Songs of Travel, song cycle for voice & piano (or orchestra)
Job, A Masque for Dancing, ballet
The Songs of Travel of 1903, setting texts by Robert Louis Stevenson, helped put Ralph Vaughan Williams on the map: they were successful enough that the composer orchestrated three of them, and okayed similar treatment of the rest by Roy Douglas. They capture the youthful spirit of Stevenson's poems beautifully, and although they were written before Vaughan Williams' study sojourn in France, they contain many hints of the Impressionist inflections and the new simplicity to come in his music. They have been recorded by ...
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The Songs of Travel of 1903, setting texts by Robert Louis Stevenson, helped put Ralph Vaughan Williams on the map: they were successful enough that the composer orchestrated three of them, and okayed similar treatment of the rest by Roy Douglas. They capture the youthful spirit of Stevenson's poems beautifully, and although they were written before Vaughan Williams' study sojourn in France, they contain many hints of the Impressionist inflections and the new simplicity to come in his music. They have been recorded by talents more operatic than bass-baritone Neal Davies, but this singer, a former Cardiff Singer of the World winner, has an appealing directness in the music with a voice of moderate size. The rendition of Job (1930) -- incredibly the first ballet produced by an all-British team -- matches Davies' performance well. The Hallé and conductor Mark Elder offer a low-key reading that brings an almost chamber quality to Vaughan Williams' illustrations of scenes from the biblical Book of Job and...
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