One of the most beautiful of records; if the repertoire appeals it will be pretty useless to await a better performance or production of it...

One of the most beautiful of records; if the repertoire appeals it will be pretty useless to await a better performance or production of it than this.

REVIEW:

One of the most beautiful of records; if the repertoire appeals it will be pretty useless to await a better performance or production of it than this.

There are tenors who not only could but would scream any guitarist into inaudibility. Ian Partridge is not one of them, indeed I would never hope to hear a gentler, more affecting style applied to the repertoire concerned. I was not familiar with the Finnish guitarist Jukka Savijoki, but I know now that he is among the most sensitive of accompanists, as well as a soloist of great skill, style and artistry.

Much of the record's program is indeed written for solo guitar, exploited with great skill by Britten and a little less expectedly, but no less convincingly, by Lennox Berkeley. The combined skills of both performers and writers (whether composing or arranging) offer continuous delight to any listener who is not positively antipathetic to the repertoire concerned. Or perhaps even if he is, but is prepared to be won over by the shared magic of the combined performers and composers.

The magic is conveyed by a faultless recording and helped along by a most informative booklet. The spelling of the ''dear'' who was shot is, I believe, quite correct: not the animal, but the loved human, in a sense that survives, still, in the now rather dated usage ''my dear''.

-- Gramophone [1/1993]