RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872–1958)

Choral Works

 

CD 1 English Chamber Orchestra

1 Serenade to Music [13'34]

Elizabeth Connell (soprano), Amanda Roocroft (soprano), John Mark Ainsley (tenor), Martyn Hill (tenor), Maldwyn Davies (tenor), Anne Dawson (soprano), Linda Kitchen (soprano), Alan Opie (baritone), Gwynne Howell (bass), Sir Thomas Allen (baritone), Sarah Walker (mezzo-soprano), Catherine Wyn-Rogers (mezzosoprano), John Connell (bass)

Five Mystical Songs Sir Thomas Allen (baritone)

2 Easter [5'25]

3 I got me flowers [2'51]

4 Love bade me welcome [5'53]

5 The Call [1'59]

6 Antiphon [3'12]

7 Fantasia on Christmas Carols [12'26] Sir Thomas Allen (baritone)

8 Flos Campi [22'13] Nobuko Imai (viola)

 

CD 2 Corydon Orchestra

Dona nobis pacem Judith Howarth (soprano), Sir Thomas Allen (baritone)

1 Agnus Dei [3'10]

2 Beat! beat! drums! [3'44]

3 Reconciliation [6'34]

4 Dirge for two veterans [10'45]

5 The Angel of Death has been abroad [10'46]

Four Hymns John Mark Ainsley (tenor), Matthew Souter (viola)

6 Lord! Come away! [4'20]

7 Who is this fair one? [4'27]

8 Come love, come Lord [3'47]

9 Evening Hymn [4'04]

10 Toward the Unknown Region [12:44]

11 O clap your hands [3'07]

12 Lord, thou hast been our refuge [7:46] Sir Thomas Allen (baritone)

 

CD 3 City of London Sinfonia

The Pilgrim’s Progress—A Bunyan Sequence Sir John Gielgud (speaker), Richard Pasco (speaker)

1 Prologue [5'17]

2 The Kingdom [3'17]

3 The Gate [2'59]

4 The Way [4'24]

5 The Shepherd [3'40] Aidan Oliver (treble)

6 The Palace Beautiful [4'52] Ursula Howells (speaker)

7 Apollyon [5'03]

8 Vanity Fair [6'11]

9 The Trial [7'19]

10 Giant Despair [4'43]

11 The Delectable Mountains [14'20] Ursula Howells (speaker)

12 Epilogue [1'41]

 

CD 4 City of London Sinfonia

1 A song of thanksgiving [15'57] Sir John Gielgud (speaker), Lynne Dawson (soprano), The London Oratory Junior Choir, John Scott (organ)

Three Choral Hymns

2 Easter Hymn [3'05]

3 Christmas Hymn [5'50]

4 Whitsunday Hymn [3'24]

5 Magnificat [14'11] Catherine Wyn-Rogers (mezzo-soprano), Duke Dobing (flute), Roger Judd (organ)

6 The shepherds of the delectable mountains [21'37]

Bryn Terfel (baritone), Alan Opie (baritone), Adrian Thompson (tenor), Jonathan Best (bass), John Mark Ainsley (tenor), Linda Kitchen (soprano)

7 The Hundredth Psalm [7'46]

 

Various soloists & orchestras

Corydon Singers / Matthew Best

 

Issued to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Vaughan Williams’s death, this collection is tantalizing: it starts with one of the best-selling discs in the the catalogue, the Serenade to Music, and includes such favourites as the Five Mystical Songs and The Hundreth Psalm. There are also two intriguing pairings: in Dona nobis pacem, RVW warns of the impending doom of WWII, in A song of thanksgiving we hear his moving response to its successful conclusion; in The shepherds of the delectable mountains we hear an early working of Bunyan’s literary masterpiece, later extensively reworked in the landmark 1942 BBC radio production of The Pilgrim’s Progress featuring Sir John Gielgud and reprised here, this time in condensed form. Throughout the collection, RVW’s mastery in setting great texts to music is evident, and has prompted glowing reviews that make this box-set a must have:

 

‘Performances like these don’t come along very often; each one is an absolute winner, and with rich, atmospheric recording quality the satisfaction is of a very special quality’ (CD Review)

 

(from CDA66420, CDA66655, CDA66511 & CDA66569)  

 

Hyperion 4cds CDS44321-4