Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
Rise Heart
Five Mystical Songs (1911)
When I am Dead, My Dearest (1903)
Dreamland (1905)
Eight Folk Songs (arr. Roderick Williams)
Willow Wood (1903, rev 1908)
Roderick Williams (baritone)
Wiliam Vann (piano)
Sacconi Quartet
Levi Andreassen (double bass)
rec. 2025, St George’s, Headstone, London
Texts included
Albion Records ALBCD070 [60]

Here we have another shining example of a disc produced with exemplary musical scholarship, creative passion and musical excellence – in other words a typical Albion Records release.  

Roderick Williams has inherited the mantle of the great British singers that preceded him and is arguably the leading current exponent of the British music written for the baritone voice. His presence on just about any disc or performance is a guarantee of beautiful, articulate and above all intelligent singing. All of those qualities are present here with Williams the soloist throughout. The disc opens with the well-known Five Mystical Songs in the version for solo voice alone (the ad lib choral parts omitted) accompanied by piano, string quartet and double bass. Ever the pragmatist, Vaughan Williams sanctioned various versions of this work from solo piano, via orchestral strings and piano up to full orchestra plus chorus. On disc, the last-mentioned orchestral version is probably most often recorded. This is the second recording of the work that Roderick Williams has made. In 2021 he recorded the songs with the Vasari Singers; on that occasion the accompaniment was arranged for organ by Martin Ford (review). In this new recording, however, we hear the songs in a version for piano and string quintet made by the composer himself; that of itself commands attention. Quite whether the composer made any adjustments between the string orchestra and string quintet versions is not clear – I suspect it is simply a case of ‘one-to-a-part’ played here by the fine Sacconi Quartet with William Vann the sensitive pianist and bassist Levi Andreassen. Sensibly, none of them tries to force the tone or scale of the performance so this emerges as an essentially lyrical and quite intimate reading. 

Again, the Albion engineering and production is excellent with the balance between voice and instrumental accompaniment ideal set within the supportive but not over-resonant acoustic of St. George’s Church London. Here and throughout, Williams’ diction is exemplary with every syllable easily intelligible – but of course full texts are supplied in the informative booklet. One of Williams’ many great skills is his word-pointing of the text and sensitivity to the meaning without this attention ever becoming mannered or excessive.

The first performance of this version was given back in the early 1920s and the first recording was made by baritone Martin Oxenham with pianist Katharine Durran and the Bingham String Quartet over thirty years ago in 1994. That is another fine version with very interesting couplings but it is hard to find now so this new recording is to be warmly welcomed. Williams’ flexible and warm voice is well-suited to this chamber style – his timbre never emphasises the ‘burly’ bass resonances of some singers and this suits the visionary ecstatic quality of the George Herbert poems. Possibly only in the closing Antiphon is the presence of chorus and full orchestra in any sense ‘missed’ but this is a question of the actual setting and not the performance here.

Following on from this cycle are a pair of Christina Rosetti settings for voice and piano alone made by Vaughan Williams in the early 1900’s. According to the liner, this is their first recording with male voice. I know Dreamland from soprano Ruth Golden’s appealing collection – her very slight American accent somehow underlining the slightly sentimental salon style of the song. In this new version, Williams is ideal in the way he points Rosetti’s highly Romantic text without allowing it to sink into bathos. Instead, both this and the companion song When I am dead dearest emerge as very attractive if not that characteristic Vaughan Williams. William Vann’s accompaniments are likewise models of poise and sensitivity.

Back in 2020, Albion undertook to record all 81 of Vaughan Williams’ folksong settings for voice and piano. Roderick Williams was one of the singers on that four-disc project too.  In a note in the booklet, Williams states how much he enjoyed his involvement in that and how he made a note of particular songs he hoped to be able to include in recitals. Here, he has gone further by preparing arrangements of Vaughan Williams’ original piano accompaniments for string quartet with the Sacconi Quartet again alert and skilled collaborators. The liner makes the point that in these settings Vaughan Williams was not an interventionist arranger, aiming instead to allow the simplicity of original text and melody to remain front and centre. This approach is preserved in these quartet settings as well. 

In an age of portable hi-fidelity recording available to every person with a phone in their pocket, it is easy to forget just what a major investment of time and resources it was for the late 19^th century/early 20^th folksong collector. In most cases the absence (non-existence!) of portable recording devices meant that these gems of the oral tradition had to be meticulously transcribed in situ. The ability and musical training – and moral sensibilities – of these transcribers means that often the written versions that were then published were of debatable authenticity. The arrangements made by Vaughan Williams were sometimes collected in the field by himself and sometimes collected by others – with the original sources coming from as far away as the Appalachian Mountains or Newfoundland where the cultural traditions of the original settlers from the UK survived into the last century.

The enduring issue with any folksong arrangement is a kind of technical sanitising of the original song. By definition, a performance by superbly accomplished and trained musicians is going to be quite unlike the source material – for some reason this used to bother me less previously than it does now. I find that if there is going to be an arrangement of a folksong at all, I now prefer it to be an extended version that takes the essential simplicity of the original to be a stepping-off point so by extension I prefer to hear the original songs in as close to their original unvarnished versions as possible. With that caveat it must be said that this new collection of eight settings is as beautifully done as it could possibly be. Williams is careful with his use of any ‘regional’ accent – all too often this can descend into a caricature rural accent that feels both mannered and crude. To my ear the most successful settings here are the ones where the original songs themselves rely more on mood and atmosphere rather than narrative. The latter do rather fall prey to Constant Lambert’s aphorism: “The whole trouble with a folk song is that once you have played it through there is nothing much you can do except play it over again and play it rather louder”. Not that the performers here are that crude, just that there is only so much from a musical perspective that can be varied. However, She’s Like the Swallow and O who is that that raps at my window evoke a mood an atmosphere both in the original song and Vaughan Williams’ evocative and powerfully direct arrangement. Roderick Williams’ string transcription of the latter is especially effective with more than an echo – deliberate I am sure – of the string writing in On Wenlock Edge.

The disc is completed by only the second recording – and the first with keyboard alone – of the early Willow Wood. This is a setting by the ‘other’ Rosetti – Christina’s brother – Dante Gabriel. Roderick Williams was the soloist on the other performance too with the Royal Liverpool PO and Choir under David Lloyd-Jones on Naxos – that whole disc is just lovely. The liner booklet charts the history of the work and mentions the composer’s own dismissal of his work. My feeling is that it is a very enjoyable work if not from the composer’s topmost drawer. Certainly, I cannot imagine more impressive advocates than Roderick Williams or William Vann. For sure, there is a clear sense that this is a work intended for larger scale orchestral (and choral) accompaniment – the keyboard writing is heavier and more complex than anything present elsewhere on this disc – but again that responsibility is the composer’s choice not due to any strain on these performers. Clearly Vaughan Williams had a quite different remit in this dramatic and illustrative work rather than the conscious artless simplicity of the folksong settings.

As so often with Albion Records releases they have managed to combine unusual or premiere recordings with performances that can be considered definitive. Allied to top notch research and presentation alongside sophisticated engineering, these form a cherished library of music by a much-loved composer.

Nick Barnard

Previous review: John Quinn (February 2026 Recording of the Month) and John France

Buying this recording via the link below generates revenue for MWI, which helps the site remain free

Folk Songs
Captain Grant
The Saucy Bold Robber
She’s Like the Swallow
Proud Nancy
Barbara Ellen
The Brewer
O Who is That That Raps at My Window?
Harry the Tailor