![]() Possibly this leaves some of the songs feeling a little plain but I prefer this to the over-interpreted approach. While he is alert to the context and word-setting he is not a singer who makes a mannered expressive musical intervention at every opportunity. An interpretative feature in some of the songs is what I might term “no nonsense”. ![]() The forward placement is a valid comment and in some of the heartier sea songs such as Mother Carey or Drake’s Drum diminishes the ‘burliness’ other singers aptly find. His high notes in particular do not harden or pinch. Other notable features are the evenness of his vocal production across his entire range at whatever dynamics as well as excellent breath control allied to a good sense of musical line. Grames mentions “an artist of skill and sensitivity… with an attractive, forwardly placed and commanding voice (if a little fluttery of vibrato at times).” This strikes me as absolutely right to which I would add excellent diction – the ear quickly accepts the old fashioned pronunciation of the day where the “a” as in “and” is pronounced “end”. Apparently Vaughan Williams approved of this LP as well as his singing of the Jesus in Vaughan Williams’ beloved Bach Passions. So to the performers the liner discusses in some detail Standen’s career and reputation. Stone’s piano is a little light in its bass timbres and I suspect a modern production would make it a more equal partner but again this strikes me as remarkably good for a near 70 year old recording. Standen’s voice is full and well-caught not having heard other recordings of his singing it is hard not to imagine this is a faithful reproduction of his sound. Indeed for a mono recording the sound-stage is actually very good. Of course there is a faint and frankly undisturbing LP “swish” but the voice itself is appealingly present well-focussed and undistorted with the balance between voice and piano favouring the former but not in a musically-distorting way. I have to say he has done a triumphantly good job. In a note on the restoration Grames refers to the tricky balance to be found between the removal of surface noise and ‘clicks’ with maintaining the musical element on an LP that had been pressed at a low level due to the long side lengths. ![]() As ever with an Albion production, the actual presentation is a delight in itself with the extensive, informative and well-written notes (and all song texts) complimented by attractive images of the LP centre, performers and much else besides. Lastly he contributed the cover design which incorporates the original LP cover into an attractive montage which includes a reproduction of Edward Williams’ The Old Abbey Ruins. Grames not only did the transfer, restoration and editing from two copies of the original LP, he also wrote the extensive and informative liner essay dealing with both the pieces concerned but also the specific performances here as well as biographical information about the performers. This would appear to be something of a personal project for RVW Society trustee Ronald Grames. Before considering the music or the performances a quick word about the technical and presentational side of this release. ![]() This CD is a faithful and exact reproduction of the LP – which strikes me for the early 50’s as a very generous playing length for early long players of 57:09. Dating from 1954 these performances appeared on a Westminster LP with the slightly cumbersome title “Vaughan Williams and Others English Songs – Sea Ballads” with bass-baritone Richard Standen accompanied by Frederick Stone. This new disc entitled “The First Songs of Travel” is just such a collection. In parallel with their unique and valuable new performances of Vaughan Williams’ music, Albion Records scour the archives for historical recordings worthy of re-release and re-evaluation. 1954, Westminster’s London Studio originally released on Westminster XWN 18710 12” LP
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