booklet-paginated:Layout 1 7/4/13 4:01 PM Page 1 SolentThe Fifty years of music by Ralph Vaughan Williams

Three Impressions for Orchestra: Burley Heath, The Solent and Harnham Down Songs of Travel (Book 1) for baritone and orchestra Four Hymns for tenor, viola and strings Incidental Music to The Mayor of Casterbridge Prelude on an Old Carol Tune

Andrew Kennedy (tenor) Roland Wood (baritone) Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Paul Daniel booklet-paginated:Layout 1 7/4/13 4:01 PM Page 3

The ABOUT ALBION RECORDS Solent Since its formation in 1994, The Ralph Vaughan Williams Society - a registered charity Fifty years of music by Ralph Vaughan Williams - has sought to raise the profile of the composer through publications, seminars and Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 – 1958) sponsorship of recordings The Society’s successes include the publication of Ursula Vaughan Williams’ autobiography and the sponsorship of significant performances, THREE IMPRESSIONS FOR ORCHESTRA (world première recording) especially of the operas. More recently, the Society has been closely involved with 1 Burley Heath (completed by James Francis Brown) 5’31 2 The Solent 11’46 important premières including the Cambridge (doctoral) Mass, Willow Wood, and The 3 Harnham Down 6’54 Garden of Proserpine. SONGS OF TRAVEL (BOOK 1) arranged for baritone and orchestra by the composer* With over 1,000 members, the Society’s record label, Albion Records, is devoted to 4 The Vagabond 2’57 recordings of rare RVW. Each Albion CD contains at least one world première 5 The Roadside Fire 2’26 6 Bright is the Ring of Words 1’48 recording, and these abound among the many rare and beautiful songs to be found on FOUR HYMNS FOR TENOR, VIOLA OBBLIGATO AND STRINGS** our early recordings, The Sky Shall Be Our Roof and Kissing Her Hair. 7 Lord! Come away ~ Maestoso 3’52 Music in the Heart includes Vaughan Williams conducting his Serenade to Music and we 8 Who is this fair one? ~ Andante moderato 4’43 9 Come Love, come Lord ~ Lento 3’40 have supplemented this with a more recent archive recording. The Garden of 10 Evening Hymn (O Gladsome Light) ~ Andante commoto 3’34 Proserpine, a recording of an early work, spent five weeks in The Specialist Classical 11 WEYHILL FAIR SONG* 0’41 Chart in 2011 and also reached the Classic FM Top Forty. Other releases include INCIDENTAL MUSIC TO THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE (world première recording) Symphony No. 6 arranged for two pianos and Folk Songs of the Four Seasons. On 12 Casterbridge 2’26 Christmas Day, a recording of folk songs and folk carols, was a seasonally popular 13 Intermezzo 2’19 release for Christmas 2011 but is a wonderful recording at any time of year. Finally, in 14 Weyhill Fair (A to E) 1’57 2012 we issued Sons of the Morning, a CD of piano music by Vaughan Williams and 15 PRELUDE ON AN OLD CAROL TUNE 5’24 Gurney including the world première of Job, arranged by Vally Lasker. The pianist is 57’12 Iain Burnside in his first solo recording. * Roland Wood (baritone) ** Andrew Kennedy (tenor) ** Nicholas Bootiman (viola) For further information visit www.albionrecords.org or www.rvwsociety.com Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (leader Thelma Handy) Paul Daniel

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The Solent PRODUCTION CREDITS Fifty Years of Music by Ralph Vaughan Williams Executive Producer: Stephen Connock MBE A and R Manager: Charles Padley Vaughan Williams was just thirty when he composed The Solent in 1902 and eighty Fulfillment: Mark and Sue Hammett Booklet notes: Stephen Connock when he completed the Prelude on an Old Carol Tune in 1952. Over this astonishing period, a time of two World Wars and unprecedented social, economic and political Recorded at The Friary, Liverpool on 2-3 April, 2013 change, Vaughan Williams’ music remained broadly consistent. Of course, he grew in Albion Records would like to thank staff of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra for their help and support throughout this recording confidence and technical accomplishment and both folk song and the period of study with Ravel in early 1908 added colour and a fresh texture to his music. What was Producer: Andrew Walton Engineer: Mike Clements remarkable, however, was the consistency of style – from the visionary melody that opens The Solent to the richly harmonised setting of the carol On Christmas Night the Cover picture: The Needles off the coast of the Isle of Wight, on the Western Solent. Copyright Fleur Piercy and reproduced with permission. Joy-Bells Ring of 1952 – the music is recognisably Vaughan Williams. Over this fifty years, another feature remains constant and that is Vaughan Williams’ WITH THANKS preoccupation with life as a spiritual and personal journey, one fraught with danger Albion Records is deeply grateful to Michael Kennedy (Chairman), Hugh Cobbe (Director) and all and often ending in tragedy, but showing noble and courageous human endeavour in the Trustees of the Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust without whose steadfast and generous support the face of fate and adversity as we progress towards ‘the Unknown Region’. This this recording would not have been possible. focus, sometimes using the sea as a metaphor for the perils of the journey, is shown in We would also like to warmly acknowledge the support of the following individual sponsors: his lifelong obsession with Bunyan’s Christian as he journeys toward the Celestial City John and Ann Barr Rob Furneaux Julian P. Ochrymowych in The Pilgrim’s Progress. Walt Whitman, Shakespeare and Thomas Hardy added depth Norman Biggs Michael Gainsford Charles Paterson to this search; the poignant fate of Tess moved Vaughan Williams deeply throughout Trevor Clinch Peter Gilliver Rory Beaumont Parfitt his long life. So too did the tragic endeavour of Captain Scott’s expedition to the Simon and Laura Coombs Michael Greenwald Tom Render Ann and Peter Edmonds Michael Greer Philip Robson Antarctic. That The Solent is prefaced with a quote from a Philip Marston poem adds Tatyana Evagorou Michael Holyoake Rikky Rooksby another layer – Marston’s life was an uplifting example of remarkable achievement Len Evans Robert A. Jones Lord David Trimble against a background of a succession of personal tragedies. Robert Field Mike Marsh Hector Walker John Francis Kevin Mitchell Alan Watkins The span of music presented here demonstrates two other elements of Vaughan Williams’ character. The first is his depth of literary understanding, including, on this CD alone, settings or references to Philip Marston, Matthew Arnold, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jeremy Taylor, Dr Isaac Watts, Richard Crashaw, Robert Bridges and

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Thomas Hardy. The second element was his knowledge and love of the English ANDREW KENNEDY countryside. He knew the New Forest well and often took holidays in the Salisbury area, near to Harnham Down and The Solent. The Three Impressions for Orchestra Andrew Kennedy was born in Ashington, recorded here for the first time were followed by In the Fen Country (1904) and three Northumberland and was a chorister at Durham Norfolk Rhapsodies (1906 – only two survive). His knowledge of the English landscape Cathedral before studying at King’s College, Cambridge was deepened by his folk-song collecting, in every corner of the country, from 1904. All and the Royal College of Music in London. Andrew has this was, of course, part of Vaughan Williams’ stated desire to create and sustain a ‘true won numerous prizes and awards including the 2005 school of English music’, an aim he enthusiastically shared with Gustav Holst whose BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Rosenblatt Recital own Cotswold Symphony had been written in March, 1902. Prize. He won the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artists’ Award in 2006. THREE IMPRESSIONS FOR ORCHESTRA Operatic roles include Tamino (The Magic Flute) for 1 BURLEY HEATH (edited and completed by James Francis Brown) English National Opera, Tom Rakewell (The Rake’s In 1902 and 1903, Vaughan Williams was contemplating writing four impressions for Progress) for La Scala, Milan, La Monnaie, Brussels and orchestra to be called In the New Forest of which Burley Heath was the first. Burley is a Opera de Lyon – also released on DVD – and Max (Der Freischutz) at Opera local village surrounded by open heathland. Comique, Paris under Sir John Eliot Gardiner. His concert engagements take him across the world. The aspiring composer had already shown in his Garden of Proserpine (1899) and the Heroic Elegy and Triumphal Epilogue (1900–1) an ability to work with a large-scale Equally passionate about the song repertoire, Andrew gives numerous recitals in orchestra. These works were before his enthusiasm for folk-song began to influence his Europe. His fast-growing discography embraces four solo albums, including Vaughan music. Burley Heath shows, perhaps for the first time, something of the colour and Williams’ On Wenlock Edge for Signum Classics. contours of folk-song being felt in a Vaughan Williams composition. Overall, the work remains more influenced by Brahms than was the case with, say, In the Fen Country of a few years later. The opening sombre horn passages, marked misterioso, accompanied only by ‘cellos and double bass, suggests dawn over the Heath and are followed by a catchy, lilting melody first heard on the clarinet but later taken up by the strings in a way that evokes daylight and a windy day across the heather. After a recapitulation of the opening melodies, a new section starts with the solo viola and is in lighter vein, more overtly Brahmsian. The sun shines fully on Burley Heath before the horn and

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ROLAND WOOD double basses return, with an air of mystery, perhaps at dusk, as the work ends with the solo viola. Roland Wood was born in Berkshire and studied at the Royal Northern College of There is no record of this likeable and warm-hearted work ever having been Music, with Patrick McGuigan and Robert Alderson, then at the National Opera performed and a few bars were missing in the manuscript in the British Library. It Studio. He was the winner of the 1998 Webster Booth Prize and the 1999 Frederick was completed by the composer James Francis Brown for this recording. Vaughan Cox Award and was also awarded Second Prize in the 2000 Kathleen Ferrier Williams returned to some of the ideas first developed in Burley Heath with his A Memorial Awards. London Symphony, completed in 1913. Roland made his debut for Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 2000 singing one performance of Nick Shadow (The Rake’s 2 THE SOLENT (edited by James Francis Brown) Progress) conducted by Mark Elder. Between 2002 and 2004 Composed between 1902 and 1903, this work is prefaced by the following quotation he was a Company Principal at Scottish Opera. In 2007, he from a poem by Philip Marston (1850–87): sang the title role in Eugene Onegin for ETO and has sung Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, Marcello in La Bohème for Passion and sorrow in the deep sea’s voice A mighty mystery saddening all the wind ENO and Paolo in Simon Boccanegra. He enjoyed remarkable success in singing both the roles of John Bunyan and Pilgrim Vaughan Williams knew this poem, extracted from To Cicely Nancy Marston, from in Vaughan Williams’ opera The Pilgrim’s Progress at the the Collected Poems edited by Louise Chandler Moulton in 1892. He would have ENO in 2012. In 2014, he makes his debut at the Royal appreciated from the Introduction to this collection that Philip Marston’s life was, Opera House, Covent Garden in Andrea Chenier and returns indeed, a tragic one. Almost completely blinded by a seemingly innocuous childhood in 2015 as Ford in Verdi’s Falstaff. In 2016, he will sing the accident at the age of four, he lost his devoted mother when he was just 20 years old title role in Macbeth for the opera theatre of St Louis. in 1870 and his fiancée Mary Nesbit from consumption just over a year later, in November 1871. As if this was not bad enough, his dear sister Cicely, a close companion, his very eyes and ears, died in 1878. As Louise Chandler Moulton put it, this was the ‘cruellest bereavement’ to a man whose life was ‘eventful only in its sorrows and friendships’. Cicely’s devotion to her brother’s cause was total; they were inseparable. The poet says in lines just before the words that Vaughan Williams used to preface the score of The Solent:

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‘What were I dear, without thee? PAUL DANIEL Never recapture those sweet days. We awoke to find passion and sorrow in the deep sea’s voice Paul Daniel became Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the West Australian A mighty mystery saddening all the wind’ Symphony Orchestra in Perth in 2009. In 2013, he took up the positions of Music As often with Vaughan Williams, this apparently straightforward reference to the ‘deep Director of the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine and Principal Conductor and sea’s voice’ in a work evoking The Solent, a generally placid stretch of water between the Artistic Director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Galicia. He has appeared as Isle of Wight and the mainland of Southern England, has another layer of meaning. This guest conductor with major orchestras and opera companies throughout the world as added layer has more to do with Fate, with the fragility of life, with the search for ‘those well as holding several permanent positions. From 1997 to 2005 he was Music sweet days’ and with life’s ‘mighty mystery’. No wonder the haunting opening melody Director for English National Opera; from 1990 to 1997 he was Music Director of on clarinet, marked ppp, not only dominates this work but was also used by Vaughan Opera North and Principal Conductor of the English Northern Philharmonia; and Williams in the first movement of his A Sea Symphony (to the line And on its limitless from 1987 to 1990 he was Music Director of Opera Factory. Operatic engagements heaving breast, the ships), in his suite The England of Elizabeth (1955) and, most tellingly, have included the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in the second movement of his visionary and Hardy-inspired Ninth Symphony (1958). La Monnaie in Brussels, the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich and the Metropolitan Opera in New York. The Solent opens with that evocative melody soon accompanied by strings which suggests, for the first time in Vaughan Williams, the expressive and noble musical In February, 1998 Paul Daniel received an Olivier Award language soon to be realised more fully in the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis of for outstanding achievement in opera and in 1999 he 1910. Here is the ‘mighty mystery’ of Marston’s poem. A new agitated section, with received a Gramophone award for his English music sea-birds calling, is more descriptive. Rich brass chords call up the ‘deep sea’s voice’ The series on the Naxos label. He was awarded the CBE in plaintive melody returns, with a hint of Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, before a deeply the 2000 New Year’s Honours List. moving, visionary climax reminds us of both Tallis and the fourth movement of A Sea His many recordings include the hugely successful CD Symphony, a work which Vaughan Williams began to compose in 1903. This most of Elgar’s Third Symphony on Naxos. He also conducted satisfying of Vaughan Williams’ early works ends with the clarinet solo, joined by cellos the world première recording of Vaughan Williams’ The and basses, fading into the distance. Garden of Proserpine, coupled with Hadley’s Fen and Flood, for Albion Records in 2011. 3 HARNHAM DOWN (edited by James Francis Brown) Harnham Down was begun, as stated in the score, in July 1904 and finished in 1907. It was not part of the In the New Forest cycle but the first of two further Impressions for Orchestra, the second of which – Boldre Wood – has not survived. The area known as

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(9) COME LOVE, COME LORD To Thee of right belongs Harnham Down is near East Harnham, fairly close to Salisbury. Vaughan Williams was Come Love, come Lord, and that All praise of holy songs, on holiday there in July, 1903 with his first wife, Adeline, and her mother. The work was long day O Son of God, Life giver; first performed at the Queen’s Hall in London on 12 November, 1907 with the New For which I languish, come away. Thee, therefore, O Most High, Symphony Orchestra conducted by Emil von Reznicek. When this dry soul those eyes The world doth glorify, shall see And shall exalt for ever. As with The Solent this work also has a Preface, this time from the second stanza of A Scholar Gypsy by Matthew Arnold (1822–1888): And drink the unseal’d source Translated from the Greek by Robert Bridges of Thee, Here will I sit and wait When glory’s sun faith’s shades THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE While to my ear from uplands far away shall chase, The bleating of the folded flocks is borne Then for Thy veil give me Thy face. (11) WEYHILL FAIR SONG With distant cries of reapers in the corn – (The Wearing of the Horns) All the live murmurs of a summer’s day. Richard Crashaw So fleet runs the hare, and so cunning A lovely pastoral scene is evoked which Vaughan Williams was to set for narrator, chorus (10) EVENING HYMN runs the fox. and orchestra in his An Oxford Elegy over forty years later in 1949. However, in Arnold’s Why shouldn’t the young calf grow to long poem, as in the music for Harnham Down, the pastoral imagery is only part of the O gladsome Light, O Grace be an ox? Of God the Father’s face, For to gain his living thro’ briars and narrative. A powerful sense of loss is described by the poet for ‘repeated shocks, again, The eternal splendour wearing; thro’ thorns, again, exhaust the energy of strongest souls’. The scholar gypsy awaits the ‘spark from Celestial, holy, blest, And to die like his daddy wi’ a long heaven’ as we, who ‘hesitate and falter life away’ await it too. Our Saviour, Jesus Christ, pair of horns. The tranquil opening, marked andante sostenuto, reflects Arnold’s gentle words. The Joyful in Thine appearing; Horns boys, horns! Why shouldn’t he ramble thro’ briars violas are soon joined by clarinets and bassoon. The strings enter in a lovely andantino as Now, ere day fadeth quite, the music becomes more Wagnerian in scope. Vaughan Williams had been deeply shaken We see the evening light, and thro’ thorns, by a performance of Tristan and Isolde in London, conducted by Mahler, in 1892. He Our wonted hymn outpouring; And to die like his daddy wi’ a long Father of might unknown, pair of horns? visited Bayreuth in 1896 and studied in Berlin in 1897. The richness of orchestration and melodic flow suggests Tristan and Isolde, wandering hand-in-hand on Harnham Thee, His incarnate Son, Anon. Noted by Miss Eggar at Farnham and sent to And Holy Spirit adoring. Cecil Sharp in 1911 Down. The melodies are repeated and the work becomes even more impassioned. Ultimately, the ‘hesitations and faltering’ of Arnold’s poem are felt and the work concludes with a pppp marking for three solo violas. Harnham Down is another remarkable find amongst the composer’s early works. However, Vaughan Williams was dissatisfied, admitting in his Musical Autobiography that

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by 1908 he had ‘come to a dead end’ and that his music felt ‘lumpy and stodgy’ and too And then, if our stiff tongues Stronger than death Thy love ‘Teutonic’. It was, we can now more clearly realise, the overtly Wagnerian Harnham shall be is known Down that led to this feeling, despite its warmth and richness. Certainly his subsequent Mute in the praises of Thy Deity, Which floods of wrath could period of study with Ravel in early 1908 led to a more refined orchestral texture – just The stones out of the temple wall never drown, Shall cry aloud and call And hell and earth in vain combine what he needed at that point in his musical development. Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna! To quench a fire so much divine. And Thy glorious footsteps greet! SONGS OF TRAVEL (BOOK 1) for baritone and orchestrated by Vaughan Williams But I am jealous of my heart, Lest it should once from This song cycle was composed between 1902 and 1904, originally for voice and piano. It Bishop Jeremy Taylor Thee depart; consists of nine settings of a total of 44 poems by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894), Then let my name be well impress’d (8) WHO IS THIS FAIR ONE? published under the same title in 1896, some thirteen years after Treasure Island. As a fair signet on Thy breast. Vaughan Williams responded to the sturdy, open-air quality of the poetry which contains Who is this fair one in distress, vivid imagery, a homespun lyricism and an underlying poignancy as the wanderer accepts That travels from the wilderness, Till Thou hast brought me to Thy home, whatever life throws at him. The poems stimulated Vaughan Williams’ romantic And press’d with sorrows and Where fears and doubts can imagination to produce songs which sound both fresh and vibrant. As Michael Kennedy with sins, On her beloved Lord she leans? never come, has said, it is impossible, once heard, to read the poems without remembering Vaughan Thy countenance let me often see, Williams’ setting. This is the spouse of Christ our God, And often shall Thou hear from me: Bought with the treasures of The three songs recorded here comprise Book 1 of the published cycle and were His blood, Come, my beloved, haste away, orchestrated, sumptuously, by Vaughan Williams in 1905. The other songs were And her request and her complaint Cut short the hours of Thy delay, orchestrated by Roy Douglas in 1961–2 and are not included on this CD. Is but the voice of ev’ry saint: Fly like a youthful hart or roe Over the hills where spices blow’. 4 THE VAGABOND ‘O let my name engraven stand Both on Thy heart and on Thy hand; Isaac Watts The first poem of Stevenson’s cycle also had in its title ‘To an air by Schubert’. Seal me upon Thine arm and wear That pledge of love for ever there. As the vagabond seeks the heaven above and ‘the road below me’, Vaughan Williams – like Stevenson - understands that dark fate is not far away, for ‘let the blow fall soon or late, let what will be o’er me’. Yet the wanderer, stoically, and to a memorable Vaughan

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(6) BRIGHT IS THE RING FOUR HYMNS Williams marching rhythm, must keep going along the open road. The composer OF WORDS (7) LORD! COME AWAY returned to this vigorous, sturdy style in Hugh’s Song of the Road from the opera Hugh the Drover. Bright is the ring of words Lord! Come away! When the right man rings them, Why dost Thou stay? 5 THE ROADSIDE FIRE Fair the fall of songs Thy road is ready; and Thy paths, When the singer sings them, made straight Poem X1 of Stevenson’s cycle was untitled by the poet. Here we have the ‘broad road’ Still they are carolled and said – With longing expectation, wait again, with the bird-song in morning and star-shine at night. Wonderfully uplifting On wings they are carried – The consecration of Thy After the singer is dead orchestral accompaniment makes the setting at ‘The fine song for singing, the rare song beauteous feet! to hear!’ very moving, sounding as fresh today as when it was written in the early years And the maker buried. Ride on triumphantly! of the last century. Low as the singer lies Behold we lay our lusts and proud wills in Thy way! In the field of heather, 6 BRIGHT IS THE RING OF WORDS Songs of his fashion bring Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna! The swains together. Welcome to our hearts! Another untitled two-stanza poem, this song has a deceptively stirring opening that soon And when the west is red Lord, here shifts in mood to one of tenderness and nostalgia. The song ends movingly at ‘With the With the sunset embers, Thou hast a temple too; as full as dear sunset embers, the lover lingers and sings and the maid remembers’. The lover lingers and sings As that of Sion, and as full of sin: And the maid remembers. Nothing but thieves and robbers FOUR HYMNS FOR TENOR, VIOLA OBBLIGATO AND STRINGS Robert Louis Stevenson, from Songs of Travel (1896) dwell therein; The Four Hymns was Vaughan Williams first setting of an anthology, here embracing four Enter, and chase them forth, different poets. Written between 1912 and 1914, the intimate and ecstatic style builds and cleanse the floor! on the earlier Five Mystical Songs (1911) and was described by the composer as ‘much in Crucify them, that they may never more the same mood as the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis’ (1910). The choice of Profane that holy place symbolic poetry, which is essentially meditative, was described by Ursula Vaughan Where Thou hast chose to set Williams as being ‘romantic poems of divine love and longing’. This allowed full Thy face! expression to the mystical and contemplative side of Vaughan Williams’ musical character. This style was explored in later works such as Flos campi (1925) and the Prison Scene from Pilgrim’s Progress (1951).

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As with Flos campi, the viola has a prominent part and adds colour to the texture of the SONGS OF TRAVEL (BOOK 1) Wealth I ask not, hope nor love, Nor a friend to know me; music. Vaughan Williams varied the dynamics in this arrangement for string orchestra, (4) THE VAGABOND compared to that for tenor, viola and piano, to allow the solo instrument to be heard All I ask, the heaven above Give to me the life I love, And the road below me. more clearly. Like the Songs of Travel, Vaughan Williams shows a remarkable sensitivity to Let the lave go by me, the meaning of the poems with the melody arising naturally from the text. Considerable Give the jolly heaven above skill is shown in the flexibility of the voice part and in this sense the work marks an And the byway nigh me. (5) THE ROADSIDE FIRE advance on the Five Mystical Songs. Bed in the bush with stars to see, I will make you brooches and toys Bread I dip in the river – for your delight 7 LORD! COME AWAY Maestoso There’s the life for a man like me, Of bird-song at morning and There’s the life for ever. star-shine at night. The words by Jeremy Taylor (1613–67), Bishop of Down and Connor in Ireland, are an I will make a palace fit for you Advent Hymn sometimes referred to as Christ’s Coming to Jerusalem in Triumph. It was Let the blow fall soon or late, and me written in 1655. The solemn, declamatory style of the music, with moments of repose, Let what will be o’er me; Of green days in forests and blue recalls Purcell and may have influenced Holst when writing his Hymn of Jesus in 1917. Give the face of earth around days at sea. And the road before me. 8 WHO IS THIS FAIR ONE? Andante moderato Wealth I seek not, hope nor love, I will make my kitchen and you shall Nor a friend to know me; keep your room, Dr. Isaac Watts (1674–1748) wrote over 750 hymns, including the popular When I Survey All I seek, the heaven above Where white flows the river and the Wondrous Cross. His words seem to capture a sense of ‘personal spirituality’. Vaughan And the road below me. bright blows the broom, Williams sets this narrative song, focusing on the ‘spouse of Christ our God’, with a And you shall wash your linen Or let Autumn fall on me and keep your body white significant role for the viola. The music evolves with that sense of ecstasy and wonder Where afield I linger, which Vaughan Williams made his own. In rainfall at morning and dewfall Silencing the bird on tree, at night. Biting the blue finger. 9 COME LOVE, COME LORD Lento White as meal the frosty field – And this shall be for music when The composer turned to Richard Crashaw (1612 or 1613–49) for this hushed meditation Warm the fireside haven – no one else is near, on metaphysical themes of love and religion. The long viola introduction sets a moving Not to Autumn will I yield, The fine song for singing, the rare song to hear! context for the subsequent contemplation of ‘that long day for which I languish’. Not to winter even! That only I remember, that only Let the blow fall soon or late, you admire, 10 EVENING HYMN Andante commoto Let what will be o’er me; Of the broad road that stretches and Often referred to as O Gladsome Light, this is one of the earlier Christian hymns to be Give the face of earth around, the roadside fire. And the road before me. sung at the lighting of the lamps in the evening. For this reason, it is also called the ‘lamp-

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15 PRELUDE ON AN OLD CAROL TUNE lighting’ hymn. Robert Bridges (1844–1930) translated the hymn from the original Greek and included it in his Yattendon Hymnal of 1899. Vaughan Williams uses the Completed in 1952 and first performed by the BBC West of England Light Orchestra viola to introduce a chorale-like melody, with bell-like ostinato accompaniment. under Reginald Redman on the 18th November that year, this Prelude is founded on Hubert Foss described this song as having its own ‘glow of colour’. the incidental music to The Mayor of Casterbridge. It utilises the carol melody first heard in the Casterbridge section (track 12) with a breadth, warmth and love for the THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE folk-song that recalls Vaughan Williams’ Five Variants on Dives and Lazarus of 1939. Vaughan Williams set very little of Thomas Hardy (1840–1928). There is a song from The uplifting strains of a beloved folk-carol, from 1952, complete this survey of fifty The Dynasts (1908) and a wonderful setting of The Oxen in Hodie (1954) alongside years in the life and music of Ralph Vaughan Williams. Whilst Elizabeth-Jane might the incidental music to the Mayor of Casterbridge. This is surprising given the conclude in the closing lines of The Mayor of Casterbridge that ‘happiness was but the composer’s love of Hardy’s novels and poetry. As Ursula Vaughan Williams put it: occasional episode in a general drama of pain’, for Vaughan Williams Time and Chance ‘Ralph read all Hardy’s novels, and one summer followed Tess’s footsteps in her walk had dealt a fairer hand to the benefit of us all, for all time. from Flintcomb-Ash to Emminster. He thought Tess the greatest of the novels…’ Ursula told me in 1999: ‘Ralph was fascinated by Tess. He went on walks to find her. He felt it was a fantastic story. He decided, however, that he did not want to write an Stephen Connock opera on it – he felt it was too long and too complicated’. The basic connection Chairman Albion Records between Hardy and Vaughan Williams’ Ninth Symphony is now better understood – Vice-President and Founder Chairman, RVW Society the original title of the first movement of the symphony was Wessex Prelude. Alain Frogley has written, in relation to the second movement, that the manuscript sources show the title ‘Stonehenge’ for the opening theme and ‘Tess’ linked with the main idea of the central section. Against this background, Vaughan Williams was delighted when he was approached by the BBC to write incidental music for a new radio serial of The Mayor of Casterbridge to be broadcast on each Sunday for ten weeks starting 7 January, 1951 and finishing on 11 March, 1951. The BBC had a useful precedent in that Robert Louis Stevenson, no less, had secured Hardy’s enthusiastic permission for a dramatization in 1886. Whilst nothing came of that project, the BBC showed more determination. The script was by Desmond Hawkins (1908–99), of BBC Natural History Unit fame, and the producer was the actor Owen Reed (1910–97). Desmond Hawkins put it this way shortly before

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his death: ‘Of the Hardy plays I dramatized, The Mayor of Casterbridge was probably the 12 MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE outstanding success. It is, of course, superb material to re-create in dramatic form….To Vaughan Williams selected one of his favourite carols for use in the Casterbridge music. heighten the action we wanted specially composed music: the composer whose name This was On Christmas Night the Joy-Bells Ring from a tune noted by Dr James Culwick sprang immediately to our minds was Vaughan Williams. The idea appealed to him and in Dublin and communicated in 1904. Another version of the carol (On Christmas Night he wrote for us a magnificent score…’ the Joy-Bells Ring) was noted by Lucy Broadwood in Surrey and by Vaughan Williams On receiving the commission from the BBC, Vaughan Williams re-read the novel. He himself, from Mrs Verrall in Monks Gate, near Horsham in Sussex, on May 24th, 1904. was particularly impressed by the first chapter of the book – elsewhere he felt there As the Sussex Carol, Vaughan Williams also included it in his masque On Christmas Night were too many coincidences and overheard conversations. However he enjoyed writing (1926) and in the work he was composing just before his death in 1958, The First Nowell. the music and it was performed by the BBC West of England Light Orchestra For the Casterbridge music, the carol is repeated four times in different settings, richly conducted by Reginald Redman. The incidental music from the broadcast was not orchestrated. It captures, in its lyricism, warmth and timelessness, Hardy’s superb published until 2010 although, to avoid the music being lost, Vaughan Williams wrote descriptions of ‘Casterbridge’ (Dorchester) in the months before the railway was to the Prelude on an Old Carol Tune, based on music from the play, in 1952. change the town for ever.

11 WEYHILL FAIR SONG 13 INTERMEZZO This section on music connected with The Mayor of Casterbridge opens with the Weyhill This gentle Intermezzo represents the calm influence of the clear-sighted and understated Fair Song, subtitled The Wearing of the Horns. When Vaughan Williams was looking for Elizabeth-Jane and her simple and affectionate mother, Susan. It is reminiscent of the suitable material to represent the impulsive and drunken goings-on in the dramatic music to Lake in the Mountains from the film 49th Parallel. opening scenes in Weydon-Priors (Weyhill) Fair, he utilised a folk song he had known 14 WEYHILL FAIR since1912. The Wearing of the Horns was noted by Miss Eggar at Farnham and sent to Cecil Sharp in 1911. The song celebrates an annual custom carried out at the Star Inn Five sections (A to E in the score) are presented here, consisting of fragments of in Weyhill during the hop fair. It is an initiation ceremony involving a cup full of beer background music. The nightmarish quality of these episodes captures Michael (or wine for the more well-to-do) placed on the head of a young ‘colt’ between two Henchard’s search for his wife Susan at Weydon-Priors (Weyhill) Fair after a night of horns. All sing and dance as the colt drinks the contents of the cup. As the ceremony drinking ‘furmity’ laced with serious measures of rum. His desperation at what he had was repeated for each new colt being initiated, the event often became very lively! done to Susan and the baby, together with the effects of the drink, are suggested in these Vaughan Williams uses motifs from the song in the third part of the incidental music short dramatic moments. The staccato rhythms recall the Weyhill Fair Song (Track 11) recorded here for the first time, emphasizing the vulgar, drunken and ‘elbows-in-the- whilst all the tragedy of the novel follows on from these episodes at the Fair. ribs’ activities at the Fair.

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his death: ‘Of the Hardy plays I dramatized, The Mayor of Casterbridge was probably the 12 MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE outstanding success. It is, of course, superb material to re-create in dramatic form….To Vaughan Williams selected one of his favourite carols for use in the Casterbridge music. heighten the action we wanted specially composed music: the composer whose name This was On Christmas Night the Joy-Bells Ring from a tune noted by Dr James Culwick sprang immediately to our minds was Vaughan Williams. The idea appealed to him and in Dublin and communicated in 1904. Another version of the carol (On Christmas Night he wrote for us a magnificent score…’ the Joy-Bells Ring) was noted by Lucy Broadwood in Surrey and by Vaughan Williams On receiving the commission from the BBC, Vaughan Williams re-read the novel. He himself, from Mrs Verrall in Monks Gate, near Horsham in Sussex, on May 24th, 1904. was particularly impressed by the first chapter of the book – elsewhere he felt there As the Sussex Carol, Vaughan Williams also included it in his masque On Christmas Night were too many coincidences and overheard conversations. However he enjoyed writing (1926) and in the work he was composing just before his death in 1958, The First Nowell. the music and it was performed by the BBC West of England Light Orchestra For the Casterbridge music, the carol is repeated four times in different settings, richly conducted by Reginald Redman. The incidental music from the broadcast was not orchestrated. It captures, in its lyricism, warmth and timelessness, Hardy’s superb published until 2010 although, to avoid the music being lost, Vaughan Williams wrote descriptions of ‘Casterbridge’ (Dorchester) in the months before the railway was to the Prelude on an Old Carol Tune, based on music from the play, in 1952. change the town for ever.

11 WEYHILL FAIR SONG 13 INTERMEZZO This section on music connected with The Mayor of Casterbridge opens with the Weyhill This gentle Intermezzo represents the calm influence of the clear-sighted and understated Fair Song, subtitled The Wearing of the Horns. When Vaughan Williams was looking for Elizabeth-Jane and her simple and affectionate mother, Susan. It is reminiscent of the suitable material to represent the impulsive and drunken goings-on in the dramatic music to Lake in the Mountains from the film 49th Parallel. opening scenes in Weydon-Priors (Weyhill) Fair, he utilised a folk song he had known 14 WEYHILL FAIR since1912. The Wearing of the Horns was noted by Miss Eggar at Farnham and sent to Cecil Sharp in 1911. The song celebrates an annual custom carried out at the Star Inn Five sections (A to E in the score) are presented here, consisting of fragments of in Weyhill during the hop fair. It is an initiation ceremony involving a cup full of beer background music. The nightmarish quality of these episodes captures Michael (or wine for the more well-to-do) placed on the head of a young ‘colt’ between two Henchard’s search for his wife Susan at Weydon-Priors (Weyhill) Fair after a night of horns. All sing and dance as the colt drinks the contents of the cup. As the ceremony drinking ‘furmity’ laced with serious measures of rum. His desperation at what he had was repeated for each new colt being initiated, the event often became very lively! done to Susan and the baby, together with the effects of the drink, are suggested in these Vaughan Williams uses motifs from the song in the third part of the incidental music short dramatic moments. The staccato rhythms recall the Weyhill Fair Song (Track 11) recorded here for the first time, emphasizing the vulgar, drunken and ‘elbows-in-the- whilst all the tragedy of the novel follows on from these episodes at the Fair. ribs’ activities at the Fair.

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15 PRELUDE ON AN OLD CAROL TUNE lighting’ hymn. Robert Bridges (1844–1930) translated the hymn from the original Greek and included it in his Yattendon Hymnal of 1899. Vaughan Williams uses the Completed in 1952 and first performed by the BBC West of England Light Orchestra viola to introduce a chorale-like melody, with bell-like ostinato accompaniment. under Reginald Redman on the 18th November that year, this Prelude is founded on Hubert Foss described this song as having its own ‘glow of colour’. the incidental music to The Mayor of Casterbridge. It utilises the carol melody first heard in the Casterbridge section (track 12) with a breadth, warmth and love for the THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE folk-song that recalls Vaughan Williams’ Five Variants on Dives and Lazarus of 1939. Vaughan Williams set very little of Thomas Hardy (1840–1928). There is a song from The uplifting strains of a beloved folk-carol, from 1952, complete this survey of fifty The Dynasts (1908) and a wonderful setting of The Oxen in Hodie (1954) alongside years in the life and music of Ralph Vaughan Williams. Whilst Elizabeth-Jane might the incidental music to the Mayor of Casterbridge. This is surprising given the conclude in the closing lines of The Mayor of Casterbridge that ‘happiness was but the composer’s love of Hardy’s novels and poetry. As Ursula Vaughan Williams put it: occasional episode in a general drama of pain’, for Vaughan Williams Time and Chance ‘Ralph read all Hardy’s novels, and one summer followed Tess’s footsteps in her walk had dealt a fairer hand to the benefit of us all, for all time. from Flintcomb-Ash to Emminster. He thought Tess the greatest of the novels…’ Ursula told me in 1999: ‘Ralph was fascinated by Tess. He went on walks to find her. He felt it was a fantastic story. He decided, however, that he did not want to write an Stephen Connock opera on it – he felt it was too long and too complicated’. The basic connection Chairman Albion Records between Hardy and Vaughan Williams’ Ninth Symphony is now better understood – Vice-President and Founder Chairman, RVW Society the original title of the first movement of the symphony was Wessex Prelude. Alain Frogley has written, in relation to the second movement, that the manuscript sources show the title ‘Stonehenge’ for the opening theme and ‘Tess’ linked with the main idea of the central section. Against this background, Vaughan Williams was delighted when he was approached by the BBC to write incidental music for a new radio serial of The Mayor of Casterbridge to be broadcast on each Sunday for ten weeks starting 7 January, 1951 and finishing on 11 March, 1951. The BBC had a useful precedent in that Robert Louis Stevenson, no less, had secured Hardy’s enthusiastic permission for a dramatization in 1886. Whilst nothing came of that project, the BBC showed more determination. The script was by Desmond Hawkins (1908–99), of BBC Natural History Unit fame, and the producer was the actor Owen Reed (1910–97). Desmond Hawkins put it this way shortly before

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As with Flos campi, the viola has a prominent part and adds colour to the texture of the SONGS OF TRAVEL (BOOK 1) Wealth I ask not, hope nor love, Nor a friend to know me; music. Vaughan Williams varied the dynamics in this arrangement for string orchestra, (4) THE VAGABOND compared to that for tenor, viola and piano, to allow the solo instrument to be heard All I ask, the heaven above Give to me the life I love, And the road below me. more clearly. Like the Songs of Travel, Vaughan Williams shows a remarkable sensitivity to Let the lave go by me, the meaning of the poems with the melody arising naturally from the text. Considerable Give the jolly heaven above skill is shown in the flexibility of the voice part and in this sense the work marks an And the byway nigh me. (5) THE ROADSIDE FIRE advance on the Five Mystical Songs. Bed in the bush with stars to see, I will make you brooches and toys Bread I dip in the river – for your delight 7 LORD! COME AWAY Maestoso There’s the life for a man like me, Of bird-song at morning and There’s the life for ever. star-shine at night. The words by Jeremy Taylor (1613–67), Bishop of Down and Connor in Ireland, are an I will make a palace fit for you Advent Hymn sometimes referred to as Christ’s Coming to Jerusalem in Triumph. It was Let the blow fall soon or late, and me written in 1655. The solemn, declamatory style of the music, with moments of repose, Let what will be o’er me; Of green days in forests and blue recalls Purcell and may have influenced Holst when writing his Hymn of Jesus in 1917. Give the face of earth around days at sea. And the road before me. 8 WHO IS THIS FAIR ONE? Andante moderato Wealth I seek not, hope nor love, I will make my kitchen and you shall Nor a friend to know me; keep your room, Dr. Isaac Watts (1674–1748) wrote over 750 hymns, including the popular When I Survey All I seek, the heaven above Where white flows the river and the Wondrous Cross. His words seem to capture a sense of ‘personal spirituality’. Vaughan And the road below me. bright blows the broom, Williams sets this narrative song, focusing on the ‘spouse of Christ our God’, with a And you shall wash your linen Or let Autumn fall on me and keep your body white significant role for the viola. The music evolves with that sense of ecstasy and wonder Where afield I linger, which Vaughan Williams made his own. In rainfall at morning and dewfall Silencing the bird on tree, at night. Biting the blue finger. 9 COME LOVE, COME LORD Lento White as meal the frosty field – And this shall be for music when The composer turned to Richard Crashaw (1612 or 1613–49) for this hushed meditation Warm the fireside haven – no one else is near, on metaphysical themes of love and religion. The long viola introduction sets a moving Not to Autumn will I yield, The fine song for singing, the rare song to hear! context for the subsequent contemplation of ‘that long day for which I languish’. Not to winter even! That only I remember, that only Let the blow fall soon or late, you admire, 10 EVENING HYMN Andante commoto Let what will be o’er me; Of the broad road that stretches and Often referred to as O Gladsome Light, this is one of the earlier Christian hymns to be Give the face of earth around, the roadside fire. And the road before me. sung at the lighting of the lamps in the evening. For this reason, it is also called the ‘lamp-

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(6) BRIGHT IS THE RING FOUR HYMNS Williams marching rhythm, must keep going along the open road. The composer OF WORDS (7) LORD! COME AWAY returned to this vigorous, sturdy style in Hugh’s Song of the Road from the opera Hugh the Drover. Bright is the ring of words Lord! Come away! When the right man rings them, Why dost Thou stay? 5 THE ROADSIDE FIRE Fair the fall of songs Thy road is ready; and Thy paths, When the singer sings them, made straight Poem X1 of Stevenson’s cycle was untitled by the poet. Here we have the ‘broad road’ Still they are carolled and said – With longing expectation, wait again, with the bird-song in morning and star-shine at night. Wonderfully uplifting On wings they are carried – The consecration of Thy After the singer is dead orchestral accompaniment makes the setting at ‘The fine song for singing, the rare song beauteous feet! to hear!’ very moving, sounding as fresh today as when it was written in the early years And the maker buried. Ride on triumphantly! of the last century. Low as the singer lies Behold we lay our lusts and proud wills in Thy way! In the field of heather, 6 BRIGHT IS THE RING OF WORDS Songs of his fashion bring Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna! The swains together. Welcome to our hearts! Another untitled two-stanza poem, this song has a deceptively stirring opening that soon And when the west is red Lord, here shifts in mood to one of tenderness and nostalgia. The song ends movingly at ‘With the With the sunset embers, Thou hast a temple too; as full as dear sunset embers, the lover lingers and sings and the maid remembers’. The lover lingers and sings As that of Sion, and as full of sin: And the maid remembers. Nothing but thieves and robbers FOUR HYMNS FOR TENOR, VIOLA OBBLIGATO AND STRINGS Robert Louis Stevenson, from Songs of Travel (1896) dwell therein; The Four Hymns was Vaughan Williams first setting of an anthology, here embracing four Enter, and chase them forth, different poets. Written between 1912 and 1914, the intimate and ecstatic style builds and cleanse the floor! on the earlier Five Mystical Songs (1911) and was described by the composer as ‘much in Crucify them, that they may never more the same mood as the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis’ (1910). The choice of Profane that holy place symbolic poetry, which is essentially meditative, was described by Ursula Vaughan Where Thou hast chose to set Williams as being ‘romantic poems of divine love and longing’. This allowed full Thy face! expression to the mystical and contemplative side of Vaughan Williams’ musical character. This style was explored in later works such as Flos campi (1925) and the Prison Scene from Pilgrim’s Progress (1951).

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by 1908 he had ‘come to a dead end’ and that his music felt ‘lumpy and stodgy’ and too And then, if our stiff tongues Stronger than death Thy love ‘Teutonic’. It was, we can now more clearly realise, the overtly Wagnerian Harnham shall be is known Down that led to this feeling, despite its warmth and richness. Certainly his subsequent Mute in the praises of Thy Deity, Which floods of wrath could period of study with Ravel in early 1908 led to a more refined orchestral texture – just The stones out of the temple wall never drown, Shall cry aloud and call And hell and earth in vain combine what he needed at that point in his musical development. Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna! To quench a fire so much divine. And Thy glorious footsteps greet! SONGS OF TRAVEL (BOOK 1) for baritone and orchestrated by Vaughan Williams But I am jealous of my heart, Lest it should once from This song cycle was composed between 1902 and 1904, originally for voice and piano. It Bishop Jeremy Taylor Thee depart; consists of nine settings of a total of 44 poems by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894), Then let my name be well impress’d (8) WHO IS THIS FAIR ONE? published under the same title in 1896, some thirteen years after Treasure Island. As a fair signet on Thy breast. Vaughan Williams responded to the sturdy, open-air quality of the poetry which contains Who is this fair one in distress, vivid imagery, a homespun lyricism and an underlying poignancy as the wanderer accepts That travels from the wilderness, Till Thou hast brought me to Thy home, whatever life throws at him. The poems stimulated Vaughan Williams’ romantic And press’d with sorrows and Where fears and doubts can imagination to produce songs which sound both fresh and vibrant. As Michael Kennedy with sins, On her beloved Lord she leans? never come, has said, it is impossible, once heard, to read the poems without remembering Vaughan Thy countenance let me often see, Williams’ setting. This is the spouse of Christ our God, And often shall Thou hear from me: Bought with the treasures of The three songs recorded here comprise Book 1 of the published cycle and were His blood, Come, my beloved, haste away, orchestrated, sumptuously, by Vaughan Williams in 1905. The other songs were And her request and her complaint Cut short the hours of Thy delay, orchestrated by Roy Douglas in 1961–2 and are not included on this CD. Is but the voice of ev’ry saint: Fly like a youthful hart or roe Over the hills where spices blow’. 4 THE VAGABOND ‘O let my name engraven stand Both on Thy heart and on Thy hand; Isaac Watts The first poem of Stevenson’s cycle also had in its title ‘To an air by Schubert’. Seal me upon Thine arm and wear That pledge of love for ever there. As the vagabond seeks the heaven above and ‘the road below me’, Vaughan Williams – like Stevenson - understands that dark fate is not far away, for ‘let the blow fall soon or late, let what will be o’er me’. Yet the wanderer, stoically, and to a memorable Vaughan

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(9) COME LOVE, COME LORD To Thee of right belongs Harnham Down is near East Harnham, fairly close to Salisbury. Vaughan Williams was Come Love, come Lord, and that All praise of holy songs, on holiday there in July, 1903 with his first wife, Adeline, and her mother. The work was long day O Son of God, Life giver; first performed at the Queen’s Hall in London on 12 November, 1907 with the New For which I languish, come away. Thee, therefore, O Most High, Symphony Orchestra conducted by Emil von Reznicek. When this dry soul those eyes The world doth glorify, shall see And shall exalt for ever. As with The Solent this work also has a Preface, this time from the second stanza of A Scholar Gypsy by Matthew Arnold (1822–1888): And drink the unseal’d source Translated from the Greek by Robert Bridges of Thee, Here will I sit and wait When glory’s sun faith’s shades THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE While to my ear from uplands far away shall chase, The bleating of the folded flocks is borne Then for Thy veil give me Thy face. (11) WEYHILL FAIR SONG With distant cries of reapers in the corn – (The Wearing of the Horns) All the live murmurs of a summer’s day. Richard Crashaw So fleet runs the hare, and so cunning A lovely pastoral scene is evoked which Vaughan Williams was to set for narrator, chorus (10) EVENING HYMN runs the fox. and orchestra in his An Oxford Elegy over forty years later in 1949. However, in Arnold’s Why shouldn’t the young calf grow to long poem, as in the music for Harnham Down, the pastoral imagery is only part of the O gladsome Light, O Grace be an ox? Of God the Father’s face, For to gain his living thro’ briars and narrative. A powerful sense of loss is described by the poet for ‘repeated shocks, again, The eternal splendour wearing; thro’ thorns, again, exhaust the energy of strongest souls’. The scholar gypsy awaits the ‘spark from Celestial, holy, blest, And to die like his daddy wi’ a long heaven’ as we, who ‘hesitate and falter life away’ await it too. Our Saviour, Jesus Christ, pair of horns. The tranquil opening, marked andante sostenuto, reflects Arnold’s gentle words. The Joyful in Thine appearing; Horns boys, horns! Why shouldn’t he ramble thro’ briars violas are soon joined by clarinets and bassoon. The strings enter in a lovely andantino as Now, ere day fadeth quite, the music becomes more Wagnerian in scope. Vaughan Williams had been deeply shaken We see the evening light, and thro’ thorns, by a performance of Tristan and Isolde in London, conducted by Mahler, in 1892. He Our wonted hymn outpouring; And to die like his daddy wi’ a long Father of might unknown, pair of horns? visited Bayreuth in 1896 and studied in Berlin in 1897. The richness of orchestration and melodic flow suggests Tristan and Isolde, wandering hand-in-hand on Harnham Thee, His incarnate Son, Anon. Noted by Miss Eggar at Farnham and sent to And Holy Spirit adoring. Cecil Sharp in 1911 Down. The melodies are repeated and the work becomes even more impassioned. Ultimately, the ‘hesitations and faltering’ of Arnold’s poem are felt and the work concludes with a pppp marking for three solo violas. Harnham Down is another remarkable find amongst the composer’s early works. However, Vaughan Williams was dissatisfied, admitting in his Musical Autobiography that

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‘What were I dear, without thee? PAUL DANIEL Never recapture those sweet days. We awoke to find passion and sorrow in the deep sea’s voice Paul Daniel became Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the West Australian A mighty mystery saddening all the wind’ Symphony Orchestra in Perth in 2009. In 2013, he took up the positions of Music As often with Vaughan Williams, this apparently straightforward reference to the ‘deep Director of the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine and Principal Conductor and sea’s voice’ in a work evoking The Solent, a generally placid stretch of water between the Artistic Director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Galicia. He has appeared as Isle of Wight and the mainland of Southern England, has another layer of meaning. This guest conductor with major orchestras and opera companies throughout the world as added layer has more to do with Fate, with the fragility of life, with the search for ‘those well as holding several permanent positions. From 1997 to 2005 he was Music sweet days’ and with life’s ‘mighty mystery’. No wonder the haunting opening melody Director for English National Opera; from 1990 to 1997 he was Music Director of on clarinet, marked ppp, not only dominates this work but was also used by Vaughan Opera North and Principal Conductor of the English Northern Philharmonia; and Williams in the first movement of his A Sea Symphony (to the line And on its limitless from 1987 to 1990 he was Music Director of Opera Factory. Operatic engagements heaving breast, the ships), in his suite The England of Elizabeth (1955) and, most tellingly, have included the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in the second movement of his visionary and Hardy-inspired Ninth Symphony (1958). La Monnaie in Brussels, the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich and the Metropolitan Opera in New York. The Solent opens with that evocative melody soon accompanied by strings which suggests, for the first time in Vaughan Williams, the expressive and noble musical In February, 1998 Paul Daniel received an Olivier Award language soon to be realised more fully in the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis of for outstanding achievement in opera and in 1999 he 1910. Here is the ‘mighty mystery’ of Marston’s poem. A new agitated section, with received a Gramophone award for his English music sea-birds calling, is more descriptive. Rich brass chords call up the ‘deep sea’s voice’ The series on the Naxos label. He was awarded the CBE in plaintive melody returns, with a hint of Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, before a deeply the 2000 New Year’s Honours List. moving, visionary climax reminds us of both Tallis and the fourth movement of A Sea His many recordings include the hugely successful CD Symphony, a work which Vaughan Williams began to compose in 1903. This most of Elgar’s Third Symphony on Naxos. He also conducted satisfying of Vaughan Williams’ early works ends with the clarinet solo, joined by cellos the world première recording of Vaughan Williams’ The and basses, fading into the distance. Garden of Proserpine, coupled with Hadley’s Fen and Flood, for Albion Records in 2011. 3 HARNHAM DOWN (edited by James Francis Brown) Harnham Down was begun, as stated in the score, in July 1904 and finished in 1907. It was not part of the In the New Forest cycle but the first of two further Impressions for Orchestra, the second of which – Boldre Wood – has not survived. The area known as

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ROLAND WOOD double basses return, with an air of mystery, perhaps at dusk, as the work ends with the solo viola. Roland Wood was born in Berkshire and studied at the Royal Northern College of There is no record of this likeable and warm-hearted work ever having been Music, with Patrick McGuigan and Robert Alderson, then at the National Opera performed and a few bars were missing in the manuscript in the British Library. It Studio. He was the winner of the 1998 Webster Booth Prize and the 1999 Frederick was completed by the composer James Francis Brown for this recording. Vaughan Cox Award and was also awarded Second Prize in the 2000 Kathleen Ferrier Williams returned to some of the ideas first developed in Burley Heath with his A Memorial Awards. London Symphony, completed in 1913. Roland made his debut for Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 2000 singing one performance of Nick Shadow (The Rake’s 2 THE SOLENT (edited by James Francis Brown) Progress) conducted by Mark Elder. Between 2002 and 2004 Composed between 1902 and 1903, this work is prefaced by the following quotation he was a Company Principal at Scottish Opera. In 2007, he from a poem by Philip Marston (1850–87): sang the title role in Eugene Onegin for ETO and has sung Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, Marcello in La Bohème for Passion and sorrow in the deep sea’s voice A mighty mystery saddening all the wind ENO and Paolo in Simon Boccanegra. He enjoyed remarkable success in singing both the roles of John Bunyan and Pilgrim Vaughan Williams knew this poem, extracted from To Cicely Nancy Marston, from in Vaughan Williams’ opera The Pilgrim’s Progress at the the Collected Poems edited by Louise Chandler Moulton in 1892. He would have ENO in 2012. In 2014, he makes his debut at the Royal appreciated from the Introduction to this collection that Philip Marston’s life was, Opera House, Covent Garden in Andrea Chenier and returns indeed, a tragic one. Almost completely blinded by a seemingly innocuous childhood in 2015 as Ford in Verdi’s Falstaff. In 2016, he will sing the accident at the age of four, he lost his devoted mother when he was just 20 years old title role in Macbeth for the opera theatre of St Louis. in 1870 and his fiancée Mary Nesbit from consumption just over a year later, in November 1871. As if this was not bad enough, his dear sister Cicely, a close companion, his very eyes and ears, died in 1878. As Louise Chandler Moulton put it, this was the ‘cruellest bereavement’ to a man whose life was ‘eventful only in its sorrows and friendships’. Cicely’s devotion to her brother’s cause was total; they were inseparable. The poet says in lines just before the words that Vaughan Williams used to preface the score of The Solent:

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Thomas Hardy. The second element was his knowledge and love of the English ANDREW KENNEDY countryside. He knew the New Forest well and often took holidays in the Salisbury area, near to Harnham Down and The Solent. The Three Impressions for Orchestra Andrew Kennedy was born in Ashington, recorded here for the first time were followed by In the Fen Country (1904) and three Northumberland and was a chorister at Durham Norfolk Rhapsodies (1906 – only two survive). His knowledge of the English landscape Cathedral before studying at King’s College, Cambridge was deepened by his folk-song collecting, in every corner of the country, from 1904. All and the Royal College of Music in London. Andrew has this was, of course, part of Vaughan Williams’ stated desire to create and sustain a ‘true won numerous prizes and awards including the 2005 school of English music’, an aim he enthusiastically shared with Gustav Holst whose BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Rosenblatt Recital own Cotswold Symphony had been written in March, 1902. Prize. He won the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artists’ Award in 2006. THREE IMPRESSIONS FOR ORCHESTRA Operatic roles include Tamino (The Magic Flute) for 1 BURLEY HEATH (edited and completed by James Francis Brown) English National Opera, Tom Rakewell (The Rake’s In 1902 and 1903, Vaughan Williams was contemplating writing four impressions for Progress) for La Scala, Milan, La Monnaie, Brussels and orchestra to be called In the New Forest of which Burley Heath was the first. Burley is a Opera de Lyon – also released on DVD – and Max (Der Freischutz) at Opera local village surrounded by open heathland. Comique, Paris under Sir John Eliot Gardiner. His concert engagements take him across the world. The aspiring composer had already shown in his Garden of Proserpine (1899) and the Heroic Elegy and Triumphal Epilogue (1900–1) an ability to work with a large-scale Equally passionate about the song repertoire, Andrew gives numerous recitals in orchestra. These works were before his enthusiasm for folk-song began to influence his Europe. His fast-growing discography embraces four solo albums, including Vaughan music. Burley Heath shows, perhaps for the first time, something of the colour and Williams’ On Wenlock Edge for Signum Classics. contours of folk-song being felt in a Vaughan Williams composition. Overall, the work remains more influenced by Brahms than was the case with, say, In the Fen Country of a few years later. The opening sombre horn passages, marked misterioso, accompanied only by ‘cellos and double bass, suggests dawn over the Heath and are followed by a catchy, lilting melody first heard on the clarinet but later taken up by the strings in a way that evokes daylight and a windy day across the heather. After a recapitulation of the opening melodies, a new section starts with the solo viola and is in lighter vein, more overtly Brahmsian. The sun shines fully on Burley Heath before the horn and

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The Solent PRODUCTION CREDITS Fifty Years of Music by Ralph Vaughan Williams Executive Producer: Stephen Connock MBE A and R Manager: Charles Padley Vaughan Williams was just thirty when he composed The Solent in 1902 and eighty Fulfillment: Mark and Sue Hammett Booklet notes: Stephen Connock when he completed the Prelude on an Old Carol Tune in 1952. Over this astonishing period, a time of two World Wars and unprecedented social, economic and political Recorded at The Friary, Liverpool on 2-3 April, 2013 change, Vaughan Williams’ music remained broadly consistent. Of course, he grew in Albion Records would like to thank staff of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra for their help and support throughout this recording confidence and technical accomplishment and both folk song and the period of study with Ravel in early 1908 added colour and a fresh texture to his music. What was Producer: Andrew Walton Engineer: Mike Clements remarkable, however, was the consistency of style – from the visionary melody that opens The Solent to the richly harmonised setting of the carol On Christmas Night the Cover picture: The Needles off the coast of the Isle of Wight, on the Western Solent. Copyright Fleur Piercy and reproduced with permission. Joy-Bells Ring of 1952 – the music is recognisably Vaughan Williams. Over this fifty years, another feature remains constant and that is Vaughan Williams’ WITH THANKS preoccupation with life as a spiritual and personal journey, one fraught with danger Albion Records is deeply grateful to Michael Kennedy (Chairman), Hugh Cobbe (Director) and all and often ending in tragedy, but showing noble and courageous human endeavour in the Trustees of the Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust without whose steadfast and generous support the face of fate and adversity as we progress towards ‘the Unknown Region’. This this recording would not have been possible. focus, sometimes using the sea as a metaphor for the perils of the journey, is shown in We would also like to warmly acknowledge the support of the following individual sponsors: his lifelong obsession with Bunyan’s Christian as he journeys toward the Celestial City John and Ann Barr Rob Furneaux Julian P. Ochrymowych in The Pilgrim’s Progress. Walt Whitman, Shakespeare and Thomas Hardy added depth Norman Biggs Michael Gainsford Charles Paterson to this search; the poignant fate of Tess moved Vaughan Williams deeply throughout Trevor Clinch Peter Gilliver Rory Beaumont Parfitt his long life. So too did the tragic endeavour of Captain Scott’s expedition to the Simon and Laura Coombs Michael Greenwald Tom Render Ann and Peter Edmonds Michael Greer Philip Robson Antarctic. That The Solent is prefaced with a quote from a Philip Marston poem adds Tatyana Evagorou Michael Holyoake Rikky Rooksby another layer – Marston’s life was an uplifting example of remarkable achievement Len Evans Robert A. Jones Lord David Trimble against a background of a succession of personal tragedies. Robert Field Mike Marsh Hector Walker John Francis Kevin Mitchell Alan Watkins The span of music presented here demonstrates two other elements of Vaughan Williams’ character. The first is his depth of literary understanding, including, on this CD alone, settings or references to Philip Marston, Matthew Arnold, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jeremy Taylor, Dr Isaac Watts, Richard Crashaw, Robert Bridges and

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The ABOUT ALBION RECORDS Solent Since its formation in 1994, The Ralph Vaughan Williams Society - a registered charity Fifty years of music by Ralph Vaughan Williams - has sought to raise the profile of the composer through publications, seminars and Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 – 1958) sponsorship of recordings The Society’s successes include the publication of Ursula Vaughan Williams’ autobiography and the sponsorship of significant performances, THREE IMPRESSIONS FOR ORCHESTRA (world première recording) especially of the operas. More recently, the Society has been closely involved with 1 Burley Heath (completed by James Francis Brown) 5’31 2 The Solent 11’46 important premières including the Cambridge (doctoral) Mass, Willow Wood, and The 3 Harnham Down 6’54 Garden of Proserpine. SONGS OF TRAVEL (BOOK 1) arranged for baritone and orchestra by the composer* With over 1,000 members, the Society’s record label, Albion Records, is devoted to 4 The Vagabond 2’57 recordings of rare RVW. Each Albion CD contains at least one world première 5 The Roadside Fire 2’26 6 Bright is the Ring of Words 1’48 recording, and these abound among the many rare and beautiful songs to be found on FOUR HYMNS FOR TENOR, VIOLA OBBLIGATO AND STRINGS** our early recordings, The Sky Shall Be Our Roof and Kissing Her Hair. 7 Lord! Come away ~ Maestoso 3’52 Music in the Heart includes Vaughan Williams conducting his Serenade to Music and we 8 Who is this fair one? ~ Andante moderato 4’43 9 Come Love, come Lord ~ Lento 3’40 have supplemented this with a more recent archive recording. The Garden of 10 Evening Hymn (O Gladsome Light) ~ Andante commoto 3’34 Proserpine, a recording of an early work, spent five weeks in The Specialist Classical 11 WEYHILL FAIR SONG* 0’41 Chart in 2011 and also reached the Classic FM Top Forty. Other releases include INCIDENTAL MUSIC TO THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE (world première recording) Symphony No. 6 arranged for two pianos and Folk Songs of the Four Seasons. On 12 Casterbridge 2’26 Christmas Day, a recording of folk songs and folk carols, was a seasonally popular 13 Intermezzo 2’19 release for Christmas 2011 but is a wonderful recording at any time of year. Finally, in 14 Weyhill Fair (A to E) 1’57 2012 we issued Sons of the Morning, a CD of piano music by Vaughan Williams and 15 PRELUDE ON AN OLD CAROL TUNE 5’24 Gurney including the world première of Job, arranged by Vally Lasker. The pianist is 57’12 Iain Burnside in his first solo recording. * Roland Wood (baritone) ** Andrew Kennedy (tenor) ** Nicholas Bootiman (viola) For further information visit www.albionrecords.org or www.rvwsociety.com Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (leader Thelma Handy) Paul Daniel

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Three Impressions for Orchestra: Burley Heath, The Solent and Harnham Down Songs of Travel (Book 1) for baritone and orchestra Four Hymns for tenor, viola and strings Incidental Music to The Mayor of Casterbridge Prelude on an Old Carol Tune

Andrew Kennedy (tenor) Roland Wood (baritone) Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Paul Daniel