As a composer Donald Swann was more prolific, more varied, than might be imagined from those who only know him as half of the Flanders and Swann comedy duo. Fascinated by the Greek islands and particularly Casos, on which he found both peace and disquiet, he used Greek folksong and popular melodies as the basis for these joyful yet thoughtful songs, orchestrated by John Jansson.

BONUS: The Casos Sonnets, which form a separate subset, were never performed in Donald’s lifetime. We are very fortunate to have secured a tape of these pieces, made by Donald for his own use on his beloved Blüthner piano at his Battersea home, and the download includes this rare and valuable recording.

‘…a wonderful excursion – beautifully conducted, sung, and played – into forthrightly tonal music and poetry that are disarmingly direct and simplistic… Each day I go down to my word processor, hell-bent on achieving my self-imposed quota, and each day I instead cue up this CD to hear just a few tracks, and find myself once again helplessly sitting there, mesmerised, until it’s over.’

William Zagorski, Fanfare

‘The three singers, admirable in their clarity of diction and delivery, are all well suited to this repertoire and they are accompanied by a chamber orchestra, a solo soprano saxophone contributing some evocative moments. Divine Art’s relatively small catalogue has afforded several items of unusual interest, many of them British. This is certainly one of them and I am happy to give it a warm recommendation.’

Phil Scowcroft, MusicWeb

*****

As a composer Donald Swann was more prolific, more varied, than might be imagined from those who only know him as half of the Flanders and Swann comedy duo. Fascinated by the Greek islands and particularly Casos, on which he found both peace and disquiet, he used Greek folksong and popular melodies as the basis for these joyful yet thoughtful songs, orchestrated by John Jansson.

BONUS: The Casos Sonnets, which form a separate subset, were never performed in Donald’s lifetime.  We are very fortunate to have secured a tape of these pieces, made by Donald for his own use on his beloved Bluthner piano at his Battersea home, and this CD includes this rare and valuable recording.