Baritone Roderick Williams and pianist Susie Allan’s tribute to mark the 150th anniversary of RVW's birth in 2022. The concept is that of a "fantasy birthday party concert" with pieces by Vaughan Williams and eighteen fellow composers with songs inspired by poets ranging from Shakespeare and Tennyson to W.B. Yeats and Walt Whitman. As well as RVW, composers include Max Bruch, George Butterworth, Gerald Finzi, Ivor Gurney, Holst, Parry, Ravel, Stanford, and Roderick Williams himself. Disc released March 2024.

Michael Barenboim (violin), Philharmonia Orchestra, Alessandro Crudele. Two of my favourite pieces of British music. Britten's atmospheric "sea interludes" from Grimes - with in my view the best evocation of a storm at sea in music anywhere. And then Elgar's Violin Concerto in B Minor, Op. 61, composed after a meeting with Elgar and Fritz Kreisler in 1907. Two years earlier Kreisler had said to the newspapers "If you want to know whom I consider to be the greatest living composer, I say without hesitation Elgar... I say this to please no one; it is my own conviction... I place him on an equal footing with my idols, Beethoven and Brahms. He is of the same aristocratic family. His invention, his orchestration, his harmony, his grandeur, it is wonderful. And it is all pure, unaffected music. I wish Elgar would write something for the violin." After that Elgar really had no choice! Michael Barenboim is son of the great conductor Daniel, a Professor of Chamber Music and Violin at the Barenboim-Said Akademie based in Berlin, and concertmaster of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. CD released September 2023.

Absolutely gorgeous album from my favourite baritone, Bryn Terfel. Having seen him in Covent Garden as the captain of the Flying Dutchman a few weeks ago I was amused to see the release of this disc of seafaring folk songs. He is perfect for this repertoire, and is joined by a variety of other performers including guests such as Sting (on "Green Willow Tree"), fellow baritone Simon Keenlyside and the Welsh folk group Calan, and the "movie famous" a capella choir "Fisherman's Friends". The Guardian review of this CD said that his powerful clarity was such you could take dictation. Might be a problem for some of the Welsh language material, but I know what they mean! CD released February 2024.

Westminster Cathedral Choir, directed by Simon Johnson. On Holy Saturday - the eve of Easter Day, I listened to the music for the Easter Vigil - the Service of Light, Liturgy of the Word, Liturgy of Baptism, and the Liturgy of Eucharist, in a recording made at Buckfast Abbey. One of the great choirs of the world, and possibly of any Catholic Cathedral. Simon Johnson became Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral following thirteen years at St Paul's Cathedral. CD released 22 March 2024.