Alessandro Fisher, William Vann, The Navarra Quartet
Release Date: 19 May 2023
Label: Albion Records
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 5060158190577
Description
2022 marked Vaughan Williams's 150th birthday, for which The Ralph Vaughan Williams Society commissioned a new work from Ian Venables, one of Britain's most distinguished composers and a master of song composition.
Venables has created a song cycle, Portraits of a Mind, using the same forces (tenor, piano and string quartet) as those specified for Vaughan Williams's song cycle On Wenlock Edge. The work paints a series of five portraits of Vaughan Williams by setting poets associated with him: George Meredith (The Lark Ascending, of course); Ursula Vaughan Williams; Robert Louis Stevenson; Christina Rossetti; and Walt Whitman.
The new work was premiered at The Oxford Lieder Festival last November, and John Quinn (Seen and Heard International) wrote: "These five songs constitute a very fine and eloquent tribute to VW. Venables has achieved a well-deserved reputation as a pre-eminent composer of English song and he proved to be, as I had expected, an ideal choice for this Ralph Vaughan Williams Society commission."
The review continued: "Alessandro Fisher, a past member of the BBC's New Generation Artists scheme (2018-21), made an immediate impression. His ringing voice was ideally suited to the music and I was impressed by the clarity both of his diction and his tone, qualities which were to be a feature of the whole concert."
On Wenlock Edge is the ideal companion for this recording - but we knew that Vaughan Williams's Four Hymns were also arranged for tenor, piano and string quartet in 1925, and performed by Steuart Wilson and others. That score is lost, so we commissioned Iain Farrington to create a modern replacement.
The recording was directed by pianist William Vann, accompanied by the Navarra String Quartet.
CRITICAL ACCLAIM:
"The cycle's five songs are exceptionally well sung by Alessandro Fisher, who convincingly encompasses emotions stretching from the balmy pastoralism of the opening 'The Lark Ascending' (with chirruping near-quotations from VW), to the pained retrospection of the Rossetti setting 'Echo' [...] But it's Fisher's On Wenlock Edge which is the true jewel of this particular collection." – BBC Music Magazine (Recording 5 STARS, Performance 4 STARS)
"Venables's settings are exemplary for their sensitivity to the chosen texts and ability to underline and illuminate their meanings, and Fisher is an ideal vocal exponent thrilling in the sensitivity as well as the sheer beauty of his singing." – Fanfare
Tracklisting
Tredegar Town Band, Ross Knight, Ian Porthouse, Martyn Brabbins
Alessandro Fisher, William Vann, The Navarra Quartet
Adrian Sims & Alan Rowlands
David Briggs
Chapel Choir Of The Royal Hospital, Joshua Ryan & William Vann
Timothy West, Samuel West, Mary Bevan, Sophie Bevan, Choir Of Clare College, Cambridge, Britten Sin
Various
David Welton & Iain Burnside
