Vaughan Williams: Songs

Star tenor John Mark Ainsley joins The Nash Ensemble in a programme of the principal instrumentally-accompanied songs of Vaughan Williams: the Ten Blake Songs with solo oboe, the three Chaucer settings called Merciless Beauty for 2 violins and cello, the eight Housman settings known as Along the Field, and of course On Wenlock Edge (also Housman) with piano and string quartet. There are also two folksong settings for voice and violin, The Lawyer and Searching for lambs.

This recording joins John Mark's distinguished and growing Hyperion discography of English song after CDs devoted to Britten, Howells, Ireland, Quilter, Warlock and William Lloyd Webber.

CDA67168  66 minutes 26 seconds
GRAMOPHONE CRITICS' CHOICE
‘John Mark Ainsley's performance is among his best on record in these austerely beautiful, imaginatively scored settings’ (Gramophone)
‘It would be hard to find an interpreter more beautifully suited to the Blake Songs than John Mark Ainsley’ (BBC Music Magazine)
‘Superbly sung. A warm recommendation’ (International Record Review)