I Have Lived & Loved
Songs by Vaughan Williams and friends
Alessandro Fisher (tenor), Kathryn Rudge (mezzo-soprano)
Penelope Thwaites (piano)
rec. 2024, Potton Hall, UK
Albion Records ALBCD066 [71]
This latest release from Albion Records follows their usual trend of a beautifully – indeed lovingly – presented programme, well performed and engineered accompanied by a model booklet. The only real dilemma facing Albion is their own success – they have recorded most of Vaughan Williams’ works – familiar and very unfamiliar. Hence this new disc offers no real ‘must-haves’ even for the most devoted. The novelty is the very familiar, much-loved, Songs of Travel recorded in a version for mezzo-soprano and piano. John Francis points out in his liner note that the first performances of three of the orchestrated songs from this cycle were in fact premiered by a contralto, but this is the first recording of the complete set by a female voice. Not that this should preclude singing by a female voice/character, however the text of several of Stevenson’s poems – notably the opening The Vagabond or the third song Youth and Love – do imply a male perspective.
The singer here is Kathryn Rudge who is a fine and intelligent performer possessed of a beautiful voice and excellent diction. The latter quality very welcome if not crucial given that the booklet includes all texts in English only. I reviewed Rudge singing Elgar Orchestral songs here and Coates here. In the former I called her singing “a consistent delight” and the latter praised her “committed passionate singing”. For this Vaughan Williams collection she is accompanied by the excellent Penelope Thwaites but I do not feel her Songs of Travel challenges the finest existing versions. This is not a question of the voice – although of course a female voice will always be singing an octave above the male equivalent which ‘places’ the pitches quite differently with reference to the keyboard accompaniment. Rudge and Thwaites perform with unaffected directness and simplicity – which suits the folk-like character of several of the songs – but it does come at the expense of the drama and narrative arc implicit in others. Bryn Terfel on his prize-winning recital for DG called “The Vagabond” was a master storyteller while tenor Anthony Rolfe-Johnson with his lighter voice found a visionary rapture that leaves Rudge sounding rather plain – if beautifully so. The Albion engineering has placed Thwaites piano a fraction backwards as well with the result that Vaughan Williams’ characterful accompaniments sound rather diffident too. Thwaites’ extensive discography proves that she is anything but a diffident player – more about her stunning Grainger later – so ultimately this was something of an unexpected disappointment.
In part this has to do with the second singer who contributes to this disc. Tenor Alessandro Fisher made a positive impression with his performance of On Wenlock Edge on an earlier Albion disc I reviewed here so much so it was one of my 2023 Records of the Year. He possesses an ardent ringing tenor that sounds as Italianate as his Christian name. This is not a timbre one usually associates with the English song repertoire but it works tremendously well. Backing up the actual sound, Fisher is a natural and effective dramatist as evidenced in the three piano accompanied excerpts from Vaughan Williams’ operas. Obviously all three have been recorded in their full orchestral/operatic context so despite being wholly impressive performances they will always be considered secondary to being heard in their ‘proper’ context. Fisher’s biography does not show that he has worked extensively yet in opera – but both these performances and his earlier Albion disc suggest he would be an exciting stage presence.
Of the twenty five songs included here, only six are actual folksongs but the forward to the liner suggests that the influence of folk-song both musically and expressively is the binding thread to this programme. After the opera excerpts there are four songs, two each, by Peggy Glanville-Hicks (sung by Rudge), and two by John Raynor. Glanville-Hicks was a Vaughan Williams pupil and latterly a family friend and one of his several musical aides and copyists. A quick scan of her biography reveals another one of these genuinely remarkable multi-faceted musicians active across a range of disciplines and styles. As a composer, her opera Nausicaa seems to have had a genuine success at its 1961 premiere but has not been performed since. One of the songs here is from the 1962 opera Sappho and is lyrical and attractive although resolutely tonal for the period. Rudge is very convincing in this excerpt with exactly that “committed passionate singing” I had previously noted. Come Sleep is likewise charming in its simplicity. The liner gives no date but refers to it as “an early work” and certainly the influence of the 20th Century English Pastoral Song tradition is very strong. Perhaps not the most individual work but certainly an appealing one.
More unfamiliar as a name is composer John Raynor. He died aged just 61 in a traffic accident but remarkably he wrote some 680 songs while making a living as parish organist. There is an affectionate biography of him on the British Music Society website which describes something of an eccentric who lived alone in an ex-army hut. Vaughan Williams organised a recital of his songs at the Wigmore Hall in 1948 following on from a Musicians’ Benevolent Fund Grant the previous year. The article projects a strong sense of Raynor being supported by a group of admirers for both himself and his work. Certainly, the two songs offered here are impressive and individual enough to encourage more to be discovered. Fisher sings these – an arrangement of the folksong Down by the River, and a setting of Thomas Nashe’s Spring. The latter is dedicated to Vaughan Williams and Nashe’s text was also set by Britten in his Spring Symphony and Constant Lambert in his Summer’s Last Will and Testament. It is a measure of Raynor’s song-setting talent that he is not immediately dwarfed by such comparisons. Possibly these songs would suit a slightly less vibrant performing style than Fisher gives them but the undeniable conclusion is that the vast hoard of Raynor songs deserves serious and extensive exploration.
The recital concludes with a group of nine Percy Grainger songs or arrangements – three solos for each of the singers and finally three duets. Penelope Thwaites is listed as this disc’s Musical Director as well as pianist. Given her long-standing promotion of Grainger’s music hard not to assume that she was the driving force behind the inclusion of these songs here. For Chandos’ excellent Grainger Edition, Thwaites contributed three volumes of solo piano works and a further three of songs plus one disc of music for multiple pianos. For Pearl there are three more discs of piano/four hands alongside John Lavender. Furthermore she edited the New Percy Grainger Companion published by Boydell Press. So it is probably fair to say no performer knows more about, or has recorded more of this endlessly individual and quirky composer. Of the six solo songs A Reiver’s Neck-Verse and Dedication II appeared on the Chandos collection (Vol.7) with tenor Martyn Hill, while Died for Love and Weaving Song were sung on Vol.12 by mezzo Della Jones. All three of the duets appear on that volume too although the male voice there was taken by baritone Stephen Varcoe in Under a Bridge and Hubby and Wifey and tenor Mark Padmore in Colonial Song – the latter a wonderfully lush wordless vocalise. That leaves the superbly melodramatic Bold William Taylor sung here by Rudge but more familiar in its baritone incarnation by Varcoe for Chandos or best of all Shirley-Quirk as part of Benjamin Britten’s famous/revelatory Decca collection “Salute to Percy Grainger” where he sang accompanied by a small ensemble. Only Fair Young Mary sung by Fisher seems to be receiving a first Thwaites-overseen performance.
Again I find Rudge just a fraction too held for the drama of Bold William Taylor and I do prefer Della Jones’ simpler vocal style for Weaving Song and Died for Love – these are folksongs and respond less well to a lieder-style approach. But in each instance Grainger’s accompaniments are remarkably colourful and effective and superbly rendered by Thwaites. The tenor songs are well-suited to Fisher’s style and timbre and receive compelling performances. Of the duets I must admit I find the ‘high jinks’ added by the singers overlaying the interesting piano writing in Under the Bridge to be rather toe-curling. The same was done in the Chandos version so I do not know if they are indicated in the score – I assume so. In either instance I would have preferred them to be omitted. Hubby and Wifey is rather twee too – the liner here suggests “a pantomime feel” that makes for “an amusing sequence” – which simply proves humour is an individual thing…. The closing Up-Country Song (Colonial Song) is a delight – Grainger in his most ardent and harmonically lush mode and it receives a fine performance well suited to both voices.
So a typically fine Albion presentation but perhaps lacking the ‘must-buy’ status that most of this label’s releases have for Vaughan Williams admirers. The most interesting repertoire is the least known and Alessandro Fisher continues to impress. I remain unconvinced by this version of Songs of Travel but others might find the performing style effective..
Nick Barnard
Footnote:
Adrian Farmer of Nimbus Records has been in touch with this comment: “I just read Nick Barnard’s review of the new release by Albion of Vaughan Williams ‘friends and students’ song album. In it he suggests that it is time for John Raynor’s songs to be properly examined. I am happy to report that I myself am in the final year of a PhD supervised by Dr Nicholas Jones at Cardiff University to do exactly that. My thesis will cover not only his 680 songs but also his extensive prose and poetry. I am quite confident he will be revealed as an important contributor to the genre of British Song.”
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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)
