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CD REVIEW: The Pedrick-Hutson Guitar Duo – The Seas Are Deep
By Jane Eamon - 04/13/2006 - 12:34 AM EDT
Artist: The Pedrick
Album: Hutson Guitar Duo - The Seas Are Deep
CD Review:
Imagine a festive party in medieval Italy with ladies-in-waiting and bejewelled courtiers bowing low. Imagine a mist rising off the cliffs in Ireland with a wind just beginning to blow. Beautiful, colorful, mournful and wistful memories of an older time all in the same breath.
It’s easy to do when listening to the music of The Pedrick-Hutson Guitar Duo on their 3rd CD release, The Seas Are Deep. The CD is a collection of 17 tunes called the “music of Turlough O’Carolan,” played flawlessly by two ‘master’ classical guitarists, David Pedrick and Jeremy Hutson.
The technical skill on this CD is beautiful as the two guitars weave a wee bit of Irish magic. I’m partial to a minor key and was not surprised that my fave songs were the title track, The Seas Are Deep/All Alive and Lament for Owen Roe O’Neill.
It’s a CD that baroque guitar lovers will want to listen to. It’s the perfect backdrop for soft lights and wine. You can imagine all sorts of things as the tunes tell their tales. Carolan was known as one of the last of the great oral practitioners marrying folk music with Italian baroque music. It was traditionally played on a harp and for Carolan, blinded at a young age, playing the harp became a 40 year career earning him the title, the “national composer of Ireland.”
I wanted to write that I was looking for a little more variety in the music. I wanted to say that as an example of skill, it was excellent, but as pure entertainment? I wanted to mention that I would have liked a little bit more instrumentation. Then I read the liner notes. All of these questions were asked by the duo as they recorded. And they chose to present Carolan’s music as a whole. No frills, no gimmicks, just the music. I like that. I like that integrity. I like that honesty in music. It’s refreshing. No compromise.
I‘d recommend the CD. It’s well played. For more info on the Pedrick-Hutson Guitar Duo, their website is www.pedrickhutsonduo.com.
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