Vaughan Williams: Songs of Travel / The House of Life (English Song, Vol. 14)

Featuring

Roderick Williams
Iain Burnside
Ralph Vaughan Williams

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Composer Biography

Vaughan Williams's friendship with fellow student Gustav Holst at the Royal College of Music was crucial for frank exchanges of views on their compositions.

Composer Biography

Vaughan Williams took lessons in orchestration from Maurice Ravel in Paris in 1908, which helped him make a reputation as a composer.

Composition History

The song cycle Songs of Travel, setting poems by Robert Louis Stevenson, was first performed in 1904 and published in two volumes, with the ninth song appearing posthumously in 1960.

Performer Biography

Roderick Williams, the baritone on this recording, has performed world premieres of works by composers such as Harrison Birtwistle, David Sawer, Martin Butler, Alexander Knaifel, Sally Beamish, and Michel van der Aa.

Composer Biography

Vaughan Williams studied at the Royal College of Music with Hubert Parry and Walter Parratt, both of whom would later be knighted.

Composition History

The House of Life, a setting of six sonnets by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, was published and first performed in 1904 in the same recital as Songs of Travel.

Composer Biography

Ralph Vaughan Williams's maternal grandfather was a Wedgwood and his grandmother a Darwin, indicating a family background of intellectual distinction.