Kathryn Rudge mezzo-soprano
Alessandro Fisher tenor
Penelope Thwaites piano
ALBION RECORDS ALBCD066
The main work here is Vaughan Williams’ famous Songs of Travel. Now, I know what you’re thinking, especially as a BMS member; why should you purchase this disc with another version of the Songs of Travel when you probably possess at least one? I’ll suggest a few reasons.
Firstly, this cycle has never been recorded by a woman before, although in its earliest years women did often perform it. Secondly, we have two songs by Peggy Glanville-Hicks, a VW pupil, one, a setting of Sappho, is suitably and dramatically conveyed by Kathryn Rudge.
There are also two out of the apparently 680 songs composed by John Raynor (d.1970) and nine folk song arrangements by Percy Grainger, some of which he devotedly collected. These are rarely heard in recitals. In addition, with Penelope Thwaites accompanying, we have one of the most sensitive pianists around and who is in sympathy with this repertoire.
What about the interpretation of the main work? VW was the ideal person to set these wonderful poems by Robert Louis Stevenson. The mixture of folk style and modality, serious ‘art songs’, and even a touch of the hymnal, gives the cycle variety, and these differing moods are well captured by Kathryn Rudge in this convincing interpretation. Where some listeners might take issue with is her vibrato especially in the higher register, where sometimes the text can be obscured. Fortunately, all of the texts are very clearly printed in the exemplary booklet.
For me, this is not a major issue, but in her solo performances of the Grainger arrangements I find her tone quality unsuitable for music which by its nature needs a simpler almost unsophisticated approach to carry what Grainger himself admitted were simple tunes collected from the rural communities and arranged in a straightforward uncluttered way. Alessandro Fisher, I feel, just finds the right vocal quality for his solo contributions.
However, the three duets are different. These may have a bravura piano part or rather odd harmonies and a capella passages and here, the voices match not only the style but each other. In the last, Up-Country Song, the singers are only required to vocalise for a couple of passages in an otherwise atmospheric piano study in tribute to Australia, the land of Grainger’s birth.
And it is a happy bonus to have three arias from three VW operas ,each sung with clarity and character by Fisher, including Dear Love Behold from The Poisoned Kiss, a really fortunate find I think.
So, it’s now down to you.
Review by Gary Higginson