Search - Grainger, Pears, Shirley-Quirk :: Grainger: Danny Boy [Australia]

Eureka!

Steve Roberts | 09/09/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have been waiting on this CD for years. This is a reissue of an old London Records release (with several tunes added) featuring Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears, John Shirley-Quirk, et al, each having been friends of Grainger's and old hands at performing his music. The vinyl has been out of print for years (still have my old copy) and it's very much like finding a dear old friend, well-preserved and even more delightful than one remembered. The settings are superb, the performances sublime and the choice of material inspired. This is one of my two favorite Grainger albums, the other being an old Everest release of Duo-Art piano rolls of himself (PAG) playing, peerlessly, a wonderful selection of his and others' tunes and now available on Nimbus Records: catalog NI 8809. It's probably better engineered than the Everest, but my ears are still tuned in to the older sonority."