Helen Merrill “Love in Song” Japan cd
Arranged By – Masahiko Sato
Bass – Kenji Takamizu
Drums – Motohiko Hino
Piano, Keyboards – Masahiko Sato
Vocals – Helen Merrill
Volume III in a series where a bunch of Germans play string music of a bunch of Brits.
This one is great as it features four female composers who have gone under the radar, likely because they were female: Ethyl Smyth, Susan Spain-Dunk, Constance Warren, and Ruth Gipps (though only one 6 minute piece each by Warren and Gipps). There are some great pieces here. For my tastes I really like Susan Spain-Dunk’s Suite in B minor. The performances are lovely and the recording quality is decent if not a little muted for my liking.
In the digital book Qobuz includes there is this excellent photo of Susan Spain-Dunk:
I also love this paragraph from the book:
Ethel Smyth was a fighter – and as the daughter of
Major-General J. H. Smyth, a veteran of the Indian army
and artillery commandant at Aldershot, she shared his
military temperament if not his interests. He was hostile
to music and musical people and the whole concept of
being a composer, much less a woman composer. Ethel
achieved her ambition of studying in Leipzig by a two-
year long domestic campaign of making life at home so
intolerable for her parents they eventually agreed and
she left for Germany in July 1877.
Vittor Santos “Renovando As Consideracoes” Biscoito Fino cd
A very nicely-recorded cd from this Brazilian trombonist.
