Songs: Severn Meadows
The very title of this disc will, I suspect, be something of a touchstone. If at the words 'Severn Meadows', if at a mention of the Malvern or Cotswold hills, of Ha'nacker Mill or the West Country, or at the very thought of hazy June fields, your eyes mist up or you feel a lump in the throat, then this record is for you. On it, the tenor Paul Agnew sings, exquisitely, 25 exquisite songs by Ivor Gurney, including many of the familiar ones. By a Bierside, In Flanders and Most Holy Night are all here, as is Severn Meadows itself and the five so-called 'Elizas', settings of Elizabethan poetry made before Gurney went off to the war that had such a devastating impact on him. Gurney is often slow, elegiac and subdued, with climaxes a rarity: the great outburst at the end of his Masefield setting By a Bierside is all the more overwhelming when it arrives. He sets a surprising variety of poets though; not just the Georgians such as Squire and Belloc and Walter de la Mare, but Shakespeare, Walter Raleigh, Fletcher and Nashe.So the challenge to the singer is considerable. Paul Agnew's tenor is agreeable, very English, quite forward in the mouth so his diction is impeccable, and the songs seem to lie nicely for his voice. Gurney's long lines do not appear to tax him at all, and one has the feeling of a natural sympathy, rather than embarrassment, with the particular emotions and flavour of the verses. Within their limitations, some of the songs are well-nigh perfect: Most Holy Night, for instance, or Sleep, and Agnew sings them most sensitively. The balance allows him to explore a note of inwardness and serenity which is almost made easier by the recording medium, particularly appropriate to Gurney's emphasis on loss and the transience of things. There are full texts and an interesting note (both in English only) by Michael Hurd, suggesting that neither shell shock nor gassing were responsible for Gurney's long descent into madness, but syphilis. The songs themselves, though, are without exception minor miracles of controlled pathos and these performances do them more than justice.Piers Burton-Page--From International Record Review - subscribe now