Latest releases reviewed

CELTIC FIDDLE FESTIVAL
Play On... Green Linnet
****

Mesmerising, plaintive, celebratory and winsome in turn, Celtic Fiddle Festival couldn't have paid a heartier tribute to their co-founder, the recently departed Johnny Cunningham, if they had tried. This was recorded live in Oregon; joined by La Bottine Souriante's wonderful fiddler, André Brunet, Kevin Burke, Christian LeMaitre and Ged Foley ratchet up the temperature as they ricochet through everything from the magnificent opening trio of Québecois tunes topped by La Bell Catherine to Jerry Holland's bequest to the Irish tradition, Stan Chapman's Jig, and onwards to a pair of Breton marchs inspiringly coupled with a French Canadian dance tune from Gaby Kerdoncuff. If sweeping, untrammelled bowhands are the stuff of your dreams, then Play On's rewards will be ample. Johnny would surely approve of its high spirits. www.greenlinnet.com

Siobhán Long

ANÚNA
The Best of Anúna Koch Records
***

Trawling through the back catalogue can be a revelatory or a dangerous act: yielding unsung gems or revealing recurrent patterns that anaesthetise rather than excite. Anúna have been honing and polishing their particular craft for long enough to warrant this 19-track retrospective, and while individually pristine, the cumulative effect is one of clinical perfection but startlingly bereft of spirit or heart. Those that work best are the modal harmonies on Anúna's own originally composed pieces and on the 17th-century Blackthorn. Michael McGlynn's dreamchild has long emerged from its crysalis and its wings are flapping noisily, as if hemmed in by the strength of Anúna's brand identity. A collection best suited to the dilettante who craves a surface-level reading of choral music at its most highly evolved.

[ www.anuna.ieOpens in new window ]

Siobhán Long