Search - Ralph Vaughan Williams, John Mark Ainsley, The Nash Ensemble :: Vaughan Williams - Along the Field on Wenlock Edge · Merciless Beauty · Ten Blake Songs, and others / Ainsley · The Nash Ensemble

Incomparable singing of English music

melanieeskenazi@blueyonder.co.uk | London, U.K. | 10/04/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This notable recording is a welcome addition to John Mark Ainsley's catalogue of English music; his lovely, cultivated yet heartfelt voice is heard to advantage throughout the disc, wonderfully supported by the Nash Ensemble. "On Wenlock Edge" is here given the best recorded performance I know; it is superbly sung and played, with "Bredon Hill" being an especially high point, from the lovely rising phrase of the first line through the drama of the central section and the poignancy of "And would not wait for me." "Is My Team Ploughing?" is sung with real mastery; dramatic without hand-wringing, melancholy without melodrama, it is a perfect example of the art of a singer unequalled today in the interpretation of English song."

Unsurpassed setting of poetry to music

Bill Pen | Hamburg, PA USA | 08/23/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Apart from the quality of the performance here, it's worth noting that perhaps no one has done a finer job of setting great poetry to music than Vaughan Williams. His settings of Blake's poems are superb: they reveal aspects of Blake many readers miss. His settings of A. E. Housman's poems are just as good. (Housman is not listed here, but he wrote about ten of the poems on this record.) I recommend that those teaching Blake or Housman play selections from this. High school students in particular are likely to find Blake more accessible after hearing the songs."