Vaughan Williams - The Garden of Prosperine
Vaughan Williams - In the Fen Country
Hadley - Fen & Flood
Irwin; Bevan; Melrose; Joyful Company of Singers; Bournemouth SO / Daniels
Albion Records ALBCD012

Release date May 2011

Albion Records and the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society have been making us aware of the lesser-known works of Vaughan Williams. This latest release continues in the same vein with two world-premiere recordings. The first of these, The Garden of Proserpine (completed in 1899), is considered to be the composer’s first attempt at a large-scale work. Indeed, it is quite a change from the songs and chamber music that he had produced to date. Scored for soprano, chorus and orchestra, it uses texts taken from A.C. Swinburne’s collection Poems and Ballads. The distinctive tone that we are used to hearing in Vaughan Williams’ later works is present even here and comparisons can be drawn with the Sea Symphony (amongst others). In the Fen Country is given a sensitive performance by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra - folk influences are prominent throughout and the way in which the melodic line is passed around the orchestra is exquisite. The other premiere is Patrick Hadley’s two-part cantata Fen and Flood. Hadley was a pupil of Vaughan Williams, and subsequently Professor of Music at the RCM and at Cambridge University. Fen and Flood came about as a result of the devastating storms of 1953 which hit first the Norfolk coast and later the Netherlands, with 2,400 people losing their lives. Hadley was based on the north-Norfolk coast and the event had a significant personal impact upon him. The texts (included in the notes) were written in collaboration with the composer’s friend Charles Cudworth. Originally scored for reduced forces (baritone and soprano soloists, male chorus and “a few instrumentalists”), Vaughan Williams later persuaded Hadley to let him arrange the work for SATB and orchestra. It is this arrangement that appears here. The effect is devastating; feelings of despair and panic come across with great clarity, all the more so when one considers the subject matter. Treated almost as an encore, Vaughan Williams’ arrangement of the folk-song The Captain’s Apprentice for unaccompanied solo baritone brings the disc to a fitting close.

Reviewed by Ruth Squire