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]
I was introduced to Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Five Mystical Songs through the legendary recording by John Shirley-Quirk, with the King’s College Choir and English Chamber Orchestra under David Willcocks (HMV ASD 2458). This has been my go-to version since the early 1970s, and I suspect that will not change. It successfully captures the grand scale of the work’s premiere at Worcester Cathedral on 14 September 1911, though RVW noted the chorus was ad lib.
There have been arrangements for wind ensemble and for solo piano accompaniment. This disc features the c.1925 arrangement for baritone, piano and string quintet, ideally suited for small ensembles, church performances or intimate recitals.
Bearing in mind that RVW was not a man of faith in the traditional sense, but a self-described “cheerful agnostic”, the ethos of Five Mystical Songs is best understood as a spiritual journey. But it is important to add that he was deeply sympathetic to Christian liturgy, theology and devotional language. The “cycle” becomes the point where three trajectories meet: the world of personal faith, George Herbert’s luminous poetry and the composer’s instinctive English musical pastoralism. This is not a conventional song cycle but a bit like a private devotional journal set to music. Herbert’s poetry here feels less mystical than numinous, with an emphasis on human tenderness, vulnerability and wonder. It is Christianity seen through the lens of the English countryside, where the sacred and the pastoral breathe the same air.
Roderick Williams, the Sacconi Quartet, double-bassist Levi Andreassen and pianist William Vann bring a warmth and instrumental colour that far exceeds the piano-only edition. It is a beautiful, deeply felt account.
In 1905, RVW published two settings of poems by Christina Rossetti. The melancholic When I am Dead, My Dearest considers an acceptance of death’s calm; it invites remembrance or forgetting, without sorrow. Equally melancholic in words and music is Dreamland where the poet has chosen a twilight journey into eternal rest, beyond sorrow or waking. Both have been recorded on Albion Records (ALBCD002) but this is the first recording with a male protagonist. They are both heartbreakingly lovely.
The liner notes explain that all eighty-one of Vaughan Williams folksongs have been issued on the Albion label (ALBCD042-45). For the present disc, Roderick Williams has chosen eight, and arranged them for string quartet. I think that they would make an effective song cycle, although there is no obvious connecting theme. The singer expresses the hope that this will be a strong introduction to RVW’s folksongs.
Willow-Wood is a cantata based on four poems from Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s sonnet sequence The House of Life. It was composed around the same time as RVW’s famous Silent Noon. The cantata was premiered at the St James’s Hall, London on 12 March 1903 by britone J. Campbell McInnes and pianist Evlyn Howard-Jones.
In Rossetti’s poems, the Wood is an imaginary landscape where Love and Loss meet. Contemporary critics felt the songs were “turbulent, shadowy, and melancholy”. Some suggested that the cantata needed an orchestra, because “its complexities and its breadth seem to demand an orchestral medium”. The composer duly orchestrated it for a performance in 1909, adding a wordless female chorus. He was not happy with the final iteration, scrawling in his copy of the vocal score “first (and last) performance […] complete flop”.
The programme notes ask: Does the cantata tell a story? They conclude that Willow-Wood is “a song of love and grief, love lost and love remembered. Poetry stands precedent over narrative and finds further expression in music.” Whether this challenging work will ever become popular is arguable. I find it just a touch too melancholy. That said, Roderick Williams champions with conviction its wide ranging and demanding vocal part.
The booklet text compiled by John Francis provides clear information about the songs. The texts are included, as well as resumes of the performers. The booklet is beautifully illustrated. The cover features a detail from the Ralph Vaughan Williams memorial window at All Saints, Down Ampney.
This is a deeply moving exploration of Vaughan Williams’s more intimate side. Roderick Williams brings a rare human warmth to the well-loved Herbert settings and the shadowy rarities of Rossetti.
John France
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Previous reviews: John Quinn ~ Nick Barnard
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
