The recital would have come across as more impressive if (a) The reader, Sorita, seemed to be remotely familiar with the material and (b) was not so obviously subject to the autocue-scrolling idiosyncracies of her smartphone so that several times she paused and/ or fluffed with her lines,* with the result that she doesn't so much come over as a , um, "priestess" performing orgia, as some rich little daddy's girl slumming it round at the abbey for a bit of a lark. Perhaps I'm being unduly harsh here and someone who knows her will vouch for her sincerity, but unfortunately that is the first impression upon hearing this particular version of the Hymn to Pan declaimed.

Norma N Joy Conquest

* The first ten lines from "Thrill with the lissom lust of the light" down to "To me, To me" have been omitted;
"startles in the eyes of blue" is read instead of "startles in eyes of blue", after which she seems to lose her place; similarly just before
"Of the living tree that is a spirit" instead of "Of the living tree that is spirit";
"And the body and brain" instead of "And body and brain";
"Devil god" instead of "Devil or god";
"Come with trumpets sounding shrill" sounds in need of a prompt (although the voice reading it is a little shrill, in places);
"I who want and writhe and wrestle" instead of "I who wait and writhe and wrestle"'
"the galling fetter" is mispronounced;
"All-devouring all-begetter" instead of "All-devourer, all-begetter";
The first set of "O Pan, Io Pan"s are garbled and have the wrong order and frequency;
"The eagle slashes" is also in need of a prompt or else more careful reading;
"Through the solstice stubborn" instead of "Through solstice stubborn..."

I liked this. I like the voice, clear.

Oh, it was definitely clear all right. When it wasn't stumbling through the above mistakes, it was certainly piercing through the airwaves. Slightly verging upon the shrill, in fact, as I remarked.

It wouldn't have been that you didn't fancy her then, Michael? 😉

N Joy