Vaughan Williams Songs

Star tenor John Mark Ainsley joins The Nash Ensemble in a programme of the principal instrumentally-accompanied songs of Vaughan Williams: the Ten Blake Songs with solo oboe, the three Chaucer settings called Merciless Beauty for 2 violins and cello, the eight Housman settings known as Along the Field, and of course On Wenlock Edge (also Housman) with piano and string quartet. There are also two folksong settings for voice and violin, The Lawyer and Searching for lambs. This recording joins John Mark's distinguished and growing Hyperion discography of English song after CDs devoted to Britten, Howells, Ireland, Quilter, Warlock and William Lloyd Webber.

GRAMOPHONE CRITICS' CHOICE

'John Mark Ainsley's performance is among his best on record in these austerely beautiful, imaginatively scored settings' (Gramophone)

'John Mark Ainsley’s voice has exactly the right timbre for this music. First-rate. A most desirable disc. Very strongly recommended' (Fanfare, USA)

'Superbly sung. A warm recommendation' (International Record Review)

'Hyperion could have no better champion here than John Mark Ainsley. With beautifully sensitive playing from the Nash Ensemble, his clean, mellifluous tenor draws us in to the hidden riches of this marvellous music' (Amazon.co.uk)

'It would be hard to find an interpreter more beautifully suited to the Blake Songs than John Mark Ainsley' (BBC Music Magazine)

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Recording details: October 1999; All Saints, Durham Road, East Finchley, London, United Kingdom; Produced by Mark Brown; Engineered by Antony Howell & Julian Millard; Release date: September 2000;