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"This is billed as a children's album, and though described as "a bedtime collection of traditional songs and classical tunes", is probably unlikely to send you to sleep even though it includes versions of famous cradle-songs by Grieg and Schubert alongside Golden Slumbers, Over The Hills And Far Away, Hush-a-Bye-Baby and, to open proceedings, a particularly beautiful version of Lavender's Blue. There's even a movement from one of Vivaldi's concerti (the lovely one in G for two mandolins, RV532), and I think that the entire concerto could easily have fitted snugly into place on this CD and sounded good.
Simon and Hilary do play more instruments than just mandolins on this album, however, in case you're worried! They turn in renditions that are endearingly informal, and affectionate and warm rather than cloyingly sentimental, and the whole album is tasteful and entertaining.
With its refreshing lack of condescension (ie not patronising its audience in the slightest) it's every bit as satisfying as [their current album for adults] Laughing With The Moon, and it would certainly prove a genuinely charming gift for any musically-inclined young person you know who's not fixated with pop culture."
David Kidman
Hilary James & Simon Mayor
c/o Acoustics Records
PO Box 350, Reading RG6 7DQ, England
+44 (0)118 926 8615
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