The first of two releases to mark the 150th anniversary of Ralph Vaughan Williams's birth presents two of his major song collections, while bringing to...

The first of two releases to mark the 150th anniversary of Ralph Vaughan Williams's birth presents two of his major song collections, while bringing to light a substantial number of songs by the composer's student Elizabeth Maconchy. Her works here are almost all unpublished and virtually unknown since their original first performances from manuscript, and span several decades of the composer's career from the time of her studies with Vaughan Williams in the mid-1920s though to her committed espousal of the British modernist aesthetic by the 1960s and 70s. The songs are performed by tenor James Geer and pianist Ronald Woodley in this continuation of their long-standing partnership.