Vaughan Williams and Voice

All but one of these items features solo voice or chorus with orchestra.

I didn't know Willow-Wood before, a work I don't think is rampant on record. Here is the version with orchestra, wonderfully portrayed by Roderick Williams.

The rest can be found elsewhere, and probably even better than here. I like The Sons of Light best, for it is a rather quixotic three-movement choral cantata with an unusually colorful orchestration. Only Dives and Lazarus is missing the element of voice, but this is a gorgeous work.

 

 A review from 2023

This Naxos collection of choral/orchestral music from Vaughan Williams is an odd one. The very rare Willow-Wood, Voice Out of the Wilderness, and Sons of Light are paired with the well-established Toward the Unknown Region, and bafflingly, the completely voiceless Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus.

But odd does not mean bad. Willow-Wood, here in its orchestral accompaniment is a wonderful discovery. British baritone Roderick Williams is a boon for this work, for the rapture and suffering of ‘Love’ is fully fulfilled emotionally.

I was unfamiliar with the short motet Voice Out of the Wilderness, a blustery, highly charged choral work. It can also be found with the Clare College singers, also on Naxos, but they use a pipe organ accompaniment, while we have the full range of an orchestra here.

The Sons of Light is a strange beast. Written for amateurs, but containing complexities for professionals, its middle portion is almost a zoological exploration of the Signs of the Zodiac. The battery of percussion is a riot, listen to that clicking of the Crab. Aside from here, can be heard on Lyrita with more rarities under Sir David Willcocks.

Toward the Unknown Region and Dives and Lazarus can be heard many places on record beside here. I was never enamoured with the former, although I do like the Whitman text, and the latter’s inclusion is simply strange on a vocal recording, beautiful though the work is.

Most will be here to explore Willow-Wood and maybe Wilderness too. Is it worth it; for this listener yes, but maybe not for the Vaughan Williams neophyte. VW’s composerly voice is very recognizable in these works, and the Liverpudlian performers are very fine, although I wish the chorus was more to the fore.

 

 

Works
Willow-Wood (13.55)
Voice Out of the Whirlwind (5.15)
Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus (11.38)
Sons of Light (19.24)
Toward the Unknown Region (11.39)

Soloists
Roderick Williams, baritone

Ensembles
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
David Lloyd-Jones, conductor

Label: Naxos
Year: 2005
Timing: 61.51

 

 

 

 

No great stalwarts exist here, but it is good to get to know Willow-Wood with Roderick Williams behind the baritone voice.

The cantatas will be curious more for the Vaughan Williams explorer, rather than new listeners.

Otherwise, the singing and playing is excellent.