Royal Throne of Kings: Vaughan Williams' forgotten incidental music for Shakespeare in Stratford receives a new lease of life

Vaughan Williams had a great fondness for Shakespeare and settings of Shakespeare's texts thread their way through the composer's life, from the songs The Willow Song (1897), and Orpheus With His Lute (1903), to the larger scale Serenade to Music (1938) and the choral masterpiece, Three Shakespeare Songs (1951), not to mention his opera, Sir John in Love (1928).

From 1886 to 1919, the actor manager Frank Benson presented Shakespeare at the Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. For the most part, the music used by the company was a hotch-potch of existing material rather than anything specially written. As something of an experiment, Vaughan Williams came to compose and conduct at Stratford-upon-Avon for a summer season in August 1912, and again from 21 April to 14 May 1913. By then, Vaughan Williams had already written incidental music for Ben Jonson masque, Pan’s Anniversary (1905), a play based on John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (1906) and Aristophanes The Wasps (1909) and he arrived in Stratford expecting to be able to match music to the specific history plays.

Not a bit, the actors were wedded to their conventional incidental music and only for Henry V and Richard II was the composer allowed a free hand. A number of manuscript scores and parts survive in the library of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, and from these various hands have reconstructed the music and created concert sequences. 

A new disc from Albion Records, Royal Throne of Kings: Vaughan Williams and Shakespeare,  is enabling us to hear this music, with James Ross conducting the Kent Sinfonia, an ensemble more closely approximating in size the sort of band that Benson's troupe might have used.

The disc enables us to hear the composer's varied responses to these dramatic stimuli, but of as much interest is the knowledge that the mine of unrecorded, unplayed Vaughan Williams is running out and this may well be one of the last major discs of his undiscovered orchestral music.

The disc includes a short cue from Richard III, a suite from Henry IV, arranged by Malcolm Riley and the overture to Henry V . The composer Nathaniel Lew also put together a Stratford Suite, reusing music from various dramatic sources. In 1944, Vaughan Williams was asked to provide incidental music for a planned BBC radio production of Richard II. The plan was abandoned and the music forgotten. The cues are all rather too short to make satisfactory listening on their own, so Nathaniel Lew has arranged them into a concert fantasy. The disc is completed by two movements that Vaughan Williams wrote for the 1955 film, The England of Elizabeth, as well as a selection of the composer's solo Shakespeare settings.

James Ross and Kent Sinfonia in France in 2022

Further information on the recording, see link tree (released 1 November 2024) and RVW Society's website.

Massive climaxes & mystical moments: Vaughan Williams' A Sea Symphony is the centrepiece of The Bach Choir's celebration at the Royal Festival Hall

Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1898

Ralph Vaughan Williams: Overture: The Wasps, The Garden of Proserpine, A Sea Symphony; Elizabeth Watts, Roderick Williams, The Bach Choir, Philharmonia Orchestra, David Hill; Royal Festival Hall
Reviewed 17 November 2022 (★★★★½)

The Bach Choir on thrilling form in a concert celebrating Vaughan Williams with his choral masterwork alongside two other early works

One of the themes that have arisen from this year's celebrations of RVW's 150th birthday is the exploration and discovery of his early works, written at a time when his mature style was just starting to coalesce. This was very much on display at the Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall on 17 November 2022 when David Hill conducted The Bach Choir and the Philharmonia Orchestra in an all-RVW programme that concentrated on the years 1899 to 1910, with the composer's first large-scale composition, The Garden of Proserpine (from 1899), the overture to The Wasps (from 1909) and A Sea Symphony (premiered in 1910), with soloists Roderick Williams and Elizabeth Watts.

RVW carefully curated his early works, allowing some to be performed but withdrawing many; pieces that had had currency before World War I were suppressed on his return. It is only with the release of these over the years that a bigger picture of RVW the composer during his 20s and 30s has come to light. 

Serenade to Music: Nash Ensemble and a fine array of soloists celebrate Vaughan Williams' 150th birthday

Serenade to Music - Vaughan Williams: On Wenlock Edge, Five Mystical Songs, Phantasy Quintet, Serenade to Music, Bridge, Bax, Elgar; Nash Ensemble, Alessandro Fisher, Roderick Williams; Wigmore Hall

A long evening, full of good things from the familiar to new views of the familiar to the unfamiliar, with strong illuminating performances

As part of the celebrations for Ralph Vaughan Williams' 150th birthday, the Nash Ensemble presented a substantial survey of the composers smaller scale works as part of the ensemble's residency at Wigmore Hall (15 October 2022). Nine members of the Nash Ensemble were joined by tenor Alessandro Fisher, baritone Roderick Williams and a fine array of 13 other soloists for a programme that placed RVW alongside his friends and contemporaries, concentrating on music from 1900 to 1916.

We heard RVW's On Wenlock Edge, chamber versions of the Five Mystical Songs and Serenade to Music, plus Nocturne & Scherzo, Six Studies in English Folksong and Phantasy String Quintet, along with music by Bridge, Bax and Elgar.

Much more than niche repertoire: Tredegar Band's Vaughan Williams on Brass

Vaughan Williams on Brass; Ross Knight, Tredegar Town Band, Ian Porthouse, Martyn Brabbins; ALBION
Reviewed 26 August 2022 (★★★★)

A brilliantly engaging and imaginative look at RVW's brass music, mixing the original works with both new arrangements and new versions of old favourites, all superbly played

Vaughan Williams didn't write all that much for brass band, though the medium has come to be more associated with his music thanks to arrangements of RVW's works for military band. On this disc from Albion Records, Tredegar Town Band records a selection of RVW for brass, works originally written for brass such as Henry Fifth and Variations for Brass Band, works originally written for military band such as the English Folk Songs Suite and works more usually performed in other versions such as the Tuba Concerto. Conducting honours are shared between Ian Porthouse, the band's artistic director, and Martyn Brabbins (who conducts The Truth from Above, Prelude on Rosymedre and Variations for Brass Band).

Whilst Britain's brass band tradition stretches back to the 19th century (the history of Tredegar Town Band can be traced to 1849), it took time for British composers to routinely write for the genre. Elgar and Holst were amongst the composers who wrote test pieces for the National Brass Band Championships between the two wars and Holst's 1928 contribution, A Moorside Suite, is arguably the first masterpiece for the medium. 

Violinist Midori Komachi has not only recorded Vaughan Williams' Violin Sonata but is planning performances of the composer's music in Japan

Simon Callaghan & Midori Komachi recording their Vaughan Williams album

On 1 July, the London-based Japanese violinist Midori Komachi is releasing a disc of Vaughan Williams' Complete works for Violin and Piano, with Simon Callaghan on the MusiKaleido label including The Lark Ascending and the rarely performed Violin Sonata in A minor. Not only is Midori performing the music from the disc in the UK but she has a parallel project in Japan, performing Vaughan Williams' music alongside films and talks as well as the release of a new Japanese translation of Simon Heffer's biography of the composer. This builds on Midori's 2017 Delius Project, which included the publication of her Japanese translation of Eric Fenby’s Delius as I Knew Him. I caught up with Midori by Zoom from Japan, where she was doing research for her PhD, to chat about Vaughan Williams, his music for violin and how playing his music in Japan.

Midori Komachi

The centre-piece of the new disc is Vaughan Williams' Violin Sonata. Rarely performed, this work is late Vaughan Williams (from 1954), written for the violinist Frederick Grinke when the composer was 82. The first time that Midori played it was when she was learning it for the recording, and she subsequently learned more about the composer and the work. 

I was interested to know how well the sonata was written for the violin. Midori comments that Vaughan Williams learned the violin when younger and certainly The Lark Ascending (written in 1914 and premiered in 1920) is well written for the instrument, and though you might expect the same style for the sonata, it is completely different. Midori feels that you can sense Vaughan Williams' development as a composer in the way he expresses himself in the violin. The writing in the sonata is still melodic, with reminiscences of folksong but for Midori it is more expressive, coming from deep down.

The Violin Sonata was written between Symphonies Nos 7 and 8, and Midori sees Vaughan Williams' mind as being in symphonic sonorities. She did some research on the work, looking at the manuscript and Vaughan Williams' archive. In the first draft there are lots of notes on the page, and seemingly too many ideas. He presented the first draft to the dedicatee, Frederick Grinke, and they made notes on the music. Grinke said it was difficult and suggested reducing the number of notes as well as alternative versions for some passages. Vaughan Williams took in these ideas, and many of the more technical passages incorporate Grinke's suggestions making it a real work of collaboration. Midori feels that he wrote the original work for an ideal sound world rather than for practicality.

Earth's Wide Bounds: William Vann & the Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea in RVW's Communion Service in G minor

Earth's Wide Bounds - Vaughan Williams Communion Service, Te Deum in G, Valiant for Truth, Nocturne: By the Bivouac's Fitful Flame; William Vann and the Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea; Albion Records
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 25 March 2022 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★)
The Anglican adaptation of RVW's Mass in G minor forms the centrepiece of this fine overview of the composer's Anglican sacred music, the familiar with a few unfamiliar items

The centrepiece of this disc, Earth's Wide Bounds, from William Vann and the Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea is a work that many people were probably unaware existed, RVW's Communion Service in G minor. This latest disc from Albion Records features the choir's recordings of this alongside RVW's Te Deum in G, Valiant for Truth, and Nocturne: By the Bivouac's Fitful Flame along with a selection of RVW's finest hymns and shorter anthems. They are joined on the disc by organist Joshua Ryan and speaker Rowan Williams.

Whilst there is a long tradition of settings of the canticles for Matins and Evensong in the Anglican Church, a parallel tradition of settings of the Communion Service is less vigorous. Even for composers like Stanford, their Communion Service settings are rarely heard. The need for a specifically Anglican communion service setting arose because of the rubric in the Communion Service of the Book of Common Prayer. This dates back, essentially, to 1662 and the whole service is designed to have a greater focus on the word, and musical settings of the Ordinary are a nice to have (this is where the phrase 'in quires and places where they sing' comes from). And structurally there are differences.

So, after RVW wrote his Mass in G minor for RR Terry and the choir of Westminster Cathedral in 1910, it was the pianist, composer and conductor Maurice Jacobson (1896-1976) who produced the English version, with RVW revising it for publication in 1923. It is in English, of course, and the order of the movements is different with the Gloria coming at the end and there is an extra movement. Every communion service based on 1662 was supposed to begin with a recitation of the Ten Commandments, each with sung responses. This was the only new music in the piece. Whilst it was used, this version probably never had really wide currency and nowadays 'in quires and places where they sing', the use of the original Latin version is assumed.

Celebrating the premiere of The Lark Ascending

The Lark Ascending violin part with Frederick Grinke’s notes
(photo by Janice Graham)

Tuesday 15 December 2020 is the exact centenary of the premiere of RVW's The Lark Ascending. For those of us who cannot get down to the original venue, Shirehampton Public Hall, where Jennifer Pike is playing in a centenary concert [see my article], then help is at hand. 

Four musicians from the English Sinfonia (Janice Graham, violin, Nick Bootiman, viola, Julia Graham, cello, Chris Hopkins, piano) are giving TWO concerts at St John's Smith Square on 15 December. Chris Hopkins, is the English Sinfonia's newly appointed principal conductor.

RVW's The Lark Ascending will be performed in the violin and piano version which RVW created for the premiere, and alongside this there will be Frank Bridge's Miniatures for Piano Trio,  Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Piano Trio in E Minor, Gustav Holst's String Trio in G Minor (a work still little known, and not yet recorded) and Arnold Bax's Piano Quartet, in one movement.

There is a personal tie in too, the violinist Frederick Grinke (1911-1987), who was one of the early exponents of The Lark Ascending and had a close and enduring relationship with RVW, taught Janice Graham and also both of Graham’s parents (and the cellist in the concert is Janice's sister).  From around 1930 to 1936, Grinke was second violin of the Kutcher String Quartet (in which John Barbirolli was for a time the 'cellist), and then became leader of the Boyd Neel Orchestra. His first performance with them was at the Salzburg Festival in 1937, giving the premiere of Britten's Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge.

Further details from the St John's Smith Square website, and the performance will be available on the venue's digital platform in January 2021.

Celebrating the centenary of RVW's The Lark Ascending with a re-construction of the work's premiere

George Meredith in 1893
by George Frederic Watts

Inspired by the poetry of George Meredith (1828-1909), The Lark Ascending has become one of RVW's best known and most beloved works, yet its origins are somewhat hazy, not helped by the fact that the original autograph manuscript has been lost. RVW wrote the work in 1914 so it is very much an eve of war-time work and Lewis Foreman has talked about the 'underlying layer of sadness to the music. Rather like the Edwardian era, as viewed retrospectively from the other side of World War One, it seems to reflect nostalgia for a partly mythological lost age of innocence'. It is also, looking back, easy to forget how revolutionary the work must have seemed in the context of British music of the time. Another point is that though we think of Meredith as a Victorian poet, when RVW began The Lark Ascending, the poet had only been dead for five years.

Though RVW wrote it for the violinist Marie Hall (a former pupil of Edward Elgar), who was involved (in some way) in the work's creation, the premiere did not take place until 1920, partly because of RVW's war time activities so that it was only after 1918 that he returned to revise the work. When Marie Hall and pianist Geoffrey Mendham performed it at Shirehampton Public Hall on 15 December 1920 at a concert of the Avonmouth and Shirehampton Choral Society. It was given in a specially created arrangement for violin and piano, whilst the original orchestral version was premiered, again with Hall as soloist, in 1921.

The original concert of the premiere is being recreated on 15 December 2020 at Shirehampton Public Hall (the venue for that 1920 premiere) in association with Bristol Beacon (the former Colston Hall). Violinist Jennifer Pike (who has recorded the violin and piano version) will be the violinist in a performance of the violin and piano arrangement, and extracts from the original concert will be performed including RVW's Fantasia on Christmas Carols, J S Bach's Concerto for Two Violins in D minor BWV 1043 and C Hubert H Parry's Choral Song “Jerusalem” with the Bristol Ensemble and Exsultate Singer.

The concert is a free on-line event at 7.30pm on 15 December 2020, further information from the Bristol Beacon website.

Update: For those interested in trivia, Shirehampton Public Hall was designed by the Bristol-based architect Bligh Bond (1864-1945) who designed a number of buildings in Bristol. He was also interested in spiritualism and psychic archaeology. He claimed to use a medium 'in contact with the original monks' to decide where to excavate at Glastonbury Abbey.

Kancheli, Martinu and RVW: three contrasting 20th century figures from the London Philharmonic

Vladimir Jurowski - photo Roman Gontcharov

Kancheli Mourned by the Wind, Martinu Memorial to Lidice, RVW Symphony No. 9; Isabelle van Keulen, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Vladimir Jurowski; Royal Festival Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jan 25 2017
Star rating: 4.5
Three striking but contrasting 20th century works in a vibrantly engrossing programme

The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) under its conductor Vladimir Jurowski presented a trio of striking, yet rarely performed 20th century at the Royal Festival Hall on Wednesday 25 January 2017. They were joined by viola player Isabelle van Keulen for Giya Kancheli's Mourned by the Wind (Liturgy in memory of Givi Ordzhonikidze for orchestra and solo viola), and the followed this with Bohuslav Martinu's Memorial to Lidice and RVW's Symphony No. 9. The performance of the Kancheli was supported by donors to the LPO's Kancheli Appeal which raised in excess of £45,000 to support adventurous programming.

The concert came under the banner of the orchestra's year-long festival Belief and Beyond Belief, with the Kancheli and the Martinu both having some sort of spiritual/commemorative dimension; Kancheli's instrumental liturgy being written in memory of a close friend, the Martinu written to commemorate and mourn the killing of nearly 200 men at the village of Lidice by the Nazis. The RVW symphony is less easy to shoe-horn into this framework, but thankfully the LPO's programming allows them interesting digressions. The result was certainly an intriguing and striking exploration of 20th century orchestral music by three composers each of whom took idiomatic nationalism to a very striking conclusion with three very contrasting works.

Purer than Pearl: RVW rarities and discoveries

Ralph Vaughan Williams songs and duets; Mary Bevan, Jennifer Johnston, Nicky Spence, Johnny Herford, Thomas Gould, William Vann; Albion records
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Nov 18 2016
Star rating: 4.5
Early songs and mature songs which deserve to be better known on this affectionate survey of RVW's song output

If you played this disc blind, the opening songs would certainly not make you think of RVW. In fact RVW wrote songs all his life and this new disc from Albion Records (the recording arm of the RVW Society) presents a wide range of the composer's songs and duets, the new discoveries and the lesser known, ranging from his earliest surviving ones to those from the 1930s including a selection from The Poisoned Kiss arranged by Adrian Williams. The performers are William Vann (piano), Thomas Gould (violin), Mary Bevan (soprano), Jennifer Johnston (mezzo-soprano), Nicky Spence (tenor) and Johnny Herford (baritone).

Johnny Herford, William Vann, Nicky Spence, Mary Bevan, Thomas Gould
with John Francis of the RVW Society

The songs are presented roughly chronologically, though for some this is the date of publication rather than the date of composition. This means that we start with a selection of songs before RVW was RVW. His editing of his compositions from his early career was quite ruthless, so it is fascinating to be able to hear songs which are clearly influenced not by folk-song but by Wagner, Brahms, Stanford and Parry. They give us a window onto how RVW developed as a composer. Not great songs, but creditable and more than performable.

RVW's first published and best known song remains Linden Lea, which is here heard in an highly effective arrangement for SATB and piano by Sumner Satter.

Vibrant conclusion - Nicky Spence in RVW songs with string accompaniment

Vaughan Williams

Ralph Vaughan Williams Merciless Beauty: Three Rondels, Phantasy Quintet, Four Hymns, Nocturne and Scherzo, On Wenlock Edge; Nicky Spence, Benyounes Quartet, Sara Roberts, William Vann; London English Song Festival at St George's Church, Hanover Square
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jun 11 2015
Star rating: 5.0
RVW's works for voice and strings in this climax to the London English Song Festival

William Vann

William Vann's exploration of the complete songs of Ralph Vaughan Williams in the eight days of the London English Song Festival at St George's Church, Hanover Square,  came to a vibrant conclusion last night (11 June 2015) with a concert given by tenor Nicky Spence, the Benyounes Quartet, viola player Sara Robert and William Vann, piano. They performed RVW's Merciless Beauty: Three Rondels, Phantasy Quintet, Four Hymns, Nocturne and Scherzo and On Wenlock Edge, a programme which mixed the performers in a whole variety of chamber combinations.

Nicky Spence

RVW's Merciless Beauty: Three Rondels is a setting of three poems attributed to Geoffrey Chaucer which RVW wrote in 1921 for the unusual combination of tenor, two violins and cello. The three poems use the rondel form which Chaucer introduced from France, and RVW set them in their original Chaucerian English. Almost vocal chamber music, the performers treated them as such with Nicky Spence sitting with the three instrumentalists Zara Benyounes, Emily Holland, and Kim Vaughan. The first two were full of lyric melancholy, with the poet enslaved by his Beauty. RVW makes the vocal line interweave with the strings. Nicky Spence gave us a beautifully modulated and shapely line, sung with great lyrical intensity and wonderful attention to the words. The songs were quite spare in their scoring but had a certain radiance to them. In the final one, the poet is free and the tempo quickened accordingly with lively rhythms and much charm.

RVW at the London English Song Festival

William Vann's London English Song Festival is returning on 3 June 2015 with eight concerts which really live up to the festival's name as during these concerts all of RVW's original songs are being performed. Thus giving us a chance to assess the lesser known works alongside the better known ones. The festival starts on Wednesday 3 June 2015 and runs until Thursday 11 June and all concerts are at St George's Church, Hanover Square with a number of early evening concerts too. 

The opening concert is Vaughan Williams and Folk-Song with soprano Louise Kemeny, baritone Gareth John and William Vann. Then soprano Raphaela Papadakis and violinist Alessandro Ruisi explore the songs for voice and violin, with mezzo-soprano Katie Bray, baritone Johnny Herford and William Vann in RVW's Rossetti settings (both concerts 4 June). On 5 June baritone Roderick Williams joins mezzo-soprano Clare Presland and Iain Burnside for RVW's RL Stevenson settings Songs of Travel plus early songs and the wonderful Four Last Songs.

Soprano Eve Daniel, mezzo-soprano Marie Seidler, tenor John Porter, baritone Henry Neill and Frederick Brown give us songs from the operas, followed by mezzo-soprano Ciara Hendrick and baritone Jonathan McGovern with Vann in songs by RVW and his contemporaries (both concerts 9 June). Soprano Mary Bevan and tenor Alessandro Fisher are joined by Matthew Scott (clarinet) and James Turnbull (oboe) and Vann, for songs for voice and woodwind (10 June). The festival finale sees Vann, the Benyounes Quartet and tenor Nicky Spence in On Wenlock Edge (11 June).

Further information and booking from the Cadogan Hall website.

Music and memories at RVW's family home

Leith Hill Place from the South
(c) National Trust Images / Andrew Butler

On Sunday we spent a happy hour or two at Leith Hill Place near Dorking. Situated on Leith Hall, with fabulous views over the Downs, the house is on the Leith Hill estate and has been owned by the National Trust since the 1940's when the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams gave it to the National Trust. The house had been bought in the 19th century by Josiah Wedgwood III, grandson of the famous potter and grandfather of RVW. It was subsequently lived in by Josiah and his wife Caroline (sister of the naturalist Charles Darwin), and their daughters (including RVW's mother). 

After RVW's mother's early widowhood (in 1875) she and RVW returned to the house to live there. From the age of three RVW was brought up at Leith Hill Place, so it is very much an essential stop for anyone interested in RVW and his music. The house is without original contents and the Trust has opened it up as a work in progress. On the second floor, there is a sound-scape which uses music and letters to evoke RVW's life and there is a regular concert series, with Roderick Williams performing on July 5, and the Hepplewhite Piano Trio on 12 July.