A Quiet Thing: Songs for Voice & Guitar

• Main performer: Craig Ogden
• Booklet languages: English
• Time: 64:06
• Release Date: 2003

Review

It may take a while to wrap your ears around A Quiet Thing. Afterall, how often do you hear a countertenor sing Harold Arlen, let alone on the same album with John Dowland and Bellini? But David Daniels is a stylistically nimble and unfailingly musical performer, and a singer in the fullest sense -- not just a niche voice best confined to Handel and Monteverdi. Here, he and guitarist Craig Ogden deliver an intimate duet program of songs from all over the map, and while not every track succeeds equally, all are lovingly performed, finely detailed, and beautifully sung. Daniels uses some less "legit" vocal colors in the Broadway selections, and manages to find just the right tone for each of the three Bellini songs. The Spanish selections bring out the unusual richness and warmth of his singing, and Gabriel Mena's A la caza gives Ogden the welcome opportunity to let loose with rich chords. The most successful track on the album is the anonymous Shenandoah, arranged by Roland Chadwick; the pointed harmonics of the guitar and a soulful delivery combine to great effect. Ogden arranged all of the other selections himself, and he plays his very idiomatic transcriptions beautifully, adapting to the differing styles and moods at will. A Quiet Thing was recorded in two different rooms, and the acoustical differences are readily audible. Also, a few spots reveal an uncharacteristically covered, almost diffuse quality to Daniels' voice; hopefully in his quest to broaden his (and listeners') horizons, he will not leave behind the crystalline singing that made him such a star. ~ Allen Schrott, Rovi

Performances

Composer	Title	Time
John Kander	A Quiet Thing (from "Flora, The Red Menace")	4:39
Alec Wilder	Blackberry Winter for voice & piano	4:34
Leonard Bernstein	So Pretty, song for voice & piano	2:26
Harold Arlen	My Shining Hour, song (for the film "The Sky's the Limit")	4:04
Francisco de la Torre	Pámpano Verde	2:36
Juan de Anchieta	Con amores, la mi madre for 4 voices	2:37
Gabriel Mena	A la caça, sus a caça, song	1:39
John Dowland	Come again, sweet love doth now invite, for 4 voices & lute (First Book of Songs)	2:24
John Dowland	Flow, my tears, fall from your springs, for 2 voices & lute (Second Book of Songs)	4:40
Henry Purcell	Music for a While (from "Oedipus"), song, Z. 583/2	3:46
Vincenzo Bellini	Vaga luna, che inargenti, song for voice & piano	3:59
Vincenzo Bellini	Malinconia, ninfa gentile for voice & piano (6 ariette da camera)	1:41
Vincenzo Bellini	Ma rendi pur contento, song for voice & piano (6 ariette da camera)	2:33
Charles Gounod	Ave Maria, for voice & piano (after Bach's Prelude No. 1 from the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1)	2:36
Leonard Bernstein	A Simple Song, for voice & piano (from "Mass")	3:59
Franz Schubert	Ellens Gesang III ("Ave Maria"), song for voice & piano, D. 839 (Op. 52/6)	4:31
Stephen Foster	Beautiful Dreamer, for voice & piano	3:00
American Traditional	Shenandoah, folk song	4:30
Padre Giovanni Battista Martini	Work(s) (Plaisir d'amour)	3:52

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