Feb 8, 2015

Robert Burns: The Complete Songs, Volume 1 (CD review)

Tony Cuffe, Rod Paterson, Janet Russell, Billy Ross, Ian F. Benzie, Christine Kydd, Alan Reid; various accompanists. Linn Records CKD 801.

"My way is: I consider the poetic sentiment, correspondent to my idea of the musical expression, then chuse my theme, begin one stanza, when that is composed--which is generally the most difficult part of the business--I walk out, sit down now and then, look out for objects in nature around me that are in unison or harmony with the cogitations of my fancy and workings of my bosom, humming every now and then the air with the verses I have framed. When I feel my Muse beginning to jade, I retire to the solitary fireside of my study, and there commit my effusions to paper, swinging, at intervals, on the hind-legs of my elbow chair, by way of calling forth my own critical strictures, as my pen goes." --Robert Burns

The Scottish poet and lyricist Robert Burns (1759-1796) wrote hundreds of poems and songs and as a folklorist collected and sometimes revised many old Scottish tunes. In the mid 1990's Linn Records decided to issue all of Burns's songs on CD, completing a set of twelve volumes, which they are now re-releasing. The present disc is Volume One in that set.

The singers are Tony Cuffe, Rod Paterson, Janet Russell, Billy Ross, Ian F. Benzie, Christine Kydd, and Alan Reid; the accompanists are Davy Catanach, Norman Chalmers, Jack Evans, Jonny Hardie, Billy Jackson, John McCusker, and Buzzby McMillan. Volume one contains the following songs performed by the singers in parentheses, plus assorted spare accompaniment including guitar, djembe, concertina, bodhran, whistle, shakers, mbira, mandolin, fiddle, cittern, and harp.

 1. "When rosy May comes in wi flowers" (Tony Cuffe)
 2. "O that I had ne'er been married" (Rod Paterson)
 3. "Wee Willie Gray" (Tony Cuffe & Rod Paterson)
 4. "O wha'll mow me now?" (Janet Russell)
 5. "Brose and butter" (Billy Ross)
 6. "The wintry west extends his blast" (Ian F. Benzie)
 7. "Sweet Afton" (Tony Cuffe)
 8. "Duncan Gray" (Janet Russell & Christine Kydd)
 9. "The winter it is past" (Billy Ross)
10. "Gudeen to you kimmer" (Christine Kydd & Rod Paterson)
11. "Kellyburn Braes" (Alan Reid)
12. "The slave's lament" (Christine Kydd)
13. "O aa the airts the wind can blaw" (Rod Paterson
14. "What can a young lassie do wi an auld man" (Ian F. Benzie)
15. "Ay waukin, O" (Tony Cuffe)
16. "O, steer her up an haud her gaun" (Rod Paterson)
17. "The Cooper O Cuddy" (Tony Cuffe)
18. "O, rattlin, roarin Willie" (Rod Paterson)
19. "To the weaver's gin you go" (Janet Russell)
20. "Lady Mary Ann" (Billy Ross)
21. "Montgomerie's Peggy" (Ian F. Benzie)
22. "The lea-rigg" (Rod Paterson)
23. "Yestreen I had a pint o wine" (Tony Cuffe)

If you already own or have heard any of the songs in this Burns collection, you know how successful it is. However, if you are not already familiar with it, there are three things you should know: First, Burns wrote a good deal of his material in a Scottish dialect; this "common touch" is a part of what has made him so popular not only with the Scottish people but with the world at large. But it also means that if you don't know or understand the dialect, you might not understand the words of the songs; and Linn Records do not provide lyrics in these reissues.

Tony Cuffe
Second, the performers on the album do not attempt to smooth out or popularize the songs. These are straightforward performances by folksingers who are trying to be as honest in their presentations as possible, offering the songs in their original, occasionally unpolished settings. The singing is always good, but it is not of the cultured, operatically trained kind; instead, it is singing of a more informal style, perfectly suited to the needs of the music.

Third, this first volume in the set is only a small part of the whole, one-twelfth of the set. If you're looking for a "Best of Burns" album, you won't find it here. Of the twenty-three songs on the program, probably only the avid Robert Burns fan or collector would recognize or even appreciate all the titles. Therefore, if you are like me, you may be surprised and delighted by a good deal of material new to you. And if you don't see your favorite Robert Burns song here, look to the other discs in the series.

Favorites? Sure. "O that I ne'er been married" is humorous and outgoing. The duet of Cuffe and Paterson works charmingly on "Wee Willie Gray." Janet Russell's unaccompanied voice on "O wha'll mow me now" is pleasant, indeed. Ian F. Benzie's robust, mellow voice does justice to "The wintry west extends his blast." And Kidd and Paterson do a great a capella job on "Gudeen to you kimmer," even if I didn't have a clue what they were saying. OK, I liked them all; what can I say?

Producer Fred Freeman and engineer Calum Malcolm recorded the songs back in 1995 at Castle Cava Studios, Pencaitland, Scotland, and, as I said at the beginning, the folks at Linn Records are now reissuing the complete set in twelve individual volumes. The voice in each selection appears fairly closely miked and firmly defined. The instrumental accompaniment is very slightly less prominent, as it should be, yet just as well delineated. The result sounds well balanced, well centered, and realistic. Linn always do a good job with their recordings, and this one is no exception.

As recently as 2009, by the way, Scottish Television (STV) conducted a public vote on who was "The Greatest Scot" of all time. The winner was Robert Burns.

JJP

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click here:
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1 comment:

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Meet the Staff

Meet the Staff
John J. Puccio, Founder and Contributor

Understand, I'm just an everyday guy reacting to something I love. And I've been doing it for a very long time, my appreciation for classical music starting with the musical excerpts on the Big Jon and Sparkie radio show in the early Fifties and the purchase of my first recording, The 101 Strings Play the Classics, around 1956. In the late Sixties I began teaching high school English and Film Studies as well as becoming interested in hi-fi, my audio ambitions graduating me from a pair of AR-3 speakers to the Fulton J's recommended by The Stereophile's J. Gordon Holt. In the early Seventies, I began writing for a number of audio magazines, including Audio Excellence, Audio Forum, The Boston Audio Society Speaker, The American Record Guide, and from 1976 until 2008, The $ensible Sound, for which I served as Classical Music Editor.

Today, I'm retired from teaching and use a pair of bi-amped VMPS RM40s loudspeakers for my listening. In addition to writing for the Classical Candor blog, I served as the Movie Review Editor for the Web site Movie Metropolis (formerly DVDTown) from 1997-2013. Music and movies. Life couldn't be better.

Karl Nehring, Editor and Contributor

For nearly 30 years I was the editor of The $ensible Sound magazine and a regular contributor to both its equipment and recordings review pages. I would not presume to present myself as some sort of expert on music, but I have a deep love for and appreciation of many types of music, "classical" especially, and have listened to thousands of recordings over the years, many of which still line the walls of my listening room (and occasionally spill onto the furniture and floor, much to the chagrin of my long-suffering wife). I have always taken the approach as a reviewer that what I am trying to do is simply to point out to readers that I have come across a recording that I have found of interest, a recording that I think they might appreciate my having pointed out to them. I suppose that sounds a bit simple-minded, but I know I appreciate reading reviews by others that do the same for me — point out recordings that they think I might enjoy.

For readers who might be wondering about what kind of system I am using to do my listening, I should probably point out that I do a LOT of music listening and employ a variety of means to do so in a variety of environments, as I would imagine many music lovers also do. Starting at the more grandiose end of the scale, the system in which I do my most serious listening comprises Marantz CD 6007 and Onkyo CD 7030 CD players, NAD C 658 streaming preamp/DAC, Legacy Audio PowerBloc2 amplifier, and a pair of Legacy Audio Focus SE loudspeakers. I occasionally do some listening through pair of Sennheiser 560S headphones. I miss the excellent ELS Studio sound system in our 2016 Acura RDX (now my wife's daily driver) on which I had ripped more than a hundred favorite CDs to the hard drive, so now when driving my 2024 Honda CRV Sport L Hybrid, I stream music from my phone through its adequate but hardly outstanding factory system. For more casual listening at home when I am not in my listening room, I often stream music through a Roku Streambar Pro system (soundbar plus four surround speakers and a 10" sealed subwoofer) that has surprisingly nice sound for such a diminutive physical presence and reasonable price. Finally, at the least grandiose end of the scale, I have an Ultimate Ears Wonderboom II Bluetooth speaker and a pair of Google Pro Earbuds for those occasions where I am somewhere by myself without a sound system but in desperate need of a musical fix. I just can’t imagine life without music and I am humbly grateful for the technologies that enable us to enjoy it in so many wonderful ways.

William (Bill) Heck, Webmaster and Contributor

Among my early childhood memories are those of listening to my mother playing records (some even 78 rpm ones!) of both classical music and jazz tunes. I suppose that her love of music was transmitted genetically, and my interest was sustained by years of playing in rock bands – until I realized that this was no way to make a living. The interest in classical music was rekindled in grad school when the university FM station serving as background music for studying happened to play the Brahms First Symphony. As the work came to an end, it struck me forcibly that this was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard, and from that point on, I never looked back. This revelation was to the detriment of my studies, as I subsequently spent way too much time simply listening, but music has remained a significant part of my life. These days, although I still can tell a trumpet from a bassoon and a quarter note from a treble clef, I have to admit that I remain a nonexpert. But I do love music in general and classical music in particular, and I enjoy sharing both information and opinions about it.

The audiophile bug bit about the same time that I returned to classical music. I’ve gone through plenty of equipment, brands from Audio Research to Yamaha, and the best of it has opened new audio insights. Along the way, I reviewed components, and occasionally recordings, for The $ensible Sound magazine. Most recently I’ve moved to my “ultimate system” consisting of a BlueSound Node streamer, an ancient Toshiba multi-format disk player serving as a CD transport, Legacy Wavelet II DAC/preamp/crossover, dual Legacy PowerBloc2 amps, and Legacy Signature SE speakers (biamped), all connected with decently made, no-frills cables. With the arrival of CD and higher resolution streaming, that is now the source for most of my listening.

Ryan Ross, Contributor

I started listening to and studying classical music in earnest nearly three decades ago. This interest grew naturally out of my training as a pianist. I am now a musicologist by profession, specializing in British and other symphonic music of the 19th and 20th centuries. My scholarly work has been published in major music journals, as well as in other outlets. Current research focuses include twentieth-century symphonic historiography, and the music of Jean Sibelius, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Malcolm Arnold.

I am honored to contribute writings to Classical Candor. In an age where the classical recording industry is being subjected to such profound pressures and changes, it is more important than ever for those of us steeped in this cultural tradition to continue to foster its love and exposure. I hope that my readers can find value, no matter how modest, in what I offer here.


Bryan Geyer, Technical Analyst

I initially embraced classical music in 1954 when I mistuned my car radio and heard the Heifetz recording of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto. That inspired me to board the new "hi-fi" DIY bandwagon. In 1957 I joined one of the pioneer semiconductor makers and spent the next 32 years marketing transistors and microcircuits to military contractors. Home audio DIY projects remained a personal passion until 1989 when we created our own new photography equipment company. I later (2012) revived my interest in two channel audio when we "downsized" our life and determined that mini-monitors + paired subwoofers were a great way to mate fine music with the space constraints of condo living.

Visitors that view my technical papers on this site may wonder why they appear here, rather than on a site that features audio equipment reviews. My reason is that I tried the latter, and prefer to publish for people who actually want to listen to music; not to equipment. My focus is in describing what's technically beneficial to assure that the sound of the system will accurately replicate the source input signal (i. e. exhibit high accuracy) without inordinate cost and complexity. Conversely, most of the audiophiles of today strive to achieve sound that's euphonic, i.e. be personally satisfying. In essence, audiophiles seek sound that's consistent with their desire; the music is simply a test signal.

Mission Statement

It is the goal of Classical Candor to promote the enjoyment of classical music. Other forms of music come and go--minuets, waltzes, ragtime, blues, jazz, bebop, country-western, rock-'n'-roll, heavy metal, rap, and the rest--but classical music has been around for hundreds of years and will continue to be around for hundreds more. It's no accident that every major city in the world has one or more symphony orchestras.

When I was young, I heard it said that only intellectuals could appreciate classical music, that it required dedicated concentration to appreciate. Nonsense. I'm no intellectual, and I've always loved classical music. Anyone who's ever seen and enjoyed Disney's Fantasia or a Looney Tunes cartoon playing Rossini's William Tell Overture or Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 can attest to the power and joy of classical music, and that's just about everybody.

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"Their Master's Voice" by Michael Sowa

"Their Master's Voice" by Michael Sowa