Another recording of Vaughan Williams' Mass setting is always a celebration. Based on plainchant, it is a work which looks backwards as much as it looks forward musically.
The rest of the program is rarer. Communion Service music, a few hymns, and some motets make up this recording.
As is always the case with William Vann leading the Royal Hospital Chelsea Chapel Choir, it is all beautifully sung in fine Albion sonics.
A review from 2023
Six church hymns, six motets, a Te Deum, and a 30-minute Communion Service setting from the pen of British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.
If sitting through six hymns, each with many verses, sounds a bit dreary to sit through, this recording will change minds. Musicality from the singers is fully on display. Director William Vann makes each verse different for variety, organist Joshua Ryan varies his registration choices for each verse as well, and the final verse descant settings are terrific additions.
Vaughan Williams’ motets are a nice contrast to his modal hymns. While the tried-and-true ‘O Taste and See’ and ‘O Clap Your Hands’ are sturdily traditional, Valiant-for-Truth, Prayer, and Bivouac’s Fitful Flame display complex chromaticisms to set beside his better-known choral oeuvre.
RVW’s Mass in g minor is a 20th Century a cappella masterpiece. At some point, apparently his Latin Mass setting was converted into English and used as a communion service for regular church use. I wouldn’t start here if the work is new to listeners, but his music is just as enchanting, if not a bit of an oddity here. The addition of former Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams as récitant of the Ten Commandments is inspired.
The 24-member Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea is a beautiful sounding ensemble, made up of mixed adult singers. They really bring VW’s hymns to life with a vital freshness. Their a cappella contributions are well balanced and wonderfully tuned, and William Vann’s leadership is energetic. Albion’s sonics are clear and the Father Willis pipe organ is captured well without overwhelming the chorus, yet still provides a firm foundation with a colourful palate of registration choices.
Perhaps not as exciting a prospect as Vaughan Williams’ music for the concert hall, his more functional religious music is given first-class advocacy and stunning beauty.
Ensembles
Joshua Ryan, organ
Chapel Choir of Royal Hospital Chelsea
William Vann, conductor
Label: Albion
Year: 2022
Timing: 78.05
A beautifully performed program of sacred choral music from Vaughan Williams.
The big news is another Mass in G on record. The rest are slighter, more religiously purposeful works, but all lovely.
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