Jacqueline Schwab
and Laura Risk
CELTIC DIALOGUE
Dorian 90264
visit Jacqueline's website
visit Laura's website
also available on amazon
Rarely does magic happens, and when it does you feel blessed just to be listening, this is one of those infrequent occasions when the sorcery was captured. The aural pleasure held on this disc is music I feel privileged to hear. It is at once divine and joyous, at other times the searing pain and anguish that are inevitable with the passage of time are manifest, and then it quickly rolls into a vivacious and rollicking romp through the hills and dales of the lands that make up the Celtic world. Portraying the entire gamut that is life in a way that is so honest that you feel this pain and this joy as if they were your own. What is most unique about this disc is that it draws the pictures of what they are playing in your mind. Not just when you shut your eyes and let your mind go with the music, but even when otherwise engaged the accounts they are etching with their playing are emerging in your mind. This disc is an absolute delight. It is propelled by the powerful and rhythmic fiddle of Laura Risk, and in a more subtle and filling way by the extremely sensitive and provocative piano playing of Jacqueline Schwab. This is a duet that sounds as if it were a whole orchestra with the completeness of their sound. They allow each other to take off from the scripted music and take it to a finer and more ethereal level. Before you conjure up a picture of a weakness with this word be forewarned that this is music that contains the lightness and emotionality of the ballet with the force and power of a Tai Chi master. This is achingly beautiful music that even when portraying remorse brings a smile to the face with its beauty. I am looking forward with the eager anticipation of an addict to an encore. Rarely has a disc held my attention this way.
Produced by - Ronn McFarlane
Songs, times and when possible writers (most of the songs are eighteenth-centuary Scottish tunes)
1 UP TAILS A' - 3:51
2 MY NANNY O - 4:46 - words Allan Ramsay
3 A WIFE OF MY AIN - 2:46 - words by Robert Burns
4 SHE'S SWEETEST WHEN SHE'S NAKED - 2:52 -
5 DUSTY MILLER - 2:40 -
6 JOHNNIE FAA - 4:21 -
7 THE COLLIER'S DAUGHTER - 3:27
8 ROBAIDH DONNA GORACH - 5:23
9 THE HIGHLANDER'S FAREWELL - 2:03
10 LADY JEAN LINDSAY'S MINUET - 2:36 - DANIEL DOW
11 JOHNNIE COPE - 4:55 -
12 GOWD ON YOUR GARTENS, MARION - 5:14 -
13 MINUET IN A -with variations - 2:54 - William McGibbon
14 WELCOME HOME, MY DEARIE - 1:42 -
15 MISS CARMICHAEL'S MINUET - 4:09 -
16 CUMHA NA CLOINNE - 3:33 - Patrick Mor MacCrimmon
17 OLD SIR SYMON THE KING - 5:00 - Henry Purcell
18 THROUGH THE WOOD, LADDIE - 4:48 - William McGibbon
Musicians
Laura Risk - Fiddle
Jacqueline Schwab - Piano