Messe Da Pacem: Music by Pierre Villette, Yves Castagnet and Ravel The Choir of Royal Holloway & Rupert Gough

• Maurice Ravel (1875 - 1937): Requiem æternam:
• 1Ravel: Requiem æternam07:07
• Paul Villette (1926 - 1998): Messe da Pacem, Op. 38:
• 2Villette: Messe da Pacem, Op. 38: I. Kyrie04:13
• 3Villette: Messe da Pacem, Op. 38: II. Gloria14:11
• 4Villette: Messe da Pacem, Op. 38: III. Sanctus05:16
• 5Villette: Messe da Pacem, Op. 38: IV. Benedictus06:30
• 6Villette: Messe da Pacem, Op. 38: V. Agnus Dei05:25
• Élévation, Op. 22:
• 7Villette: Élévation, Op. 2203:44
• Hymne à la Vierge, Op. 24:
• 8Villette: Hymne à la Vierge, Op. 2404:40
• Salutation angélique, Op. 20:
• 9Villette: Salutation angélique, Op. 2003:04
• Yves Castagnet (b. 1964): Messe Brève:
• 10Castagnet: Messe Brève: I. Kyrie01:43
• 11Castagnet: Messe Brève: II. Gloria04:47
• 12Castagnet: Messe Brève: III. Sanctus & Benedictus02:08
• 13Castagnet: Messe Brève: IV. Agnus Dei02:57
• Veni Sancte Spiritus:
• 14Castagnet: Veni Sancte Spiritus09:32
• Total Runtime01:15:17

Info for Messe Da Pacem: Music by Pierre Villette, Yves Castagnet and Ravel

The Choir of Royal Holloway presents the debut recording of Pierre Villette’s Messe Da Pacem in a new arrangement for choir and organ by Rupert Gough. Alongside the Mass is Villette’s well-known Hymne à la Vierge, and works by contemporary Parisian composer Yves Castagnet recorded here for the first time. The album opens with a new choral arrangement of Ravel’s ever-popular Pavane pour une infante défunte. The Choir is joined by alumna, and award-winning soprano, Sarah Fox, and accompanied on the newly restored Cavaillé-Coll organ of Notre-Dame d’Auteuil in Paris.

"Think the soundworld of Debussy and Duruflé, occasionally inflected by jazz-derived harmonies and some churchy counterpoint, and you have Villette’s appealing musical style. …this disc offers an intriguing and revealing listen. The whole programme showcases the choir’s near-ideal blend and fresh, open tone, supported by sensitive organ accompaniment." (Choir & Organ)

"The performances are simply superb… This is a distinguished release in every respect and lovers of French choral music should hasten to hear it." (MusicWeb International)

"Ad Fontes, the recently established Buckfast Abbey-based recording label have done themselves proud with their fourth album. It enjoys striking clarity… and includes a lavish booklet, complete with organ specifications, comprehensive notes and Latin texts. Once again, the Royal Holloway Choir is on superb form, responding to this glorious music with fresh, well-balanced voices, and overall makes this one of the most rewarding discs I’ve reviewed all year." (Opera Today)

The Choir of Royal Holloway
Rupert Gough, direction, organ
Sarah Fox, soprano
Andrew Dewar, organ
Liam Condon, organ

The Choir of Royal Holloway
is unique in the UK as the only collegiate choir with a weekly programme of services and concerts and is considered to be one of the finest mixed-voice collegiate choirs in Britain. The choir gives 50-plus concerts a year with a particular specialism in collaborating with living composers. The choir has collaborated, performed and recorded with many prestigious ensembles, including the King’s Singers, BBC Singers London Mozart Players, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Onyz Brass, Fretwork, and the Britten Sinfonia, including two performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony under the baton of Thomas Adès in 2019.

Created at the time of the foundation of Royal Holloway in 1886, the choir was originally only for women's voices. The mixed choir now comprises 24 Choral Scholars who undertake a busy schedule of weekly services, as well as concerts, international tours, recordings and broadcasts. In addition to these, Royal Holloway is also the only university that still maintains a tradition of daily sung morning services.

Between 2009 and 2016, the choir recorded nine discs on the Hyperion record label. It is through this relationship with Hyperion Records, and subsequent live performances, that the choir developed a particular reputation for the performance of music from the Baltic region. During a tour in the summer of 2013 of all three Baltic states the choir performed as a part of the Latvian Song Festival, and with the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra in a concert (sung in Estonian) broadcast on the Estonian Day of Independence. As well as Baltic music, the choir’s eclectic repertoire has included The Vespers of Rachmaninov and Rautavarra, Gabriel Jackson’s Ave regina caelorum for choir and electric Guitar (broadcast BBC Radio 3) and newly-commissioned jazz works with Tim Garland and Gwilym Simcock (live BBC Radio 3).

The choir has toured most European countries, appeared in Beijing and been broadcast on regional and national radio and television all over the world. In the UK BBC Radio 3 have produced live broadcasts of both services and concerts. The choir has performed widely across the USA and Canada most recently in 2016 and 2018. The choir has been fortunate to sing at a number of high-profile events including the 2014 Festival of Remembrance at the Albert Hall (live on BBC TV), an awards ceremony at Buckingham Palace and performing a new John Rutter commission for the Magna Carta 800th anniversary in front of HM The Queen, the Prime Minister and Archbishop of Canterbury. Most recently they sang for the wedding of Ellie Goulding and Caspar Jopling at York Minster. Festival engagements have included the Spitalfields Festival, the Three Choirs Festival, the Windsor and Swaledale festivals, the Cheltenham Festival (with Dame Felicity Lott and the City of London Sinfonia), and residencies at the Presteigne Festival in 2011, 2015 and 2018.

Many new works have been composed for the choir as it continues to enjoy close collaborations with living composers. Carson P. Cooman composed The Revelations of Divine Love, a large new oratorio, for the choir in 2009 and a live recording of the US première is available from Albany Records in the USA. Other works written for the choir include two major works for choir and jazz trio from Tim Garland and Gwilym Simcock, and pieces by René Clausen, James MacMillan, Gabriel Jackson, Richard Rodney Bennett, Antony Pitts, Cecilia MacDowall and Paul Mealor. Working closely with composers, recording projects have included a collaboration with Ola Gjeilo (Winter Songs: DECCA), which topped the UK and US classical chart, a recording of James Francis Brown Heaven and the heart and forthcoming discs of music by Ben Parry and Joanna Marsh.

Past singers of the College include the international soloists Dame Felicity Lott, Susan Bullock, Sarah Fox and many others who now sing with ensembles including the BBC singers, The Sixteen, The Gabrieli Consort, The Tallis Scholars and Polyphony. Past organ scholars have attained prominent positions in many British cathedrals and public schools.

The choir is supported by two organ scholars, a choral administrator and full-time Director of Choral Music and College Organist, Rupert Gough.

Rupert Gough
has been director of Choral Music and College Organist at Royal Holloway, University of London since 2005. He is also Organist and Director of Music at London’s oldest surviving church, Saint Bartholomew the Great, which maintains a professional choir. At Royal Holloway Rupert has developed the choral programme to include weekly choral recitals, choral conducting courses for undergraduates, many new choral commissions and transformed the Chapel Choir into an elite group of 24 choral scholars. The Choir has particularly come to prominence through their series of recordings for Hyperion Records. Their latest recording of the music of Ola Gjeilo with Decca Classics was top of the US and UK charts over Christmas.

Rupert was a chorister at the Chapels Royal, St. James's Palace, and won a scholarship to the Purcell School. He received (with distinction) a Masters degree in English Church Music from the University of East Anglia whilst Organ Scholar at Norwich Cathedral. For 11 years he was Assistant Organist at Wells Cathedral during which time he made around 30 CD recordings as accompanist and director. Rupert has worked with a variety of professional ensembles including the BBC Singers, King’s Singers, Britten Sinfonia, London Mozart Players and Tallinn Chamber Orchestra. As an organist he has performed widely as an organ soloist and as a part of a violin and organ duo. Highlights include the Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony with the Hong Kong Philharmonic and recitals in Moscow and across the USA.

This album contains no booklet.