Ralph Vaughan Williams – Pan’s Anniversary and Other Works
£15.00
Ben Jonson’s masque ‘Pan’s Anniversary’, as adapted for the Shakespeare Birthday Celebration at Stratford-upon-Avon, Easter Monday 1905, with incidental music by Ralph Vaughan Williams and additional arrangements by Gustav Holst.
This album with five world premiere recordings is the most important of several albums released by Albion Records in 2022 to celebrate Ralph Vaughan Williams’s sesquicentenary.
William Vann musical director
Mary Bevan, Sophie Bevan sopranos, Jess Dandy contralto (Nymphs 1,2 and 3)
Timothy West, Samuel West (Shepherd and Fencer)
Choir of Clare College, Cambridge chorus master Graham Ross
Britten Sinfonia leader Thomas Gould
Johnny Herford baritone (track 22)
Listen
Reviews
“Once again, singers and instrumentalists excel here…The Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, and the string players from the Britten Sinfonia really outdo themselves here in a marvelous fusion of elegance and passion”
5★Fanfare Archive
“But I’ll return most often to a student choral creation, To Sleep! To Sleep!, circa 1896 (blessed with an immediately striking opening phrase), and the album’s finale: a recent arrangement by Timothy Burke of VW’s Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, featuring 39 voices from Clare College, Cambridge, weaving wondrously radiant textures above the Britten Sinfonia strings. Most inspiring.”
4★ The Times
“There are two early choral settings Peace ,Come Away and To Sleep! To Sleep! with beautifully dark coloured choral and orchestral writing.”
“Burke’s vocal scoring with stratospheric sopranos is actually rather magnificent. It made me think of the sun streaming through a multi-coloured cathedral rose window!”
British Music Society
“The chorus used simply but effectively as an echo device is both beautiful and effective as music device and actual performance here…The Choirof Clare College providing fresh-voiced and expressive support alongside the Britten Sinfonia”
Music Web International
“…it it all flows swimmingly along, providing some forty minutes of delightful entertainment. The performers were clearly enthused by this project, judging by the commitment evident in the performance itself.”
5★ Customer Review
“An absolute joy from beginning to end.”
5★ Customer Review