Sample Tracks from 'Gossiana', a 1920's Anthology of Song. (2007)

Visit gossiana.moonfruit.com for further information.

Now available on Divine-Art Records. (March Release 2008)

www.divine-art.com / www.gossiana.moonfruit.com

French Anon : L'amour de moi (arranged by Hubert Foss)

Schubert : Fischerweise

Warlock : As ever I saw

Ballad: Hullabaloo Ballay (with the Goss Male Quartet)

Giles Davies and Steven Devine. (Piano - Bosendorfer Imperial)

Engineer, Andrew Graeme. Gossiana devised by Giles Davies, Copyright 2007

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Reviews of Divine Art DDA25048 (“Gossiana”)

MUSICAL OPINION:

John Goss was one of the best loved of all British singers of his time, a lyrical baritone with an exceptionally wide repertoire. He was a much admired early broadcaster and died in 1953 at the age of 62.

This fascinating CD from Divine Art attempts, with conspicuous success, to recreate his art between the wars in accordance with the style brought to them, quite often accompanied, as here, by a male voice quartet. I do not wish to appear superior, but I enjoyed this CD much more that I thought I would: here are some lovely songs by 20th-century British composers, many of whom write with Goss specifically in mind, notably by Peter Warlock and E J Moeran, alongside traditional ballads and sea songs, French and Elizabethan songs, and lieder by Mozart, Schubert and Franz.

Throughout, Giles Davies sings impeccably, with a fine sense of style, and is admirably accompanied by Steven Devine. The recording quality is also excellent, and performance notes and texts are included. This is a really delightful CD, which is wholeheartedly recommended.

Robert Matthew-Walker

Gossiana – DDA25048 (Review Extracts)

This recording is a mighty labour of love. How many of us know anything much about the singer John Goss, born in the late Victorian decade and who died in the year that her

great-granddaughter was crowned? (How Goss, a lifelong socialist, would have hated those Royal references.) The loyal but dwindling band of Warlock enthusiasts will remember him as the composer’s favourite interpreter of his songs.

However, Goss is more than a relic rescued from the ‘quaint’ world of English music making 80 years ago. In restoring his repertoire and hopefully musical reputation, the baritone Giles Davies and the Goss Male Quartet with pianist Steven Devine illuminate an important tradition in English singing that is almost lost.

So Goss sang English folk songs – Barbara Allen, Billy Boy, and the Agincourt Song – alongside Mozart, Schubert, and above all the new music of his friends Peter Warlock

and E.J.Moeran. Davies and the Goss Male Quartet have recorded a generous selection from this repertoire. If the English folk-songs tend to walk on the darker, sadder side of the tradition – The Three Ravens is as blood-chilling as anything in the repertoire – the Mozart and Schubert aren’t exactly brimming over with sunlight. Davies finds something

deeply disturbing in Totengrabers Heimweh, dropping his voice as low and as deep as the grave that Schubert’s gravedigger is excavating.

There’s sometimes something pretty nasty in the woodshed in Warlock’s songs too, giving the lie to that critical canard that English song-writing between the two World Wars was just pleasingly pastoral, ‘cowpat music’ being the term of abuse.

In Warlock’s version of O Mistress Mine, which the composer dedicated to Goss, the harmonies seem to slide us into a bluesy nightclub and as the song progresses the vocal part appears to part company with the piano writing in a most unsettling manner.

Two songs by Moeran are elegantly built out of the folk tradition, and nicely sung too,

but the real treat is Rebecca Clarke’s June Twighlight. Part of Goss’s romantic life, Clarke is scarcely a footnote in the history of English music, but hers is a distinctive voice, with adventurous vocal lines that must even have taxed Goss, for whom they were

probably written. June Twighlight was dedicated to Goss, as effectively is this CD. How sad that so few of the singer’s own recordings have survived. That is all the more reason to cherish this recording. It’s not John Goss, but it’s as near as we are likely to get to a fine and generous artist and a lost tradition of music-making.

Christopher Cook, International Record Review. June, 2008.

 John Goss (1891-1953) was one of the most important British musicians & colourful personalities of the inter-war era. Singer, scholar & a lover of life, he was adulated by the composer's whose music he championed, including Warlock, Delius & Moeran. Goss was also responsible for the revival of the British Ballad in the 1920's & together with Warlock, was the driving force in resurrecting the English Jacobean & Elizabethan Lute Song Repertoire. He was a great entertainer & an innate musician & performer.

This CD is a celebration & dedication to this wonderfully talented character & the items chosen are perhaps many that Goss himself might have included in his recitals. The 28 tracks include Early English Ballads, Elizabethan Songs, Lieder by Mozart & Schubert, English Songs (mainly by Warlock) & Traditional Ballads & Sea Songs.

For Giles Davies, this is obviously a labour of love & he manages to squeeze out all the emotional & musical expressiveness of the repertoire in question. Steven Devine & the Goss Male Quartet lend sympathetic support throughout. This is certainly a fitting tribute to one of Britain's most lovable yet astoundingly neglected artists.

Copyright © 2008 by Gerald Fenech.