Search - Henry Herford, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Hilary Davan Wetton :: Vaughan Williams: Five Tudor Portraits; Five Mystical Songs

GREAT CD REISSUE of a timeless VaughanWilliams's classic !

11/04/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"At last Hyperion records (U.K.) have released a cd reissue on their current Helios sublabel of the Vaughan Williams' Five Mystical Songs and Tudor Portraits. Wetton (a surprisingly competent conductor for these days) and his huge orchestra are backed by wonderful choral parts (glimpses of what Heaven could be?); the soloist vocal parts are superb, thanks to Sarah Walker and Henry Herford's - two of England's greatest voices. The recording is quite good (don't expect the best from Telarc or Mercury, but it ain't bad either, especially in the way dynamics of the percussion and massive vocals are right there - rightly!). Certainly, a Vaughan Williams disc that is worth investigating. To me, these works represent sort of an 'overview' of the whole V.W.s' works. A plus, the Helios Series from Hyperion are amazingly inexpensive - considering the actual cost of a majority of CDs. Other great recordings of these works include the reference version by Sir David Willcocks, yet this one isn't far behind. We aren't far from Heaven, too."