Bryn Terfel: The complete "Songs of travel" (Vaughan Williams)
Songs of travel (1901-04):
I. The vagabond 00:00
II. Let beauty awake 03:14
III. The roadside fire 05:14
IV. Youth and love 07:38
V. In dreams 11:21
VI. The infinite shining heavens 14:18
VII. Whither must I wander? 16:55
VIII. Bright is the ring of words 20:59
IX. I have trod the upward and the downward slope 22:50
Vaughan Williams, Ralph (1872-1958) -composer
Bryn Terfel -baritone
Malcolm Martineau-piano
Playlist: "The art of British song: Elgar, Somervell, Williams, Finzi..": https://www.youtube.com/playlist?action_edit=1&list=PLdM8VSWYvcWG_X-lGBATHMoJTGPlAV1TQ
Score: http://burrito.whatbox.ca:15263/imglnks/usimg/3/3d/IMSLP96383-PMLP183796-Vaughan_Williams_-_Songs_of_Travel.pdf
In 1904, Vaughan Williams started work as music editor of The English Hymnal. Partly as a consequence of that editorial work, he also spent a good portion of that year traveling widely in England collecting folk songs, a pursuit he had begun only the year before. These efforts, as well as his love for the songs of Schubert and Schumann, combine in the Songs of Travel, settings of nine poems by Robert Louis Stevenson. It was one of two song cycles Vaughan Williams completed in 1904, the other being the Rossetti cycle The House of Life.
Only in recent years have listeners been able to experience this set of songs as the cycle it was intended to be. The first eight of the nine songs were given their premieres at Bechstein Hall, London, on December 2, 1904, by baritone Walter Creighton and pianist Hamilton Harty (who also made a Romantic-sized arrangement of Handel's Water Music for orchestra). The following year, three of the livelier songs were published as Book I; this was followed in 1907 by Book II, consisting of four darker, more restrained songs. Only in 1960 was the complete cycle first performed, after the ninth and final song of the set, "I Have Trod the Upward and the Downward Slope," was rediscovered amongst Vaughan Williams' papers after his death. Vaughan Williams had orchestrated the original Book I in 1905; his assistant Roy Douglas arranged the rest of the cycle for orchestra in 1961 and 1962.
The Winterreise-like theme of the wanderer encountering and dealing with life's challenges seems to have been an appealing one for Vaughan Williams, and he responded with what were arguably his finest songs up to this time. The opening song, "The Vagabond," sets the tone with its purposeful tread, interrupted only by a darker current in the third verse as the vagabond contemplates the winds and cold of autumn. The wistful tone and lyrical arpeggios of "Let Beauty Awake" are followed by "The Roadside Fire," with its memorable tune and rhapsodic reference to the "fine song for singing, the rare song to hear!" "Youth and Love" is peaceful, with a light chordal accompaniment, becoming agitated only when the youth cries "a wayside word" to his beloved. "In Dreams" and "The Infinite Shining Heavens" share a certain melancholy; one hears in the latter song some unusual turns of melody and rhythm that foreshadow the later and more mature Vaughan Williams style. "Whither Must I Wander?" was the earliest of these songs, published separately in the third issue of the journal The Vocalist in 1902; it is probably the most folklike song of the set. The reflective "Bright is the Ring of Words" is followed by the brief and fitting epilogue "I Have Trod the Upward and the Downward Slope." Its quiet piano postlude closes the cycle.
Source: http://www.allmusic.com/composition/songs-of-travel-song-cycle-for-voice-piano-or-orchestra-mc0002371679
Buy the CD here: http://www.amazon.com/Bryn-Terfel-Vagabond-Williams-Butterworth/dp/B000001GPD
