The Australian baritone Harold Williams (1893-1976) was prominent amongst British based singers from the 1920s to the 1940s. Like some of the other singers featured here, he was in the original line-up of soloists for Vaughan Williams’s Serenade to Music. In fact Williams sang during every Proms season from 1921 to 1951, and was a renowned Elijah – he recorded the role twice.

Bizet - Carmen - The Toreador Song
Wagner - Tannhäuser - O Star of Eve
Orchestra, Clarence Raybould (Bizet), Robert Ainsworth (Wagner)
Harold Williams, baritone

Bizet - Carmen - Toreador - Williams
Wagner - Tannhäuser - O Star of Eve - Williams

(mp3 files – click to play, or right click the link, then select “Save as”)

Columbia 9873
Matrices WAX 3226-1, 4552-2 (side numbers 8480, 11189)
Recorded 7th August 1928, 15th January 1929

Play at 76.9rpm and 78.0rpm.

Purcell arr A Moffatt – Awake! ye dead
Purcell arr A Moffatt – Come ye sons of Art – Sound the trumpet
Harold Williams, baritone, Norman Allin, bass
Orchestra

Columbia 5438
Matrices WA 8788-2, 8789-2 (38877, 38876)
Recorded late March or early April 1929
Issued December 1929

“Sound the trumpet” was a regular party piece for two low voices at the time of this recording, though it is now more usually sung by two countertenors.

Vaughan Williams - Serenade to Music
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sir Henry J. Wood
Isobel Baillie, soprano
Lilian Stiles Allen, soprano
Elsie Suddaby, soprano
Eva Turner, soprano
Margaret Balfour, contralto
Muriel Brunskill, contralto
Astra Desmond, contralto
Mary Jarred, contralto
Parry Jones, tenor
Heddle Nash, tenor
Frank Titterton, tenor
Walter Widdop, tenor
Norman Allin, bass
Robert Easton, bass
Roy Henderson, baritone
Harold Williams, baritone

Download - Vaughan Williams - Serenade to Music - Henry Wood

(mp3 file – right click the link, then select “Save as”)

Columbia LX757-8
Matrices CAX 8367-2A, 8368-2A, 8369-1, 8370-1
Recorded 15th October 1938