Special offer. Buxton Orr: Songs
Nicky Spence (tenor), Iain Burnside (piano)
There’s no denying the virtuoso deftness of Orr’s settings for voice and solo double-bass (about the most technically difficult medium any composer could opt for)...and the performances here...
Special offer. Buxton Orr: Songs
Nicky Spence (tenor), Iain Burnside (piano)
Purchase product
There’s no denying the virtuoso deftness of Orr’s settings for voice and solo double-bass (about the most technically difficult medium any composer could opt for)...and the performances here...
About
When Nicky Spence was first shown the score to ‘The Boy in the Train’, the last of Buxton Orr’s Songs of a Childhood, he was transported to the late 1980s – his own childhood in Scotland. ‘Something about Buxton’s sense of humour, excitement and honesty resonated with me,’ Spence says, ‘and fed my desire to discover more about his work. On contacting his widow, I was led to a treasure trove of unrecorded works for voice.’ Sometimes thrillingly complex and always beautiful, and given character and verve by Orr’s delightful setting of the Scots language, this rich body of work has finally found a worthy modern-day advocate. In his sensitive and intelligent curating of this programme, Spence has brought together artists from Delphian’s roster – pianist Iain Burnside and members of the Edinburgh Quartet enjoy themselves in music that is firmly ‘home ground’.
Contents and tracklist
- Tristan Gurney (violin), Gordon Bragg (viola), Mark Bailey (cello), Jordan Black (clarinet), Nicky Spence (tenor)
- Recorded: 18-22 April 2016
- Recording Venue: Crear, Argyll, Scotland
- Nikita Naumov (double bass), Nicky Spence (tenor)
- Recorded: 18-22 April 2016
- Recording Venue: Crear, Argyll, Scotland
- Nicky Spence (tenor), Iain Burnside (piano)
- Recorded: 18-22 April 2016
- Recording Venue: Crear, Argyll, Scotland
Spotlight on this release
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Nicky Spence on Buxton Orr
4th Apr 2017
Katherine talks to the Scottish tenor about unearthing the songs of the Glasgow-born composer for his new disc on Delphian.
Awards and reviews
June 2017
There’s no denying the virtuoso deftness of Orr’s settings for voice and solo double-bass (about the most technically difficult medium any composer could opt for)...and the performances here are consistently fine; tenor Nicky Spence has a lot of words to get through, does so with nicely pointed fluency, and conjures a pretty decent Scots accent also.
May 2017
Performances are first-rate. Tenor Nicky Spence sings with unstinting eloquence and receives characteristically immaculate support from Iain Burnside. The other instrumental contributions are also of the highest quality. Everyone involved with this rewarding release can be very proud of their efforts.
2nd March 2017
Nicky Spence is the first singer to record a full disc of his songs and it’s a revelation. Imagine a gentler, quirkier Britten with dabblings in 12-tone technique and old Scots poems set to generous vocal lines and off-piste instrumentation...Spence himself sounds terrific throughout – nimble, direct, deftly playful and expressive with the text.
10th March 2017
Orr’s music has heavy tints of Britten, but has its own quirky colour and, sometimes, a harder edge...[it is] can have a brittle and rather relentless quality, but it is humanised by Spence’s emotional honesty and warmth of expression.
Herald Scotland 17th February 2017
The diversity of his art songs is quite astonishing...Beautifully captured at Crear in Argyll by Delphian's Paul Baxter...a superb showcase for Buxton Orr.
