James Geer & Ronald Woodley - Maconchy & Vaughan Williams: Songs, Volume 2 (2023) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

This second of two releases to mark the 150th anniversary of Ralph Vaughan Williams’s birth presents a further two major song collections by the composer, while bringing to light another selection of songs by his student Elizabeth Maconchy. Her works here are almost all unpublished and virtually unknown since their first performances from manuscript, and span several decades of the composer’s career from the time of her studies with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 through 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.

Tracklist
1. Four Last Songs: I. Procris (2:36)
2. Four Last Songs: II. Tired (2:16)
3. Four Last Songs: III. Hands, Eyes, and Heart (1:24)
4. Four Last Songs: IV. Menelaus (4:16)
5. The Exequy (4:28)
6. The Garland: I. The Garland (1:11)
7. The Garland: II. Old and Young (0:47)
8. The Garland: III. I Would I Were a Mirror (1:56)
9. The Garland: IV. No End to Love (2:09)
10. Sailor's Song of the Two Balconies (3:42)
11. The Disillusion (3:30)
12. The Swallow (1:53)
13. The Poet-Wooer (2:07)
14. Sleep Brings Me No Joy (3:37)
15. In Fountain Court (2:48)
16. The House of Life: I. Love-Sight (4:25)
17. The House of Life: II. Silent Noon (4:15)
18. The House of Life: III. Love's Minstrels (5:29)
19. The House of Life: IV. Heart's Haven (4:12)
20. The House of Life: V. Death in Love (4:55)
21. The House of Life: VI. Love's Last Gift (4:25)
22. How Samson Bore Away the Gates of Gaza (10:57)