Customer Reviews

Vaughan Williams: Songs of Travel; Elgar & Butterworth: Orchestral Songs

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In general these are forgotten arraangements, even though Vaughan Williams, Elgar, and Butterworth made the orchestrations themselve. Everything is beautifully sung and played, so collectors don't need to heistate. The two RVW song cycles with Robert Tear and Thomas Allen, under a young Simon Rattle, date from 1983, while the rest, conducted by the late Vernon Handley and sung by Tear, come from 1979.

I'm not convinced that general listeners need to buy this CD before hearing the standard piano versions (this would go without saying when it comes to, say, Wolf and Schubert lieder, which also get turned into orchestral versions here and there). Particularly in the case of "On Wenlock Edge" the nature of the music is drastically altered, for the worse. Originally the instrumentation was for string quartet and piano; the strange, almost ghostly timbre of that setting reflected the RVW's three-month study with Ravel in Paris, just before these songs were composed. When inflated with a string orchestra plus harp, celesta, and brass, we lsoe the haunting impressionistic atmosphere of quiet poems set to quiet melodies. I can see why the orchestral arragnement fell out of favor after a few performances in the 1920s.

As for "Songs of Travel," these are more robust songs, and they stand up to a full orchestra a bit better. The drawback here is that unlike Mahler's "Des Knaben Wunderhorn," the orchestral working-out is modest and cautious -- little is added through instrumental color. The solo voice is overshadowed for no particular reason. I realize that I've set myself at odds with the previous reviewer, who finds these orchestrations superior to the original piano-and-vioce versions, but there you go.

This release is an important one. Most recordings of Songs of Travel are with piano (Terfel, et al) and convey only a little of the atmosphere of the songs. The really first rate orchestrations are partially by Vaughan Williams and partially by someone else, who simply filled in the two or three songs VW did not orchestrate. You can't tell who did what, which is a good compliment. Sir Thomas Allen's interpretation is warm and inviting.
On Wenlock Edge was originally for tenor and string quartet, but these orchestrations (by VW) are wonderful, filling out the textures of the songs beautifully. Robert Tear's voice is not the most beautiful in the English tenor style of singing, but he does well with the songs.
Sir Simon Rattle accompanies with alert affection. Some tempos here and there are a little different from other recordings, but never dangerously so.
I am reviewing based on the LP release of these songs, so I don't know the other songs, but the recording is well worth your investment for the two bigger cycles alone.