Showing posts with label William Vann. Show all posts
Showing posts with label William Vann. Show all posts

Sunday, December 22, 2024

Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea Issues "Ralph Vaugh Williams: Carols from Herefordshire"

 


Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea Issues "Ralph Vaugh Williams: Carols from Herefordshire"

The choral versions are recorded as a set in 2024 for the first time, coupled with the alternative settings for voice and piano, recorded in 2011.

The carols are performed with traditional words, not all of which follow the biblical canon, and they are by no means all about Christmas. As a consequence there are some unfamiliar carols and some new tunes for well-known carols.

In the first twelve tracks, William Vann directs the Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea at Holy Trinity Church, Sloane Square, in February 2024. Tracks 13 to 24 were recorded by bass-baritone Derek Welton, accompanied by pianist Iain Burnside at Potton Hall in 2011. Those tracks form part of a longer recital of folk-carols and folk-songs arranged by Vaughan Williams presented on ALBCD013 On Christmas Day.

Andrew Walton was the producer, and the engineers were Deborah Spanton and Mike Clements.

The conductor and pianist William Vann is recognised in particular for his acclaimed revivals of neglected works of British choral music and song and is Director of Music at the Royal Hospital Chelsea. His critically acclaimed recordings with the Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea have included first recordings of works by Elgar, Holst and Vaughan Williams and his studio recordings of Parry’s Judith and Prometheus Unbound have been awarded a host of accolades, including Gramophone’s ‘Recording of the Month’.

The bass-baritone Derek Welton has established himself as a respected and versatile artist both on the concert platform and the opera stage, with a repertoire ranging from Bach and Handel to the present day. He is a regular guest at the great opera houses of London, Salzburg, Vienna, Bayreuth, Berlin, Dresden, Hamburg, Paris, Amsterdam and Chicago.

Iain Burnside is one of the UK’s best-known musicians. Iain has worked with a broad roster of international singers: Dame Margaret Price, Rosa Feola, Ailish Tynan, Joyce DiDonato, Lawrence Brownlee, Roderick Williams, and Bryn Terfel, among many others. He has recorded more than 60 CDs, often created around neglected composers, where his curatorial skills are displayed to the full. He is a great champion of young singers, playing a crucial role in introducing them to a wider audience.

https://rvwsociety.com/carols-from-herefordshire/



Wednesday, November 27, 2024

Phillip Matty wins the Clare College Carols Composition Competition


Phillip Matty wins the Clare College Carols Composition Competition

Phillip Matty has won the Clare College Carol Composition Competition 2024 with his setting of "A baby sleeps," a new poem written by Master of Clare Loretta Minghella OBE. 

The adjudicators, William Vann, Director of Music at London’s Royal Hospital, Chelsea, and Graham Ross, Director of Music and Fellow at Clare, "unanimously agreed that the score had a clear compositional voice, was carefully crafted, and was idiomatically written for voices."

Phillip is studying for an MPhil in Composition at Clare College, Cambridge, and also a bass in the Chapel Choir.


Phillip’s "A Baby Sleeps" will be premièred by The Choir of Clare College, Cambridge at the Clare College Advent Carol Services on Thursday 28 November and Sunday 1 December, and LiveStreamed on the Choir’s YouTube channel.


Facebook Page of the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge


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Monday, November 18, 2024

Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea Releases "A Christmas Fantasia" on Albion

 


Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea Releases "A Christmas Fantasia" on Albion

Editor's Note: Description below is that of the label.

This is Albion’s third Christmas album with William Vann and his Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea. It mainly comprises carols and fantasias of the first half of the twentieth century, by Ralph Vaughan Williams, his friends and former students. These are carols for choral, rather than for congregational, singing.

The more contemporary exception is a new carol by William Vann himself, composed for the recording, setting a poem by the poet and composer Ivor Gurney.

Two of the longer works can justly be called ‘fantasias’: Vaughan Williams’s well-known "Fantasia on Christmas Carols" and Gustav Holst’s "Christmas Day," which deserves to be every bit as popular.

There are premiere recordings of works by Rebecca Clarke, Cecil Armstrong Gibbs and Gerald Finzi in addition to William Vann’s Carol – and there are even two first recordings of carols from Herefordshire by Vaughan Williams set for a capella SATB. Other carols are by John Ireland, Herbert Howells and Elizabeth Maconchy.

The majority of the carols and fantasias are unaccompanied, but six of the 16 works are accompanied on the organ by Jamie Riches. The distinguished bass-baritone Ashley Riches joins the choir for three works.

It was recorded at Holy Trinity Church, Sloane Square, London on 12 and 13 February 2024.

https://rvwsociety.com/a-christmas-fantasia/

Disclaimer: Regarding the photos and descriptions used above: We do not know whom the owners of these are and infringement is not intended. Photos and descriptions are used for educational purposes only. We will gladly oblige any take down under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Photos and descriptions are used under the allowance made for "fair use" under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 for the purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. We will oblige any takedown request of any photo on this blog in compliance with the DMCA.