Songs from a Secret Garden

1	Nocturne 3:11
2	Pastorale 3:47
3	Song from a Secret Garden 3:32
4	Sigma 3:05
5	Papillon 3:22
6	Serenade to Spring 3:12
7	Atlantia 2:56
8	Heartstrings 3:22
9	Adagio 2:51
10	The Rap 2:31
11	Chaconne 3:25
12	Cantoluna 3:29
13	Ode to Simplicity 3:53

Barnes & Noble

Secret Garden -- Norwegian composer/keyboardist Rolf Lovland and Irish violinist Fionnuala Sherry -- enchanted the world with this debut album of impressionistic works for Celtic and Norwegian instruments, orchestra, voices, and piano. With the exception of "The Rap," a buoyant folk tune that practically dances from the speakers, this gentle album mines the deep riches of the spirit. A nocturne, a pastorale, a serenade, an Italian cantoluna, an adagio based on a theme by Bach, and a peaceful piece for boy soprano and choir -- these are the songs that form the tapestry of this lush album. Key soloists include Davy Spillane on low whistles and Uilleann pipe, David Agne on oboe and english horn, Asa Jinder on the keyfiddle, and Gunnhild Tvinnereim on vocals. This musical garden is a ravishing beauty. Carol Wright

All Music Guide

Secret Garden is Norwegian composer Rolf Loveland (piano, keyboards) and Irish violinist Fionnula Sherry. The album, however, offers much more than this duo; it is awash in orchestral strings (real ones), a choir (real one), and as many percussionists, harps, fiddles, keyboards, and whistles as are needed. Songs from a Secret Garden, a chart-topper in Europe, is unabashedly romantic, absolutely gorgeous. "Sigma," featuring boy soprano Rhonan Sugrue and the Irish National Choir, is very pensive, like dried flowers left, an expected return disappointed. The lyrics begin, "I search for the sign that will set my soul free." Although Celtic music fans will find many moments of bittersweet nostalgia between the violin, pipes, and pennywhistles, the album's closest musical relation might just be the intimate works of Maurice Ravel, particularly his "Pavanne for a Dead Princess." Romantic themes of true depth, played full out. Secret Garden is not afraid of tenderness nor beauty. Carol Wright