FREE UK SHIPPING OVER £30!

Vaughan Williams - Folk Songs Vol.1 | Albion Records ALBCD042

Vaughan Williams - Folk Songs Vol.1

£12.69

In stock - available for despatch within 1 working day

Label: Albion Records

Cat No: ALBCD042

Barcode: 5060158190423

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Vocal/Choral

Release Date: 23rd October 2020

Contents

Artists

Mary Bevan (soprano)
Nicky Spence (tenor)
Roderick Williams (baritone)
Jack Liebeck (violin)
William Vann (piano)

Works

Vaughan Williams, Ralph

English Folk Songs (6)
Folk Songs from Sussex
Sea Songs from The Motherland Song Book Vol.4

Artists

Mary Bevan (soprano)
Nicky Spence (tenor)
Roderick Williams (baritone)
Jack Liebeck (violin)
William Vann (piano)

About

This is the first in a series of four albums recording all 80 of the folk songs in English that Ralph Vaughan Williams arranged for voice and piano or violin. 57 of the 80 songs have not previously been recorded in these arrangements, so there is a good deal of unknown – but very beautiful – music to be found here.

This first album has 23 tracks including 15 world premieres. It includes Folk Songs from Sussex (1912) and Six English Folk Songs (1935). Later volumes will include songs collected in the Eastern Counties (1908), the Appalachian Mountains (about 1938) and from Newfoundland (1946).

Vaughan Williams is well known as a collector of folk songs, but his own collection by no means predominates in this series; most of the arrangements were made and published as a collaborative effort, drawn from many sources. The 14 songs from Sussex on this album were all collected by Percy Merrick from Henry Hills, a farmer from Lodsworth, Sussex, around 1900. Some will be well-known in other arrangements; others will be unfamiliar.

Praised by Opera for her “dramatic wit and vocal control”, British soprano Mary Bevan is internationally renowned in baroque, classical and contemporary repertoire, and appears regularly with leading conductors, orchestras and ensembles around the world.

Opera singer Nicky Spence is one of Scotland’s proudest sons and his unique skills as a singing actor and the rare honesty of his musicianship are steadfastly earning him a place at the top of the classical music profession.

Roderick Williams is one of this country’s most sought after baritones and is constantly in demand, encompassing a repertoire from the baroque to world premieres. In 2016 he won the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Singer of the Year award.

In 2010, British violinist Jack Liebeck won a Classical Brit in the young British classical performer category.

A multiple-prize winning and critically acclaimed conductor and accompanist, William Vann is equally at home on the podium or at the piano and is the founder and Artistic Director of the London English Song Festival.

Tracklisting:

Folk Songs from Sussex (1912):
1. Bold General Wolfe
2. Low Down in the Broom
3. The Thresherman and the Squire
4. The Pretty Ploughboy
5. O Who is that that Raps at my Window?
6. How Cold the Wind doth Blow
7. Captain Grant
8. Farewell Lads
9. Come, All You Worthy Christians
10. The Turkish Lady
11. The Seeds of Love
12. The Maid of Islington
13. Here’s Adieu to all Judges and Juries
14. Lovely Joan

Six English Folk Songs (1935):
15. Robin Hood and the Pedlar
16. The Ploughman
17. One Man, Two Men
18. The Brewer
19. Rolling in the Dew
20. King William

Sea Songs from The Motherland Song Book, Volume 4 (1919):
21. The Golden Vanity
22. Just as the Tide was Flowing
23. The Spanish Ladies

Reviews

Soloists Roderick Williams, Nicky Spence and Mary Bevan are all persuasive, while the composer’s instrumental elaborations (William Vann, piano) have a beauty and interest all their own. ... Taken in chunks, this first trip to Vaughan Williams’s folk song workshop is an absolute tonic and delight.  Geoff Brown
The Times
I enjoyed this disc from start to finish. It’s an auspicious beginning to the series which will bring us all of VW’s solo-voice folk song arrangements. I am keen to hear the next three releases as they appear.  John Quinn
MusicWeb International
All three soloists are careful to avoid an over-sophisticated response to songs whose strength is their directness of expression and simple integrity. Williams in particular is a perfect singe in this repertoire, with immaculate annunciation and a happy knack of letting the music speak unaffectedly for itself.
February 2021
The rewards are copious... an absolute must for all true Vaughan Williams aficionados.  What are you waiting for?
Gramophone

Error on this page? Let us know here

Need more information on this product? Click here