Review: The Elfin Knight (Joel Frederiksen)

Subject: The Elfin Knight (Joel Frederiksen)
From: Zhenya
Date: 15 Oct 07 - 09:56 PM

I came across this album by accident on eMusic when I was searching for something else in the Classical Music section:
Joel Frederiksen, Ensemble Phoenix Munich: The Elfin Knight.

The title caught my eye, since I recognized it as one of the Child ballads. There are some other Child ballads on the album as well - Willie O' Winsbury, Barbara Ellen and in fact all the songs are folk songs (as opposed to classical pieces.)

I'm mentioning it here, because, to be honest, I don't generally like versions of folk material done by classical singers. I usually find them too stilted and irritating to my ear. But I took a chance and sampled some tracks anyway, since I liked the songs listed, and ended up downloading the whole album. And, in fact, I've been playing it over and over.

I wasn't familiar with this singer before but he has a beautiful voice, and a really nice way with these songs. There are other fine singers on the album as well. What perhaps enhanced it for me is that the accompaniments to the song are done early music style, which I find appealing. There are some instrumental tracks of early music pieces as well.

So, if you already like classically trained vocalists as well as folk music, you may like this album. And if you usually DON'T like such vocalists, perhaps you'll give this a try anyway. I'm very glad I did.

Here's a link to the Amazon page with 30 second samples of the album tracks:

The Elfin Knight

Subject: RE: The Elfin Knight (Joel Frederiksen)
From: tutti flutti
Date: 16 Oct 07 - 06:09 AM

Thanks for the recommendation. Fabulous album - I went onto iTunes and listened to samples then bought the whole album.

He has a very good voice and sings the songs simply which I think is so important.

I have an Alfred Deller album of folk songs and he ruins them for me by being overly dramatic and arty - such a shame!

Subject: RE: The Elfin Knight (Joel Frederiksen)
From: Zhenya
Date: 21 Oct 07 - 11:18 AM

Glad you liked it. Thanks for the warning about the singing on the Alfred Deller album.