Grace Williams CD Launch

A new recording featuring the songs of Welsh composer Grace Williams will be released on the Naxos label on July 26.

Grace Williams’ music has enjoyed renewed interest in recent years and the BMS was proud to be part of this revival with its first recording of her chamber music performed by Madeleine Mitchell and her London Chamber Ensemble. The Society’s second CD presents world premiere recordings of her songs: twenty-seven of these are available on CD (catalogue no. 8.571384) and a further two ‘Mari Lwyd’ and ‘To Death’ will be marketed as i-Tunes. 

There is an impressive range of texts and moods presented in Grace Williams’ folksong settings from Wales and Europe, and the subject of the sea is never far from her thoughts in songs such as ‘Underneath the Sea’ and the Welsh legend ‘Stand forth Seithenin’. She approached the subject of death through the writings of Caroline Southey, Edward Thomas and Shakespeare, and her wit and sense of theatre is alive in ‘Fairground’ with its considerable demands on both the singer Jeremy Huw Williams and pianist Wendy Hiscocks.

This new British Music Society recording will be released on the Naxos label on July 26

Grace Williams photo with permission from Ty Cerdd