Composer: Grace Williams
Performer: Jeremy Huw Williams, Wendy Hiscocks
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Naxos
Catalogue: 8571384
Release: 2024
Size: 1.39 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Slow, Slow, Fresh Fount
02. I Had a Little Nut Tree
03. Green Rain
04. Stand Forth, Seithenin!
9 Welsh Folk Songs
05. No. 1, Ffarwel i langyfelach
06. No. 6, Llangynwyd
07. The Song of Mary
3 Carols
08. No. 3, Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night
09. Fairground
10. Flight
11. À Lauterbach
2 French Folk Songs
12. No. 1, Le Chevalier du guet
4 Folk Songs
13. No. 1, O Rare Turpin
14. No. 2, The Shepherdess
15. No. 3, Bonny at Morn
16. No. 4, The Song of the Flax
17. When Thou Dost Dance
3 Yugoslav Folk Songs
18. No. 1, Mary, Mary, Maiden
19. No. 2, Dalmatian Lullaby
20. No. 3, The Pearly Adriatic
21. Y deryn pur
22. Y Fwyalchen
23. Cariad cyntaf
24. Ow, ow, tlysau
25. Dwfn yw’r Môr
26. Lights Out
27. Fear No More the Heat o’ the Sun
Grace Williams, from Wales, was a student of Ralph Vaughan Williams, and if her folk-flavored music does not definitely go beyond that of her teacher, it focuses closely on some aspects of the pastoral style with wonderful results. She has been underrated since the beginning, possibly because she lived quietly in her native Wales, and baritone Jeremy Huw Williams and pianist Wendy Hiscocks do a real service with the revival of her song repertory on this 2024 release. Baritone Williams is an ideal interpreter, with a relaxed style and clear diction that stay out of the way of the charms of the songs, and Hiscocks, who doubles as producer, backs him with performances that capture the subtleties here. The largest group of songs are Welsh, some in Welsh and others in English, but there are also traditional English texts (consider I had a little nut tree for a song that packs a great deal into one minute) and songs from French and Balkan traditions (the latter are sung in English). The folk song treatments are consistently imaginative, but perhaps best of all are the pure art songs, which are influenced by the folk language in a way that is quite distinct from Vaughan Williams. Sample The Song of Mary, whose text is that of the Magnificat, composed in 1939 and revised multiple times, it offers a wholly novel treatment of this text, for which musical settings go back a millennium or more. It is absolutely no surprise that this release made classical best-seller charts in the summer of 2024.