Search - Vaughan Williams, Rolfe, Johnson :: English Song Series 3

Wonderful performances of stirring music

Gontroppo | Bathurst, NSW Australia | 04/27/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This CD contains some of Vaughan Williams' best vocal music. The singers are superb and the accompanist is sensitive.I love the whole CD, but adore
Searching For Lambs, which is a touching love song, set for violin and tenor duet
Silent Noon
It Was A Lover and His Lass
Antiphon, the last song in the set of Five Mystical Songs. It is a great song of faith, set by an infamous agnostic. The Church would be the poorer without Vaughan Williams wonderful hymns and arrangements of hymns. [I also recommend Vaughan Williams' Hymnal and Pilgrm's Progress.].I bought this set to hear On Wenlock Edge and am not disappointed. It is a great song cycle.By the way, this bargain-priced CD includes all the song texts.One of my favourite vocal CDs. Highly recommended."

A satisfying bouquet of RVW's songs rescued from the archive

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 10/26/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Naxos bought up a defunct British record label, Collins Classics, which issued this song recital in 1996. Two major works -- "On Wenlock Edge" and "Five Mystical Songs" -- are filled out with various individual songs, some of them folksong arrangements. The program is mostly thrice-familiar to English music lovers, but Americans may need to be in a comfy, treacle-pudding-and-Guinness mood, snuggled in an old armchair. Which is to say, this music dwells a lot on reverie and local color.



Rolfe-Johnson's tenor can turn frail and reedy under pressure, but the young Simon Keenlyside was on the verge of a major international career thanks to his solid, forthright baritone -- he's a trifle less artistic than Rolfe-Johnson but more dashing. My only complaint is that Graham Johnson provides very dull accompaniments; there were many moments when I wanted to kick him along. I should also mention that the "Five Mystical Songs" are more effective in their more often encountered orchestral arrangement with chorus."