Notes and Editorial Reviews
Irish flutist James Galway, the top-selling performer of modern times on the instrument, released his Wings of Song CD in the fall of 2004. Some observers felt the album would give Galway fans more of what they'd been wanting for nearly three decades now. Others pointed to the musician's move to the Deutsche Grammophon label, where he began his recording career as a member of the Berlin Philharmonic under Herbert von Karajan in the 1970s. "I feel like I'm 'back in,' if you like," Galway himself is quoted as saying in the booklet notes.
Neither of these perspectives really gets to the heart of what's going on here. Galway's runaway success has certainly been due in part to his remarkably sweet and consistent tone on
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the flute; one indication of his abilities here is his skill in transferring his characteristic sound to the much less forgiving tin whistle on the traditional tune "The Dawning of the Day." Galway has also stayed on top of the crossover game by virtue of a knack for finding material with a real common touch. He nods here to one of his earlier smash recordings with a remake of "Annie," originally recorded by John Denver, and he jumps on the Lord of the Rings bandwagon with a suite composed especially for him by Howard Shore. The rest of the pieces on Wings of Song are familiar classical melodies, among them "Casta diva" from Bellini's Norma, Offenbach's Barcarolle from The Tales of Hoffmann, and the Pie Jesu from the Fauré Requiem. Galway is accompanied here by the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Klauspeter Seibel, and on a few numbers by the grandly designated Lady Jeanne Galway.
The canniest move Sir James makes here is to put himself at the services of a pop producer who ties everything together into a neat package in a way that hadn't been done with his earlier releases. That producer, Craig Leon, was among the early nurturers of the careers of Blondie, the Ramones, and the Talking Heads, and he helmed various other releases ranging from new wave to roots rock to country. Leon did all the arrangements for Wings of Song, as he did for Joshua Bell's hit release, Romance of the Violin. The two albums resemble each other strongly, and fans of one will doubtless enjoy the other. Leon, without writing the same arrangement every time, makes a homogeneous group out of quite a varied set of tunes; tempos are pushed toward a golden mean, and the album has a consistent sound no matter where you dip into it. It's category-killer classical music, tastefully served up for an age of immaculate consumption, and nobody carries it off better than James Galway.
-- James Mannheim, AllMusic.com Read less
Works on This Recording
1.
Pavane pour une infante défunte by Maurice Ravel
Performer:
James Galway (Flute)
Conductor:
Klauspeter Seibel
Orchestra/Ensemble:
London Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1899; France
Date of Recording: 06/2004
Venue: EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London
Length: 6 Minutes 11 Secs.
Notes: Arranger: Craig Leon.
2.
Gymnopédies (3) for Piano: no 3, Lent et grave by Erik Satie
Performer:
James Galway (Flute)
Conductor:
Klauspeter Seibel
Orchestra/Ensemble:
London Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1888; France
Date of Recording: 06/2004
Venue: EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London
Length: 2 Minutes 47 Secs.
Notes: Arranger: Craig Leon.
3.
Ellens Gesang III, D 839/Op. 52 no 6 "Ave Maria" by Franz Schubert
Performer:
Moray Welsh (Cello),
James Galway (Flute)
Conductor:
Klauspeter Seibel
Orchestra/Ensemble:
London Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1825; Vienna, Austria
Date of Recording: 06/2004
Venue: EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London
Length: 4 Minutes 27 Secs.
Notes: Arranger: Craig Leon.
4.
The dawning of the day by Traditional
Performer:
James Galway (Pennywhistle)
Conductor:
Klauspeter Seibel
Orchestra/Ensemble:
London Symphony Orchestra
Date of Recording: 06/2004
Venue: EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London
Length: 4 Minutes 35 Secs.
Notes: Arranger: Craig Leon.
5.
Concierto de Aranjuez for Guitar: 2nd movement, Adagio by Joaquin Rodrigo
Performer:
James Galway (Flute)
Conductor:
Klauspeter Seibel
Orchestra/Ensemble:
London Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1939; Spain
Date of Recording: 06/2004
Venue: EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London
Length: 7 Minutes 29 Secs.
Notes: This arrangement is titled "En Aranjuez con tu amor."
Arranger: Craig Leon.
7.
Samson et Dalila, Op. 47: Mon coeur s'ouvre ŕ ta voix by Camille Saint-Saëns
Performer:
James Galway (Flute)
Conductor:
Klauspeter Seibel
Orchestra/Ensemble:
London Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1877; France
Date of Recording: 06/2004
Venue: EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London
Length: 6 Minutes 16 Secs.
Notes: Arranger: Craig Leon.
8.
Norma: Casta diva by Vincenzo Bellini
Performer:
James Galway (Flute)
Conductor:
Klauspeter Seibel
Orchestra/Ensemble:
London Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1831; Italy
Date of Recording: 06/2004
Venue: EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London
Length: 5 Minutes 4 Secs.
Notes: Arranger: Craig Leon.
9.
Requiem, Op. 48: Pie Jesu by Gabriel Fauré
Performer:
James Galway (Flute)
Conductor:
Klauspeter Seibel
Orchestra/Ensemble:
London Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1888 rev 1893; France
Date of Recording: 06/2004
Venue: EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London
Length: 3 Minutes 17 Secs.
Notes: Arranger: Craig Leon.
10.
Les contes d'Hoffmann: Barcarolle by Jacques Offenbach
Performer:
Jeanne Galway (Flute),
James Galway (Flute)
Conductor:
Klauspeter Seibel
Orchestra/Ensemble:
London Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1881; Paris, France
Date of Recording: 06/2004
Venue: EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London
Length: 2 Minutes 43 Secs.
Notes: Arranger: Craig Leon.
11.
Wesendonck Lieder: no 1, Der Engel by Richard Wagner
Performer:
James Galway (Flute)
Conductor:
Klauspeter Seibel
Orchestra/Ensemble:
London Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1857-1858; Germany
Date of Recording: 06/2004
Venue: EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London
Length: 2 Minutes 47 Secs.
Notes: Arranger: Craig Leon.
12.
Orfeo ed Euridice: Che farň senza Euridice? by Christoph W. Gluck
Performer:
James Galway (Flute)
Conductor:
Klauspeter Seibel
Orchestra/Ensemble:
London Symphony Orchestra
Period: Classical
Written: 1762/1774; Vienna, Austria
Date of Recording: 06/2004
Venue: EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London
Length: 4 Minutes 30 Secs.
Notes: Arranger: Craig Leon.
13.
Quartet for Strings no 12 in F major, Op. 96/B 179 "American": Lento by Antonín Dvorák
Performer:
Moray Welsh (Cello),
James Galway (Flute)
Conductor:
Klauspeter Seibel
Orchestra/Ensemble:
London Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1893; USA
Date of Recording: 06/2004
Venue: EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London
Length: 8 Minutes 30 Secs.
Notes: Arranger: Craig Leon.
14.
Songs (5), Op. 49: no 4, Wiegenlied by Johannes Brahms
Performer:
James Galway (Flute)
Conductor:
Klauspeter Seibel
Orchestra/Ensemble:
London Symphony Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1868; Austria
Date of Recording: 06/2004
Venue: EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London
Length: 2 Minutes 20 Secs.
Notes: Arranger: Craig Leon.
15.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - Theme by Howard Shore
Performer:
James Galway (Pennywhistle),
James Galway (Flute)
Conductor:
Klauspeter Seibel
Orchestra/Ensemble:
London Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 2001; USA
Date of Recording: 06/2004
Venue: EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London
Length: 6 Minutes 45 Secs.
Notes: Arranger: Craig Leon.
16.
Annie's Song by John Denver
Performer:
James Galway (Flute)
Conductor:
Klauspeter Seibel
Orchestra/Ensemble:
London Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: USA
Date of Recording: 06/2004
Venue: EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London
Length: 2 Minutes 58 Secs.
Notes: Arranger: Craig Leon.
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