Frank McNamara - The Irish Tenors / McNamara, McDermott, Kearns, Tynan

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Music reviews of The Irish Tenors / McNamara, McDermott, Kearns, Tynan

Music Review: Oh, that the angels in heaven will sound as sweet!
Rating: 5 Stars

This album is a recording of a live performance in Dublin in October 1998. As such, there are minor "hiccups" in the harmonies and phrasing of lines in some of the ensemble pieces, as each singer adds his own interpretation to the songs. Such minor glitches, however, are more than made up by the incredible passion, joy and pathos in each of the solo efforts.

Ronan Tynan transports the listener back in time to revisit the birth of love "When you were Sweet Sixteen", and John McDermott's "Voyage" is one of the tenderest tales of marital bliss you will ever hear. Anthony Kearns conveys the feeling of the agony of impending death and the loss of a future of love as he sings to the beloved "Grace".

The poet, Sara Teasdale, wrote, "Spend all you have for loveliness, Buy it and never count the cost." I, for one, am putting my money where my mouth is, persuading as many friends as I can to buy this CD, offering to buy it back from them if they do not like it! (But no, that's not a general offer!)

My only criticism, if it can be called that, is the lack of writing credits for the songs. Many are traditional Irish ballads, but in New York, where the three tenors appeared at a local PBS station during the pledge drive, viewers learned that Phil Coulter, another Irish singer/songwriter, had written "The Town I Loved So Well" and "Only the Rivers Run Free". As a result, I plan to search out other works by this very talented songwriter. It would have been nice to know a bit of the history of the other songs, as well.

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