<<  -- 2 --  Peter Dale    SMYTH'S MASS

The Mass is coupled with Mrs Water's Aria from The Boatswain's Mate. Eiddwen Harrhy sings it tenderly enough [listen -- track 8, 0:59 -- 1:53], but the piece is of very little intrinsic merit. The March of the Women has an Elgarian swagger to it, but it hardly persuades as music rather than muster call.

So we are left once again with just the occasionally played, quite often recorded, Overture to The Wreckers by which to get acquainted with Ethel Smyth. Looking her up in dictionaries (or reading the sleeve notes here) you could be forgiven for thinking that she is more interesting for her sexual politics than for her music. That may indeed be the case, but I suspect that when we eventually do get a first class performance of the Mass, it is the musician rather than the suffragette who will come out on top.

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