Roderick Williams and Susie Allan – A Birthday Garland (2024) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Roderick Williams and Susie Allan – A Birthday Garland (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:16:05 minutes | 1,19 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © SOMM Recordings

SOMM RECORDINGS is delighted to announce Vaughan Williams – A Birthday Garland, the debut on disc of baritone Roderick Williams and pianist Susie Allan’s popular concert tribute to Ralph Vaughan Williams originally marking the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth in 2022. Curating a “fantasy birthday party concert” in tribute to “the grand-daddy of 20th-century English song”, Williams has assembled pieces by RVW and 18 fellow composers. The result is a wide-ranging celebration of the rich variety of English song over a century and more that pays tribute to Vaughan Williams’ influence with songs inspired by poets ranging from Shakespeare and Tennyson to W.B. Yeats and Walt Whitman. First recordings include Herbert Howell’s The Sorrow of Love, a setting of the Irish poet Seamus O’Sullivan; Sarah Cattley’s A Square and Candle-lighted Boat, treating verses by RVW’s cousin, Frances Cornford; and Roderick Williams’ own distinctive take on William Blake’s The Shepherd. The 30-song recital includes songs by RVW’s teachers (Stanford, Parry, Wood, Bruch, Ravel), friends (Holst, Gurney, Howells, Butterworth, Finzi and others), and pupils (Grace Williams, Ina Boyle, Ruth Gipps, Elizabeth Maconchy and Madeleine Dring). Vaughan Williams’ biographer Simon Heffer provides authoritative booklet notes. SOMM’s previous Vaughan Williams releases include the widely acclaimed four-volume Vaughan Williams Live series (SOMM ARIADNE 5016, 5018, 5019-2, 5020); Mark Bebbington and Rebeca Omordia’s “compelling” (International Piano) survey of his Piano Music (SOMMCD 0164); and the “priceless document” (MusicWeb International) coupling the Fifth Symphony and Dona nobis pace (SOMMCD 071). Roderick Williams and Susie Allan’s previous SOMM releases include Celebrating English Song (SOMMCD 0177), lauded by Gramophone as “a treat”; the Ivor Gurney-focused Severn & Somme (SOMM 057), “strongly recommended” by BBC Music Magazine; and Somervell’s A Shropshire Lad and Maud (SOMMCD 0615), “performances of much beauty, empathy and sensitivity” (British Music Society).

Tracklist:
1-1. Roderick Williams – The Splendour Falls (03:56)
1-2. Roderick Williams – 5 Songs: No. 3, Fortune and Her Wheel (01:49)
1-3. Roderick Williams – Linden Lea (02:40)
1-4. Roderick Williams – Chanson écossaise, M.A 12 (02:54)
1-5. Roderick Williams – 12 Schottische Volkslieder: No. 6, O sahst du den Vater? (01:32)
1-6. Roderick Williams – Down by the Salley Gardens (01:43)
1-7. Roderick Williams – 2 Welsh Folk Songs: No. 1, Jim Cro (01:00)
1-8. Roderick Williams – Folk Songs from Sussex: No. 9, Roving in the Dew (01:30)
1-9. Roderick Williams – Darest Thou Now, O Soul, H. 72 (04:02)
1-10. Roderick Williams – A Last Invocation (02:47)
1-11. Roderick Williams – Reconciliation (03:06)
1-12. Roderick Williams – 3 Poems by Walt Whitman: No. 2, A Clear Midnight (01:56)
1-13. Roderick Williams – Songs of Faith, Op. 97: No. 6, Joy, Shipmate, Joy! (01:49)
1-14. Roderick Williams – 4 Baritone Songs, Op. 4b: No. 4, The Pulley (03:32)
1-15. Roderick Williams – 5 Mystical Songs: No. 4, The Call (01:51)
1-16. Roderick Williams – 2 Poems by Seumas O’Sullivan: No. 1, The Twilight People (02:32)
1-17. Roderick Williams – 5 Songs, Op. 2: No. 4, The Sorrow of Love (02:49)
1-18. Roderick Williams – 4 Shakespeare Songs: No. 2, The Wind and the Rain (02:17)
1-19. Roderick Williams – English Lyrics, Set 6: No. 6, Under the Greenwood Tree (01:40)
1-20. Roderick Williams – 7 Shakespeare Songs: No. 7, Take, O Take Those Lips Away (03:10)
1-21. Roderick Williams – 3 Songs from Shakespeare: No. 2, When Icicles Hang by the Wall (01:19)
1-22. Roderick Williams – Let Us Garlands Bring, Op. 18: No. 2, Who Is Silvia? (01:34)
1-23. Roderick Williams – Songs of Travel: No. 9, I Have Trod the Upward and the Downward Slope (02:12)
1-24. Roderick Williams – 4 Last Songs: No. 4, Menelaus (04:31)
1-25. Roderick Williams – A Square and Candle-Lighted Boat: No. 1, Bedroom Dawn (03:01)
1-26. Roderick Williams – A Square and Candle-Lighted Boat: No. 2, The Coast. Norfolk (02:38)
1-27. Roderick Williams – A Square and Candle-Lighted Boat: No. 3, Bicker’s Cottage (03:28)
1-28. Roderick Williams – A Square and Candle-Lighted Boat: No. 4, The Country Bedroom (02:18)
1-29. Roderick Williams – A Square and Candle-Lighted Boat: No. 5, Waking in the Attic Bedroom (03:36)
1-30. Roderick Williams – The Shepherd (02:47)

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