Vaughan Williams: On Wenlock Edge / Five Mystical Songs

Anthony Rolfe Johnson (Artist), Simon Keenlyside (Artist), Vaughan Williams (Composer), Graham Johnson (Performer), Duke Quartet (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Graham Johnson, Duke Quartet
• Composer: Vaughan Williams
• Audio CD (February 18, 2003)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Naxos
• ASIN: B00007FKQL
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #200,808 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful performances of stirring music, April 26, 2003

By 

Gontroppo "Music and Theology Lover" (Bathurst, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Vaughan Williams: On Wenlock Edge / Five Mystical Songs (Audio CD)

This CD contains some of Vaughan Williams' best vocal music. The singers are superb and the accompanist is sensitive.

I love the whole CD, but adore
Searching For Lambs, which is a touching love song, set for violin and tenor duet
Silent Noon
It Was A Lover and His Lass
Antiphon, the last song in the set of Five Mystical Songs. It is a great song of faith, set by an infamous agnostic. The Church would be the poorer without Vaughan Williams wonderful hymns and arrangements of hymns. [I also recommend Vaughan Williams' Hymnal and Pilgrm's Progress.].

I bought this set to hear On Wenlock Edge and am not disappointed. It is a great song cycle.

By the way, this bargain-priced CD includes all the song texts.

One of my favourite vocal CDs. Highly recommended.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A satisfying bouquet of RVW's songs rescued from the archives, October 25, 2008

By 

Santa Fe Listener (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Vaughan Williams: On Wenlock Edge / Five Mystical Songs (Audio CD)

Naxos bought up a defunct British record label, Collins Classics, which issued this song recital in 1996. Two major works -- "On Wenlock Edge" and "Five Mystical Songs" -- are filled out with various individual songs, some of them folksong arrangements. The program is mostly thrice-familiar to English music lovers, but Americans may need to be in a comfy, treacle-pudding-and-Guinness mood, snuggled in an old armchair. Which is to say, this music dwells a lot on reverie and local color.

Rolfe-Johnson's tenor can turn frail and reedy under pressure, but the young Simon Keenlyside was on the verge of a major international career thanks to his solid, forthright baritone -- he's a trifle less artistic than Rolfe-Johnson but more dashing. My only complaint is that Graham Johnson provides very dull accompaniments; there were many moments when I wanted to kick him along. I should also mention that the "Five Mystical Songs" are more effective in their more often encountered orchestral arrangement with chorus.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars lovely performance, March 23, 2006

By 

P. Robert Maiden Mueller "Spike Maiden Müller" (Luck, WI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Vaughan Williams: On Wenlock Edge / Five Mystical Songs (Audio CD)

This is a very nice compilation of Vaughan Williams' vocal music, some of which is not easy to find on CD. The performers do an excellent job. Nice voices, and the music is sensitively sung. A really good value.