Brian Boru

Alan Stivell | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 24, 1996)
• Original Release Date: September 24, 1996
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Dreyfus
• ASIN: B000001ZSN
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #391,729 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Brian Boru

2. Let the Plinn

3. Mná Na Héireann

4. Ye Banks and Braes

5. Mairi's Wedding

6. Cease Fire

7. De' Ha Bla'

8. Sword Dance

9. Parlamant Lament

10. Lands of My Fathers

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Strange? Brilliant? Uneven? All of the Above!, August 22, 1998

By 

Andrew Carey (Newtown, CT, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brian Boru (Audio CD)

As with much of Alan Stivell's work, this is a decidedly odd album. In some tracks, this makes for brilliant listening. In others, unfortunately, it crashes and burns. The most notable example is the version of "Mna/ na hE/ireann," which is not bad instrumentally but is utterly destroyed by Stivell's act of butchery against the Irish language. In ainm Croim! The man's a Breton-speaker, is he not? One would think his sense of pan-Celtic brotherhood would lead him to at least try to not abuse and distort another member of the family. The same problem devastates the track "Cease Fire" as well. That said, much of the instrumental work is brilliant. And in "Brian Boru," the one verse of Stivell's mutilated Irish is made tolerable by Ma/ire Breatnach (IIRC) singing a lovely setting of two verses from Caitli/n Maude's "Amhra/n Gra/ Vi/tnam," ("Vietnam Lovesong") a gorgeous testament to love in wartime. Of course, this has almost nothing to do with the tenth century High King of Ireland and ancestor of the Clann Ui/ Bhri/ain, but it _is_ beautiful. In many ways that odd juxtaposition sums up this album: quite lovely, but it makes little sense.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Alan does it again, September 8, 2009

By 

Shimon de Valencia (Kallangur, Qld AUSTRALIA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Brian Boru (Audio CD)

Though this lacks the strident political overtones of his earlier music, it shows Alan Stivell to be as alive and vibrant as ever. Though my Gaelic is very rusty, I was able to enjoy this album and have found myself even humming quite a few of the tracks.

This album would please the more mainstream listener who would like an introduction to Keltica. And Alan Stivell is one of the great voices whose haunting singing, and etherial harp playing move through us like "The Winds of Keltia".