The British baritone's operatic heft is appreciated.I'm still waiting for Cecilia Bartoli to make a recording date with Andre Rieu or Angela Hewitt to ride the boogie-woogie train but, nevertheless, there is a steady trickle of traffic on Crossover Highway.
Only the masochistically inclined should search out the treacle-drenched soundtrack to Summer in February, written by Benjamin Wallfisch, son of cellist Raphael. Lauded as "heartbreakingly beautiful" by the Hollywood News, my soul was saddened to hear Yuja Wang, a pianist whose fingers usually roam in more illustrious musical glades, twiddling over the ivories here.
Also disappointing is 1865, by American vocal quartet Anonymous 4. These four women are best known for a catalogue of mediaeval and Renaissance music stretching back for almost a quarter-century. Despite plump packaging -- including an evocatively-illustrated (and miserably-bound) 82-page booklet -- this collection of songs from the Civil War is too rarified by far.
An acappella Tenting on the Old Camp Ground, definitely a man's song if ever there was, is too flutey-toned and precious by far.
Bruce Molsky's baritone, along with his fiddle, banjo and guitar, fleshes out the palette, but not enough to fire up Stephen Foster's Hard times come again no more for me. Check out Thomas Hampson's 1992 Foster album, with Jay Ungar and others, or sample a genuine home-style parlour singalong with the Canadian McGarrigle Sisters -- their 1998 The McGarrigle Hour is recommended.
