Composer: Ralph Vaughan Williams
Performer: Elisabeth Fleming, Catharine Rogers, Choir of Clare College Cambridge, English Voices, Dmitri Ensemble
Conductor: Sir David Willcocks
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Albion
Catalogue: ALBCD010
Release: 2009
Size: 210 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Folk songs of the four seasons
01. Prologue: To the ploughboy
Spring
02. Early in the Spring
03. The Lark in the Morning
04. May Song
Summer
05. Summer is a-coming in and the Cuckoo
06. The Sprig of Thyme
07. The Sheep Shearing
08. The Green Meadow
Autumn
09. John Barleycorn
10. The Unquiet Grave
11. An Acre of Land
Winter
12. Children’s Christmas song
13. Wassail song
14. In Bethlehem city
15. God bless the Master
In Windsor Forest (Arr. G. Foote for Women’s Voices)
16. The Conspiracy
17. Falstaff and the Fairies
18. Wedding Chorus
19. Epilogue
Both the Folk Songs of the Four Seasons and this arrangement of In Windsor Forest are world premiere recordings. The Folk Songs of the Four Seasons is a substantial work by Vaughan Williams, over 40 minutes long, for women’s chorus and orchestra. It is the most significant of his works never to have been recorded in any format.
The Folk Songs of the Four Seasons was commissioned by the Women’s Institute and first performed in 1950. The work has a Prologue and four sections: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.
The coupling is the rare arrangement for women’s voices, by Guthrie Foote and Vaughan Williams, of the Cantata In Windsor Forest based on choruses from the opera Sir John in Love.
This new Albion recording is issued to mark the 90th birthday of Sir David Willcocks on 30 December, 2009. Sir David is world famous for his recordings for EMI and for his work at King’s College, Cambridge and the Bach Choir. For Sir David to record another major Vaughan Williams disc at the age of almost 90 is remarkable in itself and will ensure national and international interest in this recording.