wwhat quality of nostalgia, and what depth of conviction … superb performances … Martineau’s carefully moulded accompaniments enhance a glorious enterprise’ (Yorkshire Post)
William Henry Squire was born at Ross-on-Wye and educated at the Royal College of Music. His celebrity was primarily as a cellist, in which capacity he performed the Saint-Saëns concerto at Crystal Palace in 1895, played in the Queen’s Hall Orchestra, and led the cellos at Covent Garden. He was a professor of the instrument at the RCM as well as the Guildhall School of Music, and he made a classic recording of the Elgar concerto. Though he also included a cello concerto among his compositions, it was his ballads that achieved greatest success. Notable among them is this hit of 1908, which Fred Weatherly declared had been ‘sung by all tenors’.

from notes by Andrew Lamb © 2003

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