RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872–1958) / JUDITH BINGHAM (b1952)

 

Ralph Vaughan Williams:

1 Te Deum in G

Mass in G minor

2 Kyrie  

3 Gloria

4 Credo

5 Sanctus

6 Benedictus

7 Agnus Dei

8 O vos omnes

9 Valiant-for-Truth

10l A vision of aeroplanes

 

Judith Bingham:

Mass

11 Preamble The road to Emmaeus

12 Kyrie

13 Gloria

14 Offertory Et aperti sunt oculi

15 Sanctus and Benedictus

16 Agnus Dei

17 Voluntary Et cognoverunt eum

 

Robert Quinney, The Choir of Westminster/ Martin Baker

 

Since its dedication, Westminster Cathedral has been a place of inspiration and prayer – and one of musical discovery. Vaughan Williams’s Mass in G minor is popularly reported as having received its first performance in the Cathedral. Although this statement is untrue, it is certainly true to say that it was the work’s first liturgical performance – at a service in 1923 directed by the pioneering Richard Runciman Terry – that won a place at the centre of the repertory for this pioneering piece, justly described as the first ‘English’ Mass setting since the sixteenth century and the time of Byrd and Tallis. This new performance, similarly, promises to set a new standard.

 

The three further Vaughan Williams pieces on this recording are fascinating. O vos omnes, a setting of texts from the Book of Lamentations, is probably the best known; it is joined by Valiant-for-Truth, a narrative from Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, and the extraordinary A vision of aeroplanes which vividly depicts Ezekiel’s prophetic inspiration.

 

The pantheon of composers to have responded to commissions from Westminster Cathedral – including Vaughan Williams, Howells, Holst and Britten – now counts Judith Bingham among its number. And what a welcome this new Mass can expect. With its carefully structured and thought-provoking music, this new setting fits at once into the constant evolving liturgy of the church, combining the highest artistic needs with an awareness of contemporary sympathies. This Mass recently won a British Composer Award for Liturgical Music, and this recording will now offer it a place in the repertory beyond the cloister.

 

As is only to be expected from its past record, the Choir of Westminster Cathedral brings tonal richness and a superb musicality to its performances of these works. The solos sound as confident from the trebles as from the men, and one can almost smell the incense from the atmospheric recording.

Lack of belief has never prevented the creation of masterly music for the liturgy. The fact that Vaughan Williams, for all the "cheerful agnosticism" described by his widow Ursula, was open both to the spiritual and to the English choral tradition, meant that his Mass in G minor conveys the authentic image of a work for the Church, as do the accompanying Te Deum and O vos omnes accompanying it on this disc. A Vision of Aeroplanes, however, with its turbulent setting of Ezekiel for choir and organ, is more obviously theatrical in its imagery, while Valiant-for-Truth - a pendant to Vaughan Williams's opera The Pilgrim's Progress - is a wartime paean to heroic death.

Judith Bingham's Mass, which won last year's liturgical category in the British Composer Awards, replaces the Credo with a central Offertory. The Mass was written to mark Ascension Day, and organ solos provide a narrative frame to an engrossing work.

Matthew Rye, Telegraph

 

Hyperion CDA67503