O'Carolan's Compositions

Pascal Bournet has done a nice job in arranging these ten O'Carolan tunes for guitar solo. The spirit of the music has not been diminished in any way by over-zealous harmonisatIon (this seems to happen a lot with this particular composer) and Bournet has seemingly approached this with a folk-traditionalist's ear rather than a 'classical' one. There are some little gems amongst the list with the two Bridget Cruise pieces (second and fourth airs) and Miss Murphy vying for first place. Then there is the inevitable Sheebeg and Sheemore, possibly O'Carolan's most famous hit. Others in the album are Miss Murphy, Mrs Anne MacDermott Roe, Mrs Bermingham, Madam Maxwell, The Clergy's Lamentation, Carolan's Draught and Sir Charles Coote. The album is weIl presented and each piece has a brief historical note about it.
(Steve Marsh, Classical Guitar Magazine, June 2002)