Composer: Ina Boyle, W Denis Browne, James Burton, George Butterworth, Rebecca Clarke, Madeleine Dring, Ernest Farrar, Ruth Gipps, John Ireland, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Roderick Williams
Performer: Roderick Williams
Orchestra: Hallé Orchestra
Conductor: Mark Elder
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Hallé
Catalogue: CDHLL7559
Release: 2022
Size: 605 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Ireland: Great Things
02. Ireland: Sea Fever
03. Boyle: The Joy of Earth
04. Browne: To Gratiana dancing and singing
Butterworth: A Shropshire Lad – six songs
05. No. 1, Loveliest of trees
06. No. 2, When I was one-and-twenty
07. No. 3, Look not in mine eyes
08. No. 4, Think no more, lad
09. No. 5, The lads in their hundreds
10. No. 6, Is my team ploughing?
11. Gipps: The Pulley
Vaughan Williams: The House of Life
12. No. 1, Love-sight
13 .No. 2, Silent noon
14. No. 3, Love’s minstrels
15. No. 4, Heart’s haven
16. No. 5, Death in love
17. No. 6, Love’s last gift
18. Dring: Take, O Take Those Lips Away
19. Burton: When I set out for Lyonesse
20. Clarke: The Seal Man
21. Farrar: Silent noon
This album represents the culmination of what leading British baritone Roderick Williams described as “a dream come true”. It features premiere recordings of his orchestrations of songs by Vaughan Williams and other composers associated with him and is released to commemorate those who perished in WWI.
Featuring orchestrations by Williams of his favourite songs from the 20th-Century English repertoire, this album contains works by Vaughan Williams and specially commissioned new arrangements of songs by women composers Ina Boyle, Ruth Gipps, Madeleine Dring and Rebecca Clarke.
The album features also the work of composers who were killed in the First World War, George Butterworth, William Denis Browne and Ernest Farrar and is released to coincide with Remembrance Day. These songs portray the composers’ evocative responses to the poetry they set, and Williams’s orchestrations further convey the songs meaning through highly effective use of orchestral instruments and textures.