I assumed this would be Scottish but one lives and one learns: “Tales of the Glens” is a journey through Ireland’s Glens of Antrim, Capparelli playing compositions by Hammond.
The centrepiece of the album is work for pianist and storyteller, “Tales from the Sea of Moyle”, and I guess this would be make or break for how often anyone would play / if they would buy the album – it is 50 minutes long, a mix of dialogue and playing to evoke the mood of what is being narrated.
Liz Weir and Colin Urwin tell the tales. I’m a big fan of Irish radio station documentary series (Doc on One, check it out) as much for the lilting accents as the fascinating tales and eccentric people (and of itinerant storyteller Ian Douglas, who can be seen locally), and while Urwin’s melodious tone stands repeat plays, I initially found Weir less so.
However: repeated plays means you get into the stories, and repetition of much-loved old tales does not lead to weariness but instead something new being discovered each time.
The first section of the CD is music and as I got more into the stories, the tunes seemed to carry less import. Capparelli’s playing, as it is throughout, is sensitive and conveys a depth of feeling, and the tunes are all nice (in the nicest sense of the word nice). Mostly not what you’d leap out and call Celtic, more music that conveys an image of rural countryside. It includes one piece by Ireland’s earliest celebrated composer, the blind harpist Turlough O’Carolan.
The stories are solid tales of the world between ours and the mystic universe we abut: dwellers beneath the sea, people turned into wolves and a woman who gets a job on a lonely, mysterious island for seven years and then regrets leaving.
This is out on Divine Art, ddx 21125.
