I spoke too soon yesterday.

Today’s CD sounds as lugubrious as the first one I didn’t care for a few days ago.

I believe it’s the tempo that does me in.

These songs seem more melancholy than yesterday’s. So their tempo is slower.

Therefore, the tunes sound more like church hymns than rousing Scottish songs about wee lads and naughty lasses and tankards of ale and moors and whatever else the Scots sing about that I love so much.

Or, maybe not church hymns. Maybe less about the aforementioned wee lads and bonnie lasses and more about lost loves and faraway lands. I can dig such songs as well as the next Scotsman. But not entire CDs of them. (By the way, that’s why I think the first Hobbit movie was such a dud. If people had to hear one more interminable, droning song about misty mountains and dungeons and gold they would have jammed soda straws in their ears. A little goes a long way.)

Today’s selection of songs again features soprano Lorna Anderson and tenor Jamie MacDougall, both of whom actually are Scottish. They have fine voices.

The music is terrific, provided by the Haydn Trio Eisenstadt, which consists of:

Harald Kosik piano
Verena Stourzh violin
Hannes Gradwohl cello

As with the previous CDs of Scottish Songs for George Thomson, this one was recorded where it was likely first performed, or even composed: Haydn Hall, Esterhazy Palace, Eisenstadt.

I couldn’t find a post of this CD on YouTube. So you’ll just have to imagine it. Or buy it and listen to it yourself. It’s not bad music. In fact, it’s quite nicely done. It’s just not my cup of tea.

Or tankard of ale.