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Composer Gerald Finzi wrote the song Let Us Garlands Bring to mark the 70th birthday of Ralph Vaughan Williams. This gave baritone Roderick Williams the opportunity to expand on the idea with this Birthday Garland, which he terms a "fantasy birthday party" for the composer on the 150th anniversary of his birth in 2022; the album was recorded in 2023 and released the following year. Roderick Williams fans bought this one early and put it on classical best-seller lists in the spring of 2024; they will be pleased to find that his honeyed baritone is showing absolutely no sign of strain, and 20th century English song remains his sweet spot. It is also worth noting that he has assembled an unusually rich program. There are nine songs by Ralph himself, drawn from different parts of his career, including the late Menelaus, with a text by Ursula Vaughan Williams. However, the majority of the songs are by his teachers and students, and this casts a sharp lens on Vaughan Williams' own works. Williams picks unusual pieces, such as a Scottish song setting by Ravel and a setting by Holst of a Walt Whitman poem; that American writer was a favorite of Vaughan Williams as well. Williams also includes contemporary pieces by himself and others, many of them women; this vividly shows the ways in which Vaughan Williams' influence continues to resonate down to the present day in the likes of the little song cycle A Square and Candle-Lighted Boat by the (hitherto) little-known Sarah Cattley. The accompaniments by Susie Allan are finely judged, and the Somm label contributes its usual understated engineering from the Menuhin Hall. An unusually satisfying Vaughan Williams release, even if most of it is by other composers.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Ralph Vaughan Williams, Composer - Roderick Williams, MainArtist - Alfred Tennyson, Lyricist - Boosey & Hawkes, MusicPublisher - Susie Allan, MainArtist
2024 SOMM Recordings 2024 SOMM Recordings
Charles Wood, Composer - Roderick Williams, MainArtist - Alfred Tennyson, Lyricist - Boosey & Hawkes, MusicPublisher - Susie Allan, MainArtist
2024 SOMM Recordings 2024 SOMM Recordings
Ralph Vaughan Williams, Composer - William Barnes, Lyricist - Roderick Williams, MainArtist - Boosey & Hawkes, MusicPublisher - Susie Allan, MainArtist
2024 SOMM Recordings 2024 SOMM Recordings
Maurice Ravel, Composer - PUBLIC DOMAIN, MusicPublisher - Robert Burns, Lyricist - Roderick Williams, MainArtist - Susie Allan, MainArtist
2024 SOMM Recordings 2024 SOMM Recordings
Max Bruch, Composer - Anonymous, Lyricist - PUBLIC DOMAIN, MusicPublisher - Roderick Williams, MainArtist - Susie Allan, MainArtist
2024 SOMM Recordings 2024 SOMM Recordings
William Butler Yeats, Lyricist - Rebecca Clarke, Composer - Roderick Williams, MainArtist - Boosey & Hawkes, MusicPublisher - Susie Allan, MainArtist
2024 SOMM Recordings 2024 SOMM Recordings
Traditional, Lyricist - Roderick Williams, MainArtist - Grace Williams, Composer - Susie Allan, MainArtist
2024 SOMM Recordings 2024 SOMM Recordings
Traditional, Lyricist - PUBLIC DOMAIN, MusicPublisher - George Butterworth, Composer - Roderick Williams, MainArtist - Susie Allan, MainArtist
2024 SOMM Recordings 2024 SOMM Recordings
Gustav Holst, Composer - PUBLIC DOMAIN, MusicPublisher - Walt Whitman, Lyricist - Roderick Williams, MainArtist - Susie Allan, MainArtist
2024 SOMM Recordings 2024 SOMM Recordings
PUBLIC DOMAIN, MusicPublisher - Walt Whitman, Lyricist - Roderick Williams, MainArtist - Susie Allan, MainArtist - Ina Boyle, Composer
2024 SOMM Recordings 2024 SOMM Recordings
PUBLIC DOMAIN, MusicPublisher - Walt Whitman, Lyricist - Ivor Gurney, Composer - Roderick Williams, MainArtist - Susie Allan, MainArtist
2024 SOMM Recordings 2024 SOMM Recordings
Ralph Vaughan Williams, Composer - Walt Whitman, Lyricist - Roderick Williams, MainArtist - Boosey & Hawkes, MusicPublisher - Susie Allan, MainArtist
2024 SOMM Recordings 2024 SOMM Recordings
PUBLIC DOMAIN, MusicPublisher - Walt Whitman, Lyricist - Roderick Williams, MainArtist - Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, Composer - Susie Allan, MainArtist
2024 SOMM Recordings 2024 SOMM Recordings
George Herbert, Lyricist - Roderick Williams, MainArtist - Ruth Gipps, Composer - Susie Allan, MainArtist
2024 SOMM Recordings 2024 SOMM Recordings
Ralph Vaughan Williams, Composer - George Herbert, Lyricist - Roderick Williams, MainArtist - Boosey & Hawkes, MusicPublisher - Susie Allan, MainArtist
2024 SOMM Recordings 2024 SOMM Recordings
Ralph Vaughan Williams, Composer - Roderick Williams, MainArtist - Boosey & Hawkes, MusicPublisher - Susie Allan, MainArtist - Seumas O’Sullivan, Lyricist
2024 SOMM Recordings 2024 SOMM Recordings
Herbert Howells, Composer - Roderick Williams, MainArtist - Susie Allan, MainArtist - Seumas O’Sullivan, Lyricist
2024 SOMM Recordings 2024 SOMM Recordings
William Shakespeare , Lyricist - Elizabeth Maconchy, Composer - Roderick Williams, MainArtist - Chester Music, MusicPublisher - Susie Allan, MainArtist
2024 SOMM Recordings 2024 SOMM Recordings
William Shakespeare , Lyricist - Roderick Williams, MainArtist - Susie Allan, MainArtist - Sir Charles Hubert Parry, Composer
2024 SOMM Recordings 2024 SOMM Recordings
William Shakespeare , Lyricist - Roderick Williams, MainArtist - Madeleine Dring, Composer - Thames, MusicPublisher - Susie Allan, MainArtist
2024 SOMM Recordings 2024 SOMM Recordings
Ralph Vaughan Williams, Composer - William Shakespeare , Lyricist - PUBLIC DOMAIN, MusicPublisher - Roderick Williams, MainArtist - Susie Allan, MainArtist
2024 SOMM Recordings 2024 SOMM Recordings
William Shakespeare , Lyricist - Gerald Finzi, Composer - Roderick Williams, MainArtist - Boosey & Hawkes, MusicPublisher - Susie Allan, MainArtist
2024 SOMM Recordings 2024 SOMM Recordings
Ralph Vaughan Williams, Composer - Robert Louis Stevenson, Lyricist - PUBLIC DOMAIN, MusicPublisher - Roderick Williams, MainArtist - Susie Allan, MainArtist
2024 SOMM Recordings 2024 SOMM Recordings
Ralph Vaughan Williams, Composer - Roderick Williams, MainArtist - Ursula Vaughan Williams, Lyricist - Oxford University Press, MusicPublisher - Susie Allan, MainArtist
2024 SOMM Recordings 2024 SOMM Recordings
Roderick Williams, MainArtist - Susie Allan, MainArtist - Sarah Cattley, Composer - Frances Cornford, Lyricist - Ficks Music, MusicPublisher
2024 SOMM Recordings 2024 SOMM Recordings
Roderick Williams, MainArtist - Susie Allan, MainArtist - Sarah Cattley, Composer - Frances Cornford, Lyricist - Ficks Music, MusicPublisher
2024 SOMM Recordings 2024 SOMM Recordings
Roderick Williams, MainArtist - Susie Allan, MainArtist - Sarah Cattley, Composer - Frances Cornford, Lyricist - Ficks Music, MusicPublisher
2024 SOMM Recordings 2024 SOMM Recordings
Roderick Williams, MainArtist - Susie Allan, MainArtist - Sarah Cattley, Composer - Frances Cornford, Lyricist - Ficks Music, MusicPublisher
2024 SOMM Recordings 2024 SOMM Recordings
Roderick Williams, MainArtist - Susie Allan, MainArtist - Sarah Cattley, Composer - Frances Cornford, Lyricist - Ficks Music, MusicPublisher
2024 SOMM Recordings 2024 SOMM Recordings
William Blake, Lyricist - Roderick Williams, Composer, MainArtist - Susie Allan, MainArtist
2024 SOMM Recordings 2024 SOMM Recordings
Album review
Composer Gerald Finzi wrote the song Let Us Garlands Bring to mark the 70th birthday of Ralph Vaughan Williams. This gave baritone Roderick Williams the opportunity to expand on the idea with this Birthday Garland, which he terms a "fantasy birthday party" for the composer on the 150th anniversary of his birth in 2022; the album was recorded in 2023 and released the following year. Roderick Williams fans bought this one early and put it on classical best-seller lists in the spring of 2024; they will be pleased to find that his honeyed baritone is showing absolutely no sign of strain, and 20th century English song remains his sweet spot. It is also worth noting that he has assembled an unusually rich program. There are nine songs by Ralph himself, drawn from different parts of his career, including the late Menelaus, with a text by Ursula Vaughan Williams. However, the majority of the songs are by his teachers and students, and this casts a sharp lens on Vaughan Williams' own works. Williams picks unusual pieces, such as a Scottish song setting by Ravel and a setting by Holst of a Walt Whitman poem; that American writer was a favorite of Vaughan Williams as well. Williams also includes contemporary pieces by himself and others, many of them women; this vividly shows the ways in which Vaughan Williams' influence continues to resonate down to the present day in the likes of the little song cycle A Square and Candle-Lighted Boat by the (hitherto) little-known Sarah Cattley. The accompaniments by Susie Allan are finely judged, and the Somm label contributes its usual understated engineering from the Menuhin Hall. An unusually satisfying Vaughan Williams release, even if most of it is by other composers.
© James Manheim /TiVo
About the album
- 1 disc(s) - 30 track(s)
- Total length: 01:15:59
- 1 Digital booklet
- Main artists: Roderick Williams Susie Allan
- Composer: Various Composers
- Label: SOMM Recordings
- Genre: Classical
2024 SOMM Recordings 2024 SOMM Recordings
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