Vaughan Williams: Four Hymns; Merciless Beauty; The Water Mill; Ten Blake Songs; On Wenlock Edge; The New Ghost

This performance of On Wenlock Edge is a classic of the gramophone, since Ian Partridge has the ideal voice for the vocal works collected here. He communicates both intensity and the most subtle understanding of the texts, and Janet Craxton’s oboe accompaniment in the late Blake Songs is particularly distinguished. So too are the piano and string quartet in the famous Housman settings composed fifty years earlier, while the recording is appropriately atmospheric and truthful. Terry Barfoot

Our rating

5

Published: January 20, 2012 at 3:08 pm

COMPOSERS: Vaughan Williams
LABELS: EMI
WORKS: Four Hymns; Merciless Beauty; The Water Mill; Ten Blake Songs; On Wenlock Edge; The New Ghost
PERFORMER: Ian Partridge (tenor), Jennifer Partridge (piano), Janet Craxton (oboe); Music Group of London
CATALOGUE NO: CDM 5 65589 2 ADD (1974/71)

This performance of On Wenlock Edge is a classic of the gramophone, since Ian Partridge has the ideal voice for the vocal works collected here. He communicates both intensity and the most subtle understanding of the texts, and Janet Craxton’s oboe accompaniment in the late Blake Songs is particularly distinguished. So too are the piano and string quartet in the famous Housman settings composed fifty years earlier, while the recording is appropriately atmospheric and truthful. Terry Barfoot

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