For many years Irene Drummond has been a leading exponent of contemporary song in Scotland. With her partner Iain Burnside - peerless in this music - she offers a fascinating snapshot of her repertoire on this recording. From the rarified sparseness of James MacMillan, to the sustained luminosity of Paul Mealor, whose music featured in the Royal Wedding, and the emotionally charged dramatic outbursts of John McLeod, The Shadow Side explores a world of half-lights and visceral intensity.
“Irene Drummond, one of Scotland’s most attractive exponents of the contemporary repertoire” The Scotsman
“Burnside’s delightfully poetic pianism proves irresistible” Classic FM Magazine
October 2011
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“As Jane Manning has been to London's new music, so more recently Irene Drummond to Scotland's, her bright vocal timbre and agile movement the inspiration for many composers. This collection is of songs Drummond has commissioned, premiered or championed...Iain Burnside shares the credit for performances of total focus.”
October 2011
“That the range of recent Scottish song is a wide one can hardly be doubted on hearing this disc from Irene Drummond...Unfailingly attentive accompaniment from Iain Burnside and spacious but always focused sound further enhance a most desirable disc.”
Herald Scotland
19th June 2011
“This new and magnificent collection of contemporary Scots song on the Delphian label – with soprano Irene Drummond at her most breathtakingly stellar and seductive, along with the astonishingly perceptive pianist Iain Burnside – is a compelling demonstration of the care and quality our finest composers lavish on creating works which sustain and enrich that tradition.”
12th June 2011
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“The byword here is diversity, from the gratifying immediacy of James MacMillan’s Soutar Settings to Edward McGuire’s uncompromisingly modernist The Web...Irene Drummond sings endearingly, although sometimes her expressive restraint borders on reticence; and, at the piano, Iain Burnside handles everything with aplomb and insight.”
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