Ralph Vaughan Williams: Folk Songs Volume 4

This is the fourth and final volume in a series of albums recording all 81 of the folk songs in English that Ralph Vaughan Williams arranged for voice and piano or violin. 57 songs have not previously been recorded in these arrangements. This album has 19 tracks including 13 world premières. All but four of the songs were collected by Maud Karpeles in Newfoundland in 1929 and 1930. When she got back, she and Vaughan Williams spent some hours going through everything that she had found, selecting the 15 songs presented here - with an emphasis, it seems, on the sadder songs. As a result, many people will find this the most enjoyable album of the set. Maud Karpeles said that her life would have been worthwhile if collecting 'She's Like the Swallow' had been all that she had done. Jonathan Woolf wrote on Musicweb International: 'This marvellous series is full of discovery and a genuine sense of engagement with the medium. When we have the final volume we'll have a compact body of foundational folklore that will prove of enduring value to the VW lover.'