Folk Songs Volume 1

… the artful, sometimes filigree piano parts that wouldn’t disgrace a Schubert lied.

Soloists Roderick Williams, Nicky Spence and Mary Bevan are all persuasive, while the composer’s instrumental elaborations (William Vann, piano) have a beauty and interest all their own. This first trip to Vaughan Williams’s folk song workshop is an absolute tonic and delight.

Geoff Brown The Times

Jack Liebeck (violin) provides a welcome extra dimension. The chorus parts are quite modest in scope but the singers add interest to the setting. Albion Records recruited some fine singers and they make a very good contribution.

The songs on this present disc could scarcely receive better advocacy. All three singers enter fully into the spirit of the songs and sing them with commitment and, as you’d expect, a high degree of skill. Occasionally, they deliver the songs in appropriately rustic accents but this touch is never overdone. They treat the songs with the respect they deserve and, my goodness, does it pay off. William Vann accompanies expertly throughout.

Engineer Deborah Spanton has recorded the performers most sympathetically and the documentation is first class. I enjoyed this disc from start to finish.

John Quinn Musicweb International

The rewards are copious: baritone Roderick Williams is suitably rollicking in ‘Bold General Wolfe’ and ‘Captain Grant’; soprano Mary Bevan ravishes the ear and touches to the marrow in ‘Farewell, lads’; and tenor Nicky Spence displays a personable empathy with the cannily resourceful deeds of ‘Lovely Joan’. William Vann’s stylish and responsive support is a delight throughout. Listen out, too, for violinist Jack Liebeck’s exquisite contribution in ‘How Cold the Wind doth Blow’. Everything has been immaculately captured by producer Andrew Walton and sound engineer Deborah Spanton. Nor can John Francis’s detailed annotation be faulted, making this an absolute must. What are you waiting for?
Andrew Achenbach Gramophone Magazine

The skilfully played solo violin of Jack Liebeck helps to weave an expressive mood. Clear lyrical diction successfully captures an entertaining charm throughout this exceptional release. Restrained piano accompaniment never becomes over-intrusive and this whole collection is well-balanced throughout.
Chris Bye British Music Society

The songs on this present disc could scarcely receive better advocacy. All three singers enter fully into the spirit of the songs and sing them with commitment and, as you’d expect, a high degree of skill. Occasionally, they deliver the songs in appropriately rustic accents but this touch is never overdone. They treat the songs with the respect they deserve and, my goodness, does it pay off. William Vann accompanies expertly throughout. Engineer Deborah Spanton has recorded the performers most sympathetically and the documentation is first class. I enjoyed this disc from start to finish. It’s an auspicious beginning to the series which will bring us all of VW’s solo-voice folk song arrangements. I am keen to hear the next three releases as they appear.
John Quinn Musicweb International

Soloists Roderick Williams, Nicky Spence and Mary Bevan are all persuasive, while the composer’s instrumental elaborations (William Vann, piano) have a beauty and interest all their own. This first trip to Vaughan Williams’s folk song workshop is an absolute tonic and delight.
Geoff Brown The Times

I loved it, dear readers. The Folk Songs from Sussex (1912) were a delight: varied, moving, witty, expressively sung (even though I’d personally prefer less vibrato), subtly accompanied, with the standout track being How Cold the Wind doth Blow, employing two voices, piano and violin. The skilful accompaniments belie the belief that English folk song should be unaccompanied and lend much-needed variety to the verses. The recording is beautifully produced, with the notes containing a prologue to the series, an introduction and the words to each song, biographies of the artists and even an inducement to further research. If the subsequent ones, due to appear at six-monthly intervals, match the delights of this one, we can hope for riches indeed.
Steven Halls Elgar Society Journal

Once the new collection is completed, it will be one of the finest monuments Vaughan Williams could have wanted, and a real jewel in the crown of the RVW Society. To describe what Albion is doing here as important would be the cultural understatement of the year.
Simon Heffer  The Telegraph