Customer Reviews

Songs of Scotland / Marie McLaughlin · Malcolm Martineau

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I do not wish to be too harsh on this album...there is nothing glaringly wrong with it. My main quibble is with the title: "Songs of Scotland." These songs may well be "from" Scotland...but they are not "of Scotland."

The music on "Songs of Scotland" is great--as long as you are looking for very English, semi-operatic readings of these Scottish songs.

Mrs. McLaughlin (an opera singer) sings beautifully; but in the style she is most accustomed too. Mr. Martineau certainly knows his way around a piano and as with Mrs. McLaughlin's singing, I find no fault in his playing here.

My quibble, which may well be minor to some...was that I expected much more "Scottish" sounding renditions of these songs; in this regard, I was disappointed.

This disc is OK in and of itself...recommendable even...but consider yourself warned. Now you know what you'll be getting.

I actually haven't taken this CD out of the player since I got it. In my humble opinion. Hyperion is the classiest label going; in fact, I'll buy Hyperion CDs even without being familiar with the singers, because I trust the producers. I saw this CD classified in the folk section at the library--but I knew better. Marie McLaughlin is a real singer, not a folk singer, and she does justice to these beautiful songs. I'd rather hear a classically trained singer sing folk songs than a folk singer sing anything.