I Have Lived & Loved
Alessandro Fisher (tenor), Kathryn Rudge (mezzo-soprano)
Penelope Thwaites (piano)
rec. 2024, Potton Hall, UK
Albion Records ALBCD066 [71]

I was introduced to Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Songs of Travel by way of baritone John Shirley Quirk’s and pianist Viola Tunnard’s 1966 recording on the Saga label (STXID 5211). It has remained my go-to version of this incomparable song cycle. There have been many subsequent releases, including those by singers Bryn Terfel, Roderick Williams and Benjamin Luxon; there are some of them in my collection. Yet, to my knowledge, there has never been a recording made by a female artist. To be sure, ladies performed the work in the past, including Ada Crossley with Henry Wood in 1910. Janet Baker sang it in recitals.

Songs of Travel set poems by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. An exploration of the emotional and philosophical journey of a gentleman tramp, the cycle embraces solitude, remembrance and the call of the open road. With influences from English folk music and German lieder, the songs blend lyricism with introspection. Highlights include The Vagabond, with its steady, marching rhythm, and the nostalgic Whither Must I Wander. The cycle ends unresolved, reflecting the endless nature of travel, both physical and spiritual. My two personal favourites are Let Beauty Awake and Youth and Love.

Kathryn Rudge gives a satisfying and convincing performance of Songs of Travel. At the back of my mind, this is the preserve of male singers, but her account leaves little to be desired.

RVW’s opera The Poisoned Kiss, premiered in 1936, blends whimsical fantasy, lyrical folk melodies and satirical charm into an enchanted opera of love, danger, magic and comic intrigue. Despite the “deplorable verse” of much of the libretto, Dear Love, Behold is an attractive stand-alone piece.

Many years ago, my father bought me a Classics for Pleasure LP (CFP113) which included RVW’s In Windsor Forest. It was sung by the Bach Choir accompanied by the Jacques Orchestra. The score, based on his opera Sir John in Love, was first heard in 1931. Out of five magical numbers, the one that appealed to me most was See the Chariot at Hand, to a text by Ben Johnson. This gorgeous song was subsequently set for voice and piano as heard here.

I first heard the “romantic ballad opera” Hugh the Drover in a Radio 3 broadcast in RVW’s 1972 centenary year. At the time, this rustic, romantic, folk-infusedwork appealed to my interest in English Pastoral. The short marching song The Devil and Bonyparty was issued for tenor and piano. It majors on the possible invasion of Britain by the forces of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Peggy Glanville-Hicks, an Australian composer and critic, studied with RVW. Her music would go on to combine Western forms with global influences. She championed melody and rhythm over harmony, drawing inspiration from Indian and Greek traditions. Come Sleep is an attractive but conventional English song. How soon will all my lovely days be over sets a text by the Greek poet Sappho, in Bliss Carman’s 1904 translation. Originally part of Glanville-Hicks’s opera, Sappho (1963), the aria is sung as the heroine prepares to be banished overseas and suffer the distress of leaving her children behind. Moving and intense, the song has a spartan effect.

John Raynor was a prolific English composer whose lyrical songs – over 680 in total – are reputed to reflect a deep sensitivity to poetry and vocal subtlety. As a student at the Royal College of Music, he was championed by RVW. Down by the River is an original setting of traditional words (but possibly by George Colman the Younger 1761-1836). The accompaniment is surprisingly chromatic for a folk-inspired song. Spring sets a text by Thomas Nashe from his Summer’s Last Will and Testament. The play blends satire, pastoral allegory and plague-era melancholy. It is voiced through Will Summers, Henry VIII’s legendary jester.

The disc concludes with six songs and three duets by the redoubtable Percy Grainger. The sequence opens with a “vivid setting” of the traditional Bold William Taylor. Despite the deadly ending, there is a wry humour in these pages. The Weaving Song and Fair Young Mary are traditional Scottish songs derived from the Songs of the North edited by A.C. MacLeod and Harold Boulton. They are given a richer accompaniment that eschews the more pentatonic harmonies which these tunes normally get.

Grainger and Lucy E. Broadwood collected the morbid Died for Love in Lincolnshire. The mawkish Dedication II sets a poem by Rudyard Kipling. A Reivers Neck-Verse took its text from Algeron Charles Swinburne’s Poems and Ballads (Third Series). This lusty, powerful, high-tessitura song is a portrait of a robber about to face the gallows. The “Neck-Verse” refers to the culprit’s ability to recite a verse to a clergyman from the bible to save his life – and neck.

Under a Bridge must be one of the strangest duets written. The gist of this number is two lovers teasing each other but finally succumbing to true devotion. It ends with both parties giggling. The short Hubby and Wife is a “quarrelling duet” rising to a “steady crescendo [as] a domestic argument is played out”. Grainger originally collected both in Jutland. The liner notes correctly say that there is a pantomime feel to these duets.

The yearning Up-Country Song (once upon a time called Colonial Song) is a wordless expression of Percy Grainger’s love of his native Australia. There are also arrangements for orchestra, wind band, chamber ensembles and piano solo. This is a sentimental, but ultimately perfect miniature.

There are good introductory notes by Penelope Thwaites, Malcolm Riley and John Francis, and the complete texts of the songs. We get generous biographical details of the singers and pianist. The booklet is well-illustrated.

Kathryn Rudge brings poise and sensitivity to her refreshing interpretation of Songs of Travel, offering a thoughtful challenge to conventional gender expectations. Her performance is sensitively supported by Penelope Thwaites’s expressive pianism, with Alessandro Fisher’s lyrical tenor complementing other selections in the recital.

The programme draws significant connections across composers shaped by RVW’s ethos, blending English pastoralism, folksong, cosmopolitan colour and theatrical charm. Beautifully recorded and thoughtfully presented, this prigramme promotes the durable vitality of British song.

John France

Previous review: Nick Barnard (August 2025)

Contents
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
Songs of Travel (KR)
The Poisoned Kiss: Dear Love, Behold (AF)
Sir John in Love: See the Chariot at Hand (AF)
Hugh the Drover: The Devil and Bonyparty (AF)
Peggy Glanville-Hicks (1912-1990)
Come Sleep (KR)
Sappho: How Soon Will All My Lovely Days Be Over (KR)
John Raynor (1909-1970)
Down by the River (AF)
Spring (AF)
Percy Grainger (1882-1961)
Bold William Taylor (KR)
Weaving Song (KR)
Died for Love (KR)
Dedication II (AF)
Fair Young Mary (AF)
A Reiver’s Neck-Verse (AF)
Under A Bridge (AF, KR)
Hubby and Wifey (AF, KR)
Up-Country Song (AF, KR)

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