LF 26: An English Song Winterreise

Prestonkirk Parish Church East Linton 9/9/26

Roderick Williams (baritone)

Christopher Glynn (piano)

When I saw ‘An English Song Winterreise’ advertised, I wondered if the popular English baritone, Roderick Williams, was planing a recital of Schubert’s Winterreise (A Winter’s Journey) in English translation, since I knew he had recently performed my friend Jeremy Sams’ translation of Wilhelm Muller’s epic 24 poem.

The reality was almost more engaging – a selection of songs in English, mirroring Schubert’s cycle, over 24 songs, and covering a similar, if less depressing trajectory. The Festival asked Roderick to cut a few songs to fit better into an afternoon’s recital, but the basic plan remained, and a full house in the attractive surroundings of Prestonkirk Parish Church’s Georgian nave was entertained by a fascinating set of songs, expertly delivered and presented.

I reviewed Mr Williams’ recital at the Paxton Festival in the summer, and this, albeit with a different but equally fabulous accompanist, Christopher Glynn, was a similar treat. The baritone is at the peak of his vocal powers, possessing a beautiful instrument of infinite colours and nuances, ideal for English Song. I have mentioned before how jealous I am as a bass, in this musical world, of the baritones, and to a lesser extent, the tenors, for whom nearly all the best songs were written, but when one listens to Roderick’s renditions of lovely poetry set so well to music, one just has to sit back and admire. His voice is not particularly large, and his operatic roles have to be carefully chosen, but in this repertoire, there can be few if any singers in the same league.

Many different poets were represented in this recital, with Shakespeare, Robert Louis Stevenson and Thomas Hardy at the apex, and many quite contrasting composers were featured, offering an interesting range of moods and styles. I was largely unfamiliar with Ivor Gurney (1890-1937) and Elizabeth Maconchy (1907-1994), but Vaughan Williams, Gerald Finzi, Roger Quilter and, of course, Benjamin Britten were well represented. I know he is for some an acquired taste, but for me, Ralph Vaughan Williams is a genius, and his songs are on a different level from almost all the rest. I have sung and recorded his ‘Songs of Travel’ frequently in my career, albeit down a tone from the keys Mr Williams sings them in, and it was a pleasure to hear two of them today, 'The Vagabond' and 'Whither must I wander,' and the wonderful texts by my compatriot R L Stevenson are splendidly set. One often forgets that when Vaughan Williams set the poems to music in 1901-1904, they were almost contemporary, having been written less than ten years earlier in Samoa. Mr Williams and Mr Glynn did them proud, catching both the nostalgia and the yearning ever present in them.

Benjamin Britten’s unique take on Thomas Hardy’s strange poem, ‘Midnight on the Great Western’, an astonishing metaphor for life’s journey, using a young boy in a third class compartment on a Great Western train, is the second song in his cycle ‘Winter Words’ (1953), and thus a perfect choice for this English Winter’s Journey, and the mysterious piano part was suitably eerie in Mr Glynn’s superb accompaniment.

I was very taken with Errollyn Wallen’s beautiful ‘Peace on Earth’ which ended the recital, originally a carol for choir over a slow repeating keyboard ostinato, but this arrangement for solo voice and piano was very moving, mirroring, to some extent, the other-worldly 'Der Leiermann', which ends Schubert’s cycle. Both performers were perfectly aligned in their tranquil optimism for the future.

Roderick Williams and I have known each other for over 30 years, since we sang together in ‘Peter Grimes’ at the Endellion Festival in Cornwall, with Richard Hickox, and his charming personality and fine musicianship have endeared him to audiences all over the world. His introductions to this recital were perfectly judged, and he was given a great ovation at the end, permitting him to give us some Schubert as an encore, Goethe’s sublime 'Wanderers Nachtlied'.

He sings again on Friday evening at 10pm in Holy Trinity Church in Haddington, also with the estimable Christopher Glynn, featuring among other works, Britten’s cycle written for the great Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, ‘Songs and Proverbs of William Blake’. Catch it if you can!