Rorem: The Serpent

“The more one hears of Rorem's songs, too, the more intriguing they seem...The performances catch every drop of that naturalness, too; the disc may only scratch the surface of Rorem's songwriting (over 600 settings to date) but it crystallises its essence perfectly.” The Guardian, 19th November 2009 ****

“…this is a most attractive disc. The Prince Consort comprises five singers still young, clear and intelligent in their way with words, and their pianist-director, Alisdair Hogarth. Unusually they have a countertenor in their midst, the excellent Tim Mead, who shares the title-song, a duet, with Anna Leese, and has two of the best solos. South African baritone Jacques Imbrailo is also noteworthy: the recording brings out the individual timbre of his voice, and to him goes what I still find best of the songs, "Early in the morning".” Gramophone Magazine, February 2010

“All five singers have clearly grasped the importance of Rorem's text-based conception of song, 'poetry as expressed through the voice' and they sing - albeit in resolutely English English which can sometimes jar in Rorem's settings of poems by fellow-Americans - with an unforced lightness which brings the words to the fore.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2010 ****

"Unrecorded gems from a master songwriter, sensitively sung by Carole Farley...Carole Farley's diction is so immaculate that you will hardly need the booklet of texts, and her acute response to words must be one reason why Rorem so willingly collaborated with her on this recording... Admirers of Rorem's unique talent (I've said it before, but I'll say it again: there is simply no finer living writer of songs) will simply have to have this collection. His piano playing is beautifully supportive." - Michael Oliver Gramophone January 2002

“Seventeen of these 32 songs aren't otherwise available on disc, and they include some of Rorem's finest and most haunting. The utter simplicity that weaves a magic spell in Nantucket, the beautiful paralleling of Gerard Manley Hopkins's ecstatic imagery in Spring, the bare but deeply eloquent Such beauty as hurts to behold, the amiable contemplation of old age and possible immortality in Full of life now – all these are warmly welcome, and it's good to have for the first time a complete recording of Rorem's nine settings of Theodore Roethke. Carole Farley's diction is so immaculate that you'll hardly need the booklet of texts, and her acute response to words must be one reason why Rorem so willingly collaborated with her on this recording. About the voice itself some might have a reservation. Although Farley fines her tone down for the most part effectively her sound is basically operatic. But rejecting this disc on that account would mean foregoing the infectious lilt of The Nightingale, the amply lyrical, movingly expressive Love in a life, the beautiful long lines of Ask me no more and all the others mentioned. No, admirers of Rorem's unique talent will simply have to have this collection. His piano-playing is beautifully supportive.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010