Young New Zealand soprano
Hayley Westenra's third album to receive an international release,
Treasure is a personal collection of Irish and Maori folk songs, including "Shenandoah," "E Pari Ra," and "Danny Boy," recorded in Dublin together with a selection of classical-oriented tracks. As always, there is the minimum of instrumentation -- just a pure soprano voice, singing clearly and very beautifully. For the first time she includes a couple of her own compositions, namely the opening track, "Let Me Lie," and another plaintive folk song, "Summer Rain," beginning almost identically to
Enya's "Orinoco Flow" and featuring pizzicato strings throughout. She sings the verse of "Le Notte del Silenzio" in English, while the chorus, on which she is joined in a duet by
Humphrey Berney, is sung in Italian. There are a few very short tracks -- "Whispering Hope," an a cappella number with a choral backing, and "Santa Lucia" are only just over the two-minute mark, while "Melancholy Interlude" is even shorter -- and the album closes with the hymn "Abide with Me." ~ Sharon Mawer