Two Songs from 12 Irish Airs - Beethoven

Four Last Songs - Strauss

Four Songs from Chants d'Auvergne - Canteloube

Two Songs - Head

Four Spirituals - arr. Burleigh

When is a folk song not a folk song? Answer: when it is arranged. Franzita Whelan's generous selection of arrangements was probably intended to show that there is a place for folk songs, arranged, in the concert hall, up there beside Strauss's Four Last Songs; but folk song and art song make uneasy partners. The simplicity of the folk song does not take kindly to the tricks of the singer's trade.

It is interesting to hear Beethoven's settings of Irish airs, because they are by Beethoven, and Strauss's Four Last Songs offer a challenge worthy of any soprano, but the songs that justified the programme were the ones that had the least touch of the concert hall - and they turned out to be Canteloube's Chants d'Auvergne. The piano accompaniment is far less opulent than the more familiar orchestral version, and the tunes and homely words are paramount. They were delivered with a welcome rhythmic steadiness, unalloyed by diminuendos or rallentandos, and the unaffected lyrics of the countryside were true to type.

The Spirituals were delivered with dramatic force and might have been very powerful were it not that Burleigh's accompaniments are so anodyne. Of this group only Ride On, King Jesus really impressed and that was because Franzita Whelan threw caution to the winds and made it a stirring marching song, unsubtle but irresistible. The two songs by Michael Head were introduced into last Monday's programme unexpectedly: they had a pastel charm, but seemed out of place among the folk songs.