Composer: Stephen Collins Foster, Ralph Vaughan Williams
Performer: Chapel Choir Of The Royal Hospital Chelsea, William Vann, Hugh Rowlands
Conductor: William Vann
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Albion
Catalogue: ALBCD034
Release: 2018
Size: 1.05 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Vaughan Williams: 3 Vocal Valses from the Songs of the Wrens
01. Vine, Vine and Eglantine (Arr. for Choir & Piano)
02. Winter (Arr. for Choir & Piano)
03. Spring (Arr. for Choir & Piano)
04. Vaughan Williams: Sound sleep
05. trad.: The Jolly Ploughboy (arr. R. Vaughan Williams for choir)
06. Foster: Old Folks at Home (arr. R. Vaughan Williams for choir)
07. trad.: A Farmer’s Boy (arr. R. Vaughan Williams for choir)
08. trad.: The world it went well with me then (arr. R. Vaughan Williams for choir)
09. trad.: Tobacco’s but an Indian Weed (arr. R. Vaughan Williams for choir)
10. Vaughan Williams: The New Commonwealth
11. Vaughan Williams: O praise the Lord of Heaven
12. Vaughan Williams: My Soul Praise The Lord
13. Vaughan Williams: Little Cloister (As the disciples, when Thy Son had left them)
14. Vaughan Williams: A Hymn Of Freedom
15. Vaughan Williams: England, My England
16. Vaughan Williams: A Call To The Free Nations
17. Vaughan Williams: The Airmen’s Hymn
18. Vaughan Williams: A Song of Thanksgiving: Land of Our Birth
19. Vaughan Williams: Hymn for St. Margaret of Scotland
trad.: 3 Gaelic Songs
20. Dawn on the Hills (Arr. R. Vaughan Williams for Choir)
21. Come Let Us Gather Cockles (Arr. R. Vaughan Williams for Choir)
22. Wake and Rise (Arr. R. Vaughan Williams for Choir)
Albion Records is pleased to present fourteen choral works written by Ralph Vaughan Williams and a further eight arrangements made by him between 1896 and 1954 ? very nearly the length of his working career. 21 of the 22 tracks are world première recordings (we were pipped to ‘O Praise the Lord of Heaven’ by a June 2018 release!)
This varied collection includes salon music, folk song settings, hymns and anthems, patriotic songs and finally Gaelic songs in English translation. Vaughan Williams never repeated himself, and the variety on display here is quite astonishing.
The recording was made in February 2018 in St Jude-on-the-Hill, Hampstead. William Vann directs the Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, and plays the piano for four tracks. Hugh Rowlands accompanies a further 9 tracks on the church’s Willis organ.
An earlier release with William Vann as Director of Music, SOMMCD0161 Carols from Chelsea, earned critical press acclaim, Gramophone commenting on the ‘first-class personnel’ and ‘tension and subtlety in the performances.’
It might seem surprising that there still remains unrecorded music by Ralph Vaughan Williams at this late date, but indeed all 22 of these tracks (or all but one) represent the first time the music therein has been committed to recorded sound. They’re not unknown masterpieces; most are small, strophic hymn-like pieces or folk song arrangements, accompanied by piano or organ, or sung a cappella. Yet they form a cohesive whole, which is more than can be claimed for many more ambitious releases. The pieces are arranged chronologically and proceed through stages of simple settings of poetry, folk song settings (among which is included Stephen Foster’s The Old Folks at Home: even though this is not a folk song, Vaughan Williams encountered it as one, on the front during World War I), simple but heartfelt religious pieces from the 1920s (this despite the composer’s confirmed atheism), patriotic works from World War II, and Scottish-flavored works from late in the composer’s career. The music is beautifully sung by the Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea under William Vann, a group of about 20 that makes room for the individuality of the singers. This not a major musical statement, but Vaughan Williams fans may well find they have to have it, and there are several works (Little Cloister or the indefinably un-American Old Folks at Home) that would enliven any choral concert.