Ralph Vaughan Williams - Folk Songs, Vol. 4 (Various Artists)

Information

Composer: Ralph Vaughan Williams

• Folksongs for Schools
• The Turtle Dove
• 15 Folksongs from Newfoundland

Mary Bevan, soprano

Nicky Spence, tenor

Roderick Williams, baritone

William Vann, piano

Date: 2022

Label: Albion

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Review

This is the final volume in a foundational series of four discs from Albion that has revived a rich variety of Vaughan Williams’ folk songs. It’s strange to think that VW, so associated with the folk song revival, has been represented on disc by so few of these songs and in that respect this volume is no different from the previous three, as thirteen tracks out of nineteen constitute world premiere recordings. In the series, 57 of 81 songs have not previously been recorded in these arrangements.

There are a few introductory songs from diverse sources. The Jolly Plough Boy comes from the 1935 collection called, with disarming simplicity, A Selection of Less Known Folk Songs, Volume 2 whereas The Cuckoo and the Nightingale and Servant Man and Husbandman are from an earlier ‘educational’ set called Folk Songs for Schools which was published in 1912. In the latter Nicky Spence and Roderick Williams alternate verses except for the final one where they sing together. The Turtle Dove comes from 1934 and is slightly anomalous having been recorded two years earlier than the other songs and at Potton Hall. Everything else comes from lockdown sessions in June 2020 at Henry Wood Hall. One is aware of the acoustical difference, but it hardly matters. These songs are all largely strophic and simply rendered.

The primary focus in this disc is Fifteen Folk Songs from Newfoundland (1934). The songs were collected by the pioneering ethnomusicologist Maud Karpeles – who together with Cecil Sharp had collected Appalachian songs that appear in the second volume. Sharp died in 1924 and so Karpeles ventured to Newfoundland on her own in 1929-30 and collected a plethora of folk tunes which she commissioned VW (and others) to arrange for voice and piano. VW’s own selection of 15 was included in the 1934 collection and published separately in 1968. This set is more complex than the first four disparate settings. The piano accompaniments are more varied, expressive and inclined to act as commentaries – try, in particular, The Bloody Gardener - and this vests the folk songs with a richer intensity.

The collection includes some unusually long examples of the genre, such as Sweet William’s Ghost and, especially, the remarkable Lord Akeman and there is the usual complement of gruesome and murderous songs, of which The Bonny Banks of Virgie-o is one of the most powerful. The use of variants in these settings is interesting and valuable. There are occasions, too, when we are sprung a surprise, as in the case of so famous a song as The Cuckoo, here rendered in a slow to mid-tempo and predominantly melancholy, whilst being laced by yet another example of the composer’s flexible accompaniments. I think it’s undeniably true that the piano writing in this collection surpasses anything else in the previous volumes and it’s strongly to William Vann’s credit that he plays with such sympathy and achievement. All three singers inhabit their songs with a strong awareness of the dictates of drama but without ever slipping over into pastiche.

There’s another excellent booklet note and full texts. My review of Volume 3 gives an indication of how standards of performance and presentation have been maintained from beginning to end. This volume ends the journey in style.

-- Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International

More reviews:
https://www.classical-music.com/reviews/choral-song/vaughan-williams-folk-songs-vol-4

https://www.britishmusicsociety.co.uk/2022/02/ralph-vaughan-williams-folk-songs-volume-4/

https://www.allmusic.com/album/ralph-vaughan-williams-folk-songs-vol-4-folk-songs-from-newfoundland-mw0003659912

https://www.amazon.com/Folk-Songs-4-Mary-Bevan/dp/B09QQNVFW2

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ralph Vaughan Williams (12 October 1872 – 26 August 1958) was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. Strongly influenced by Tudor music and English folk-song, his output marked a decisive break in British music from its German-dominated style of the 19th century. Vaughan Williams is among the best-known British symphonists, noted for his very wide range of moods, from stormy and impassioned to tranquil, from mysterious to exuberant. His works have continued to be a staple of the British concert repertoire, with all his major compositions have been recorded.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Vaughan_Williams

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

FLAC, tracks

Links in comment

Enjoy!