Arthur Reckless (baritone)
BBC Theatre Chorus
(Chorus-Master, John Clements )
BBC Theatre Orchestra
(Leader, Alfred Barker )
Conducted by Clifton Helllwell
Stanford
Overture: Shamus O'Brien
Songs of the Fleet: Sailing at Dawn;
The Song of the Sou'-wester; The Middle Watch; The Little Admiral; Farewell
Irish Rhapsody No. 1. In D minor
Gerald Abraham once wrote of Stanford's ' Songs of the Fleet ': The frank, rousing balladry of ' The Song of the Sou'-wester ' and ' The Little Admiral ' admirably matches Newbolt's robust verse; 'Farewell' soon drops to the level of Newbolt's sentiment. But the music of 'Sailing at Dawn' and 'The Middle Watch' has a poetry that the words do not possess. It has flashes of evocative magic. The melody of 'Sailing at Dawn' may be only a good lilting tune, but the misty sheen of the very simple orchestral accompaniment calls up for me with extraordinary power just the picture the composer wished to evoke: the quiet breathing of the sea at dawn and the line of great grey battleships silently gliding.