I emailed too, Manitas, and have received the following reply from an extremely helpful lady by the name of Jacqui Barr.

This is what she says.

All music was composed by John Keane specifically for the show, with exception to the 'folk' music, which is by a Romanian artist called Grigore Lese. We obtained music rights from his CD directly from him/his agent in Romania and to my knowledge it is not for sale in the UK.

The album is called Cantece de Catanie. The tracks from his CD were 2, 14 and 17.


I did a google search on Grigore Lese (of whom I had never heard) and the following is an amalgam of material from a couple of websites.



Grigore Lese hails from Tara Lapusului, in Northern Transylvania. He and Maria Lese were trained at the Gheorghe Dima Academy of Music in Cluj-Napoca. Described by critics as the finest performer of authentic folk music in Romania today, Grigore Lese, who often performs solo, possesses a genuine folk voice and plays myriad instruments, including the bassoon, the shepherd's pipe, the flute, and the Romanian three-tiered toaca. He has produced many compact discs, including his latest, Cantecul Pastoral, and he played the musical protagonist in director Elise Stan's 1996 folklore film Obirsi.

If you wish to listen to a folk song from a particularly rich folklore area, sung in a genuine manner, than listen to Grigore Lese. It is easy to recognize the man in the street by his folk costume he has never parted from since he has dedicated his life to singing original folk songs from his home county. He was born in Stoiceni, near Targu Lapus. After graduation from the Baia Mare music school, he returned in his native village and got involved in teaching and interpreting folk music. His craftsmanship makes him a virtuoso.
His interests have deepened after graduation from the Gheorghe Dima Music Academy in Cluj.
His voice has a particular tune, not altered by any scholarly intervention. This voice is particularly suited for his kind of music, a sometimes rough way of singing characteristic for the region. Instead of using an entire orchestra as many singers do, Grigore Lese is usually accompanied only by three people playing traditional instruments. This has become as a Transylvanian Trio. Some of the tne he sings with no accompanying instrument at all. Every presence on stage is turned by Grigore Lese into an event.
He has performed in Budapest, Vienna, Bern, Strassbourg, Paris, Lausanne, Rome, Trento, Camerino, Chisinau, Zurich, Sarajevo, Venice, Marseille, Barcelona, Madrid, Washington, New York, Cleveland, Bloomington, Lexington. He has represented his country during the Smithsonian festival in 1999. He has always been an ambassador of the best of Romanian tradition. Listen to him an you will listen to Romanian foklore at its best

Quite what possessed the producers to include Romanian music in a drama about Mary Queen of Scots eludes me somewhat, but it certainly was an inspired choice. I have never heard a voice that impressed me more.

As luck would have it, a couple of Romanian girls are coming to work at our hotel this weekend, so I have arranged for them to bring over the CD Cantece de Catanie.

I believe it is possible to download tracks from his website, but my sound card is kaput, so I don't know if they work or not.