To Carl Michael with Love

To Carl Michael with Love

("being a flowery garland of songs by Carl Michael Bellman and of the English countryside")
Martin Best Consort
EMI Records Sweden 4E 062-35255 (LP)

Contents:

Side One

1. Elegy for Movitz
2. Away We Trot
3. Pastorale
4. Ulla, My Ulla
5. So Screw Up the Fiddle
6. Never An Iris
7. Cradle Song
8. Song at Nightfall
9. Away We Trot (reprise)

Side Two

1. Nightingales Sing (trad. arr. Martin Best)
2. The Starwort (James Oswald, realised Jeremy Barlow)
3. The Seeds of Love (trad. arr. Martin Best)
4. The Heartsease (James Oswald, realised Jeremy Barlow)
5. The Daisy (James Oswald, realised Jeremy Barlow)
6. Who is Silvia? (Shakespeare / Martin Best)
7. Trio: Still'd is the Hasty Wave
8. Up, Amaryllis
9. Haga

Martin Best (song, guitar)
Colin Bilham (contrabass, viola da gamba)
Jeremy Barlow (flute, recorder, organ)
Julian Byzantine (guitar)
Alastair McLachlan (violin, viola, mandoline)
Christopher Lebon (cello)

Released 1975

Titles 1-9 (side one) and 7-9 (side two):
Words and music by Carl Michael Bellman (1740-1795), arrangements by Martin Best.

Tracks included in the CD compilation To Carl Michael with Love.

"To Carl Michael with Love" was recorded in Stockholm and released only in Sweden. The 'songs of the English countryside' which appear on side two, while charming, lead to a slight loss of focus. Perhaps the Consort did not have enough of Bellman's repertoire at their disposal to devote an entire album to him. Nevertheless, these arrangements of Bellman's songs are beautifully realised.

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