Vaughan Williams - James Gilchrist - Hi Fi Choice

Music

Here are some eclectic settings of English poetry from AE Housman, Yeats and Cecil Day Lewis. The disc is accompanied by extensive notes, which informs us that "Housman was not keen on having his poetry set to music after he heard Lake Isle of Innisfree - a poem voicing a solitary man's desire for greater solitude - sung by a thousand Boy Scouts", and that Vaughan Williams had an altercation with Housman, after he cut two verses from A Shropshire Lad. RVW was unrepentant noting that a "poet should be grateful to anyone who fails to perpetuate such lines as "The goal stand up, the keeper/Stands up to keep the goal". Unanswerable.

Sound

These are winning, measured performances, with sensitively phrased accompaniments from the Fitzwilliam String Quartet and soloists. The disc is served by excellent engineering in both stereo and multichannel mixes. Like other Linn issues, it can be downloaded at up to CD quality.