Tell me the Truth about Love

A collection of cabaret songs by Gershwin, Britten, Weill, Hollander, Waxman, Spoliansky and Muldowney. Many of the tracks feature stunning arrangements by Philip Mayers played by ensemble Blue Noise. Philip also accompanies Mary on this CD.

Available from Sanctuary Classics

Tracklisting

1. ‘Blah, Blah, Blah (1931)’ – Gershwin, George
2. ‘Embraceable You (1930)’ – Gershwin, George
3. ‘They All Laughed (1937)’ – Gershwin, George
4. ‘Alone In A Big City (1929)’ – Waxman, Franz
5. ‘Chuck Out The Men (1926)’ – Hollaender, Friedrich
6. ‘Smart Set, The (1931)’ – Spoliansky, Mischa
7. ‘Sex Appeal (1930)’ – Hollaender, Friedrich
8. ‘Speak Low (1943)’ – Weill, Kurt
9. ‘Saga Of Jenny, The (1941)’ – Weill, Kurt
10. ‘It Never Was You (1938)’ – Weill, Kurt
11. ‘In Paris With You (1993)’ – Muldowney, Dominic
12. ‘Tell Me The Truth About Love (1938)’ – Britten, Benjamin
13. ‘Funeral Blues (1937)’ – Britten, Benjamin
14. ‘Johnny (1937)’ – Britten, Benjamin
15. ‘Calypso (1939)’ – Britten, Benjamin
16. ‘When You’re Feeling Like Expressing Your Affection (1935 or
   1936)’ – Britten, Benjamin
17. ‘Porgy and Bess: Summertime (1935)’ – Gershwin, George
18. ‘Love Is Here To Stay (1938)’ – Gershwin, George
19. ‘By Strauss (1936)’ – Gershwin, George

"The muses of the Blue Angel and the Rhapsody in Blue meet the irresistible Berlin-based ensemble Blue Noise in this imaginatively programmed disc of delicious arrangements by pianist Philip Mayers of songs from inside and outside the cabaret. Mary Carewe, whose voice travels effortlessly from contemporary classical to Broadway and Hollywood, has a sweet-toned soprano with a dash of lemon and spice: she uses it artfully to steer the gentle melancholy of a song such as Franz Waxman's Alone in a Big City, written for Marlene Dietrich in 1920s Berlin. Piano and clarinet dream their way into its song, then set up a smoke-haze for the Weill/Ogden Nash Speak Low. Dominic Muldowney meets poet James Fenton in the languidly sensual conversation of In Paris with You, written in 1993: by the side of this newcomer, Britten's Auden settings, such as Tell me the Truth about Love (which gives this disc its name) and Funeral Blues become classics of the genre. In Carewe's pungent enunciation every word shines out, which is just as well, as the album meanly and perversely comes without song-texts, though you can apparently write and request them."

Hilary Finch, The Times, 20 March 2000