Composer
Gerald Finzi
wrote the song
Let Us Garlands Bring
to mark the 70th birthday of
Ralph Vaughan Williams
. This gave baritone
Roderick Williams
the opportunity to expand on the idea with this
Birthday Garland
, which he terms a "fantasy birthday party" for the composer on the 150th anniversary of his birth in 2022; the album was recorded in 2023 and released the following year.
fans bought this one early and put it on classical best-seller lists in the spring of 2024; they will be pleased to find that his honeyed baritone is showing absolutely no sign of strain, and 20th century English song remains his sweet spot. It is also worth noting that he has assembled an unusually rich program. There are nine songs by
Ralph
himself, drawn from different parts of his career, including the late
Menelaus
, with a text by
Ursula Vaughan Williams
. However, the majority of the songs are by his teachers and students, and this casts a sharp lens on
Vaughan Williams
' own works.
Williams
picks unusual pieces, such as a Scottish song setting by
Ravel
and a setting by
Holst
of a
Walt Whitman
poem; that American writer was a favorite of
as well.
also includes contemporary pieces by himself and others, many of them women; this vividly shows the ways in which
' influence continues to resonate down to the present day in the likes of the little song cycle
A Square and Candle-Lighted Boat
by the (hitherto) little-known
Sarah Cattley
. The accompaniments by
Susie Allan
are finely judged, and the
Somm
label contributes its usual understated engineering from the Menuhin Hall. An unusually satisfying
release, even if most of it is by other composers. ~ James Manheim