Vaughan Williams: Songs of Travel James Gilchrist, Philip Dukes & Anna Tilbrook

• Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958): Songs of Travel:
• 1 Songs of Travel: No. 1, The Vagabond 03:07
• 2 Songs of Travel: No. 2, Let Beauty Awake 01:56
• 3 Songs of Travel: No. 3, The Roadside Fire 02:18
• 4 Songs of Travel: No. 4, Youth and Love 03:29
• 5 Songs of Travel: No. 5, In Dreams 02:32
• 6 Songs of Travel: No. 6, The Infinite Shining Heavens 02:31
• 7 Songs of Travel: No. 7, Whither Must I Wander? 04:12
• 8 Songs of Travel: No. 8, Bright Is the Ring of Words 02:02
• 9 Songs of Travel: No. 9, I Have Trod the Upward and the Downward Slope 02:10
• 6 Studies in English Folksong (Version for Viola & Piano):
• 10 6 Studies in English Folksong (Version for Viola & Piano): No. 1, Adagio 01:35
• 11 6 Studies in English Folksong (Version for Viola & Piano): No. 2, Andante sostenuto 01:18
• 12 6 Studies in English Folksong (Version for Viola & Piano): No. 3, Larghetto 01:38
• 13 6 Studies in English Folksong (Version for Viola & Piano): No. 4, Lento 01:51
• 14 6 Studies in English Folksong (Version for Viola & Piano): No. 5, Andante tranquillo 01:42
• 15 6 Studies in English Folksong (Version for Viola & Piano): No. 6, Allegro vivace 00:47
• The Sky Above the Roof:
• 16 The Sky Above the Roof 02:50
• Orpheus with His Lute:
• 17 Orpheus with His Lute 02:35
• The House of Life:
• 18 The House of Life: No. 2, Silent Noon 03:57
• The Winter's Willow:
• 19 The Winter's Willow 03:12
• Romance for Viola & Piano
• 20 Romance for Viola & Piano 06:38
• Ralph Vaughan Williams, Richard Morrison (b. 1946): 3 Preludes on Welsh Hymn Tunes:
• 21 3 Preludes on Welsh Hymn Tunes: No. 2, Rhosymedre (Arr. R. Morrison for Tenor, Viola & Piano) 03:47
• 4 Hymns:
• 22 4 Hymns: No. 1, Lord! Come Away! 03:45
• 23 4 Hymns: No. 2, Who Is This Fair One? 03:57
• 24 4 Hymns: No. 3, Come Love, Come Lord 03:26
• 25 4 Hymns: No. 4, Evening Hymn 03:10
• Total Runtime 01:10:25

Info for Vaughan Williams: Songs of Travel

Having previously recorded British repertoire on Chandos, James Gilchrist joins the pianist Anna Tilbrook nine years after their previous recording, in a lyrical journey through some of Vaughan Williams’s best songs and rarely heard chamber works. They are joined by Philip Dukes, ‘Great Britain’s most outstanding viola player’, according to The Times.

This album captures the composer’s love for both the voice and the viola, bringing together five works for tenor and piano, two for tenor, viola, and piano, and two works for viola and piano alone.

Central to the recording is the fresh, invigorating, and at times reflective cycle Songs of Travel, composed between 1901 and 1904, of special interest is also an arrangement of ‘Rhosymedre’ by the chief music critic of The Times, Richard Morrison, recorded here for the first time and performed by the same forces who gave the premiere of the arrangement in St John’s Smith Square in 2016, to critical acclaim.

“...The darker, expressive tones of Philip Dukes’s viola contrast attractively with Gilchrist in Four Hymns and the Rhosymedre arrangement, and make this version of Six Studies in English Folk Song a highlight.” )Michael Scott Rohan, BBC Music Magazine)

“...Gilchrist is ... able to find all the nuances in both Robert Louis Stevenson’s text and Vaughan Williams’ impeccable rendering of the same. In fact RVW admirers may be attracted by the disc’s fill-ups, which consist of several other pieces by the composer in effective performances. Having championed British repertoire together for the past twenty years, Anna Tilbrook and James Gilchrist are joined by Philip Dukes in a lyrical journey through some of Vaughan Williams’s best songs and rarely heard chamber music.” (Barry Forshaw, CDChoice.co.uk)

James Gilchrist, tenor
Philip Dukes, viola
Anna Tilbrook, piano

James Gilchrist
began his working life as a doctor, turning to a full-time career in music in 1996. His musical interest was fired at a young age, singing first as a chorister in the choir of New College, Oxford, and later as a choral scholar at King’s College, Cambridge.

James’ extensive concert repertoire has seen him perform in major concert halls throughout the world with conductors including Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Roger Norrington, Bernard Labadie, Harry Christophers, Harry Bicket and the late Richard Hickox. Recent highlights have included Britten’s Church Parables with performances in St Petersburg, London and at the Aldeburgh Festival, Handel’s L’Allegro il Penseroso ed il Moderato with the Mark Morris Dance Group at the Teatro Real, Madrid, Solomon with Les Violons du Roy, Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri and Die Schöpfung at the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Britten’s Nocturne with the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo and War Requiem with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. In J.S. Bach’s great Passions of St John and St Matthew, James works consistently at the highest level and is recognised as the finest Evangelist of his generation; as one recent BBC Proms reviewer noted, ‘he hasn’t become a one-man Evangelist industry by chance’.

A prolific and versatile recitalist, James enjoys imaginative and varied programming in collaborations with pianists Anna Tilbrook and Julius Drake, and harpist Alison Nicholls. Recent appearances include a Schubertiade weekend at St John Smith Square and Schwanengesang coupled with Beethoven An die Ferne Geliebte at the Wigmore Hall. James recently returned to the Wigmore Hall to begin his project with Anna Tilbrook, Schumann and the English Romantics, pairing Schumann song cycles with new commissions from leading composers, Sally Beamish, Julian Philips and Jonathan Dove, setting English poetry of the Romantic period.

James’ impressive discography includes the title role in Albert Herring and Vaughan Williams’ A Poisoned Kiss for Chandos, St John Passion with the Academy of Ancient Music, the Finzi song cycle Oh Fair To See, Elizabethan Lute Songs When Laura Smiles with Matthew Wadsworth, Leighton Earth Sweet Earth, Vaughan Williams On Wenlock Edge, Finzi songs and Britten’s Winter Words for Linn Records and the critically-acclaimed recordings of Schubert’s song cycles for Orchid Classics. James and Anna Tilbrook have recently released a new disc of Schumann song cycles for Linn Records.

Booklet for Vaughan Williams: Songs of Travel