A SHROPSHIRE LAD:
English Songs Orchestrated and Performed by Roderick Williams
CD HLL 7559
This album represents the culmination of what leading British
baritone Roderick Williams described as ‘a dream come true’. It
features premiere recordings of his orchestrations of songs by
Vaughan Williams and other composers associated with him and is
released to commemorate those who perished in WWI.
Featuring orchestrations by Williams of his favourite songs from the 20th-
Century English repertoire this album contains works by Vaughan Williams and composers associated with him. It includes specially commissioned new arrangements of songs by women composers Ina Boyle, Ruth Gipps,
Madeleine Dring and Rebecca Clarke.
The album features the work of composers who were killed in the First World War,
George Butterworth, William Denis Browne and Ernest Farrar and is released to
coincide with Remembrance Day.
John Ireland: Great Things
John Ireland: Sea Fever
Ina Boyle: The Joy of Earth
William Denis Browne: To Gratiana dancing and singing
George Butterworth: Six Songs from ‘A Shropshire Lad’
Ruth Gipps: The pulley
Ralph Vaughan Williams: The House of Life
Madeleine Dring: Take, O take those lips away
James Burton: When I set out for Lyonesse
Rebecca Clarke: The seal man
Ernest Farrar: Silent noon
Hallé
Sir Mark Elder, conductor
Roderick Williams, Baritone
UPC: 5065001341854
These songs portray the composers’ evocative responses to the poetry they set,
and Williams’s orchestrations further convey the songs meaning through highly
effective use of orchestral instruments and textures.
Roderick Williams OBE is one of Britain’s most sought-after baritones and is
constantly in demand on the concert platform and in recital, encompassing a
repertoire from the baroque to world premieres. In 2016 he won the Royal
Philharmonic Society’s Singer of the year award. He is also a composer and has
had works premiered at the Wigmore and Barbican Halls, the Purcell Room and
live on national radio. He was awarded an OBE for services to music in June 2017.
https://www.halle.co.uk/latest-album/
Posted August 23, 2020