June Tabor

Lodged somewhere between the European art song and British folk, we find the June Tabor of recent years. This 12-song suite is built on a common theme of the rose in all its connotations over the past 400 years or so. Tabor sings in German and French, but mostly in English, performing songs as rich as Robert Burns’ “O My Love’s Like a Red Red Rose.” The setting of piano, cello, violin and viola merges folk melody with chamber arrangement. All quite seamless and lovely, but is that enough to be compelling? By the sixth tune my ears were tuning out, only alerted briefly by that chestnut of tragic folk ballads, “Barbry Ellen,” with its full 16 verses in Ritchie Family style and nice rumbly piano. The selections and arrangements have a textual sameness that does not allow Tabor room to exhibit her considerable interpretive skills, as she successfully did on her more varied 2000 release, A Quiet Eye.