Stanford: Songs of the Sea, Op. 91

“Songs of the Sea - which includes the long-popular 'Drake's Drum' and 'The Old Superb' - and the later, texturally richer and more thoughtful Songs of the Fleet are superb baritone vehicles for Gerald Finley… this new Chandos SACD… has impressive presence.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2006 ****

“Two of Stanford's catchiest and most popular settings frame his 1904 Songs ofthe Sea for baritone, male chorus and orchestra: both 'Drake's Drum' and 'The Old Superb' are instantly memorable and have alone justly secured the work's survival. But there's some terrific music tucked away in the three remaining numbers, not least the marvellously serene 'Homeward Bound' with its burnished orchestral palette (Stanford's skilful scoring gives enormous pleasure throughout, in fact), rapt eloquence (nowhere more potent than at the line 'Swiftly the great ship glides') and adventurous harmonic scope.
Six years later, Stanford returned to Henry Newbolt's maritime verse to pen a more reflective sequel entitled Songs of the Fleet. Its spacious centrepiece, 'The Middle Watch', evokes a dusky mystery and sense of awe, while the opening 'Sailing at Dawn' is a gloriously assured and noble essay worthy of Elgar himself...Not so immediately appealing is the 1886 choral ballad The Revenge, one of the composer's biggest early successes. Tennyson's poem depicts how Sir Richard Grenville and his Devonian crew aboard Revenge took on – and inflicted terrible damage upon – the Spanish fleet off the Azores in 1591 (one ship against 53 – believe it or not!).
Stanford's breezy setting proved a hit with Victorian choral societies up and down the land.
Though no forgotten masterpiece, it's most ably served by Hickox and company. Throw in an admirable booklet-essay by Jeremy Dibble and ripe, airy sound from Chandos, and it certainly adds up to a hearty recommendation.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“…Gerald Finley's firmly focused, ringing tone is a joy. He doesn't possess the salty tang of Benjamin Luxon (a true sea-dog if ever I heard one), but the voice is steadier and he sings with unfailing ardour, intelligence and sensitivity. Hickox and his BBC Welsh forces provide exemplary support.” Gramophone Magazine, July 2006

“Stanford's Songs of the Sea have kept the British baritone afloat for the best part of a century.
Drake's hammock and the barnacles of The Old Superb used to be familiar in parlours and drawing- rooms throughout the land. The cries of Captain Keats and his crew ('“Ship ahoy!” a hundred times a day'), the alliterative mysteries of 'Fetter and Faith … Faggot and Father' and the assurance that Drake even now was 'ware and waking' were assimilated almost as the words of folksongs, while the music seemed part of our flesh and blood. They are splendid songs, and the set of five constitutes a small masterpiece.
Sceptical readers should try them again in this new recording. Stephen Varcoe and Clifford Benson give a most sensitive performance, not emasculated but treating them thoughtfully.
The two quieter songs, 'Outward Bound' and 'Homeward Bound', become more central, better integrated, than usual, and the very fact that this is the solo version, without the male-voice chorus added later, makes it easier to hear them (the whole set) as a personal utterance. With 'Drake's Drum', for instance, Varcoe is very intent upon seeing sense, where others have often sought for little beyond a generalised patriotic earnestness. These, perhaps, are TheSongs of the Sea as Captain Edward Fairfax Vere might have sung them.
In reviewing the first volume, Michael Oliver wrote of the difficulty of reconciling the Irishman and the Brahmsian in Stanford: the melodic vein of the one seemed at odds with the harmonic language of the other. The occasions here when a dichotomy of style does cause trouble are found in the Songs of Faith. Whitman's auto-intoxication incites Stanford to indulge in grandiose gestures that aren't natural to him at all. He's much more at home with Shakespeare and Dekker, or, for that matter, with Quiller-Couch and Winifred M Letts, whose A Fire of Turf provides him with poems for some masterly settings. All are beautifully performed by these excellent artists.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Sarah Walker is the vibrant mezzo in Arne's Rule Britannia, heard in Malcolm Sargent's expert arrangement...Thomas Allen is in top voice for Stanford's briny Songs of the Sea, with the opening Drake's Drum making an unforgettable impression.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“In all these sea-faring songs Michaels-Moore's voice is richly unfurled. Stanford's settings are great fun, especially when sung and played as enthusiastically as here. As his songs do not receive the attention that they deserve, these selections fill a gap.” International Record Review, May 2013