Alfred Deller - Folk Songs and Ballads. CD4: Ralph Vaughan Williams - Folk Songs of Britain / English Lute Songs (2008)

Anon. trad. British, arr. Ralph Vaughan Williams:
1 An Acre of Land 1:33
2 A Farmer's Son So Sweet 1:36
3 The Lover's Ghost 3:24
4 The Turtle Dove 2:50
5 John Dory 2:25
6 Greensleeves 5:07
7 The Jolly Ploughboy 1:08
8 Gloucestershire Wassail 2:34
9 Down by the Riverside 1:34
10 Bushes and Briars 2:57
11 Just as the Tide was Flowing 2:15
12 Ca' the Yowes 4:20
13 My Boy Billy 2:14
14 The Spring Time of the Year 2:49
15 Ward the Pirate 2:47
16 The Painful Plough 3:52
17 The Dark-Eyed Sailor 2:08
18 The Cuckoo and the Nightingale 2:02
19 Loch Lomond 3:14

The Deller Consort
Eileen Poulter (soprano)
Mary Thomas (soprano)
Alfred Deller (counter-tenor)
Wilfred Brown (tenor)
Gerald English (tenor)
Maurice Bevan (baritone)
Geoffrey Coleby (bass)
Desmond Dupre - lute and guitar
Alfred Deller - director

20 Thomas Campion: Shall I come sweet love to thee 3:06
21 Thomas Morley: Will ye by a fine dog 1:17
22 John Dowland: Me, me and none but me 3:45
23 Wilt thou unkind 1:39

Alfred Deller - countertenor
Desmond Dupre – lute

I grew up listening to Alfred Deller's "Wraggle-Taggle Gypsies" and one of his albums of Dowland's lute songs, so I was excited to see this boxed set, and I looked forward to hearing the other albums included. The songs are mostly excellent (though "The Cries of London" didn't do much for me -- an entire album of street vendors hawking their wares) and performed with sensitivity and feeling.

Unfortunately, although this boxed set is billed as "The Complete Vanguard Recordings, Volume One", it is definitely not complete. Disc 3 includes "The Wraggle-Taggle Gypsies", but while it includes all of the songs that Deller sings, it omits the instrumental pieces which the original recording interspersed with the vocal numbers. Deller's voice is certainly appealing, but fourteen of his songs in a row (or 29 if you include the ones from "The Three Ravens", which are also on disc 3) are a bit much for me. The interludes for recorders and other period instruments provided refreshing variety, besides being musically interesting in and of themselves.

It was nice of Vanguard to include a CD-ROM with the original liner notes and lyrics, but I would have preferred it had they left out the CD-ROM and included the extra instrumental material. It makes me wonder what was omitted from the other albums. ---John L. Velonis, amazon.com

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