Roland Wood, Iain Burnside, Matthew Trusler
Release Date: 02 June 2014
Label: Albion Records
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 5060158190188
Genres: Classical Chamber Music
Description
This Albion recording from Potton Hall, 2013, includes the world-première recording of Vaughan Williams's violin and piano arrangement of his violin concerto, and an outstanding recording of The Lark Ascending for violin and piano, played by Matthew Trusler and Iain Burnside. Roland Wood returns to record the Songs of Travel and songs from the Pilgrim's Progress.
This recording highlights both Vaughan Williams' skill in setting English poetry and prose to music and his abiding love of the violin, which he described as his 'musical salvation'. We feature settings of both John Bunyan and Robert Louis Stevenson alongside familiar and less well-known works for violin, arranged on this occasion, for violin and piano.
Matthew Trusler has developed a reputation as one of Britain's leading violinists, performing with many of the world's great orchestras, and receiving huge critical acclaim for his diverse recordings. Performing on a bow once owned by Heifetz, Trusler has received particular acclaim for his performances of works from the 20th century.
Roland Wood was born in Berkshire and studied at the Royal Northern College of Music with Patrick McGuigan and Robert Alderson, then at the National Opera Studio. In 2012 he sang the title roles of Bunyan and The Pilgrim in an acclaimed new production of Vaughan Williams's 'The Pilgrim's Progress' at ENO. He also features on ALBCD016 Vaughan Williams: The Solent
Iain Burnside is a Scottish classical pianist and accompanist, and a former presenter on BBC Radio 3. Following study at Merton College, Oxford, the Royal Academy of Music and the Chopin Academy, in Warsaw he became a freelance pianist, specialising particularly in song repertoire. He has written a musical play A Soldier and a Maker on the life of Ivor Gurney, premiered in 2012.
Iain Burnside also features on ALB001 Vaughan Williams: The Sky shall be our Roof, ALBCD002 Vaughan Williams: Kissing her Hair, ALBCD013 Vaughan Williams: On Christmas Day and ALBCD015 Vaughan Williams: The Sons of the Morning, his first solo piano album.
Reviews
Wood is a fine musical story-teller, articulating words and melodies with equal sensitivity and care. The Songs of Travel are the only straightforward work on a disc from the recording label of the Vaughan Williams Society that is otherwise filled with wonderful curiosities and oddities – chamber arrangements of songs from The Pilgrim's Progress and The Lark Ascending by the composer himself, and Constant Lambert's arrangement for violin and piano of Vaughan Williams's Violin Concerto.
The musical economy of the latter lends itself particularly well to Lambert's chamber treatment. The melodic architecture emerges clearly in Matthew Trusler's vital performance, which retains folk colours and gestures among straighter classical technique. What The Lark Ascending loses in widescreen scope when reduced for violin and piano, it gains in the rougher, earthier colours that emerge – the husky purity of Trusler's violin against the bell-clarity of Burnside's piano.
Once again, Albion Records has given us a treasure trove of a disc full of fresh insights and sideways glances at familiar repertoire. --Alexandra Coghlan, Gramophone, Awards Issue 2014
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
Karolos
The Counterpoints
Narratio Quartet
Danbi Um; Juho Pohjonen
Engegard Quartet, NyNorsk Messingkvintett
Flute Alors
Louise Bessette
Jonas Batstrand, Jorn Fossheim
