Search - Glasgow Orpheus Choir :: All in the April Evening

The Scottish enunciation and vocal timbre are beautiful.

John Austin | Kangaroo Ground, Australia | 09/30/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

""The choir was loved everywhere it sang," wrote its founder and conductor, "because it always sang from the heart." It is certainly the expressiveness and sincerity that one notices first, listening to this welcome CD reissue of many of the choir's famous recordings. These qualities are suggested mainly by the way the singers glide and slide from note to note, a manner described by the Italian word "portamento" and most evident here in the choir's singing of "Crimond" and "Belmont". Singing from the heart in this way was not achieved at the expense of perfect ensemble and vocal dexterity, however. Listen to the disciplined gaiety of "The Dashing White Sargeant"! Furthermore, the Scottish enunciation and the vocal timbre are beautiful throughout. Several of the tracks feature a mezzo soprano soloist, whose name I believe was Annie Tait. After a long absence from the market, Sir Hugh Roberton's Glasgow Orpheus Choir, founded in 1901, is making a welcome return with this and several other CDs. Some of the CDs are discrepant with regard to the information they provide about dates and recording venues. In this one Peter Dempsey provides excellent historical, appreciative and analytical notes, incorrect only in attributing the words of "The Blue Bird" to Samuel Taylor Coleridge."