A Vaughan Williams Christmas Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea & William Vann

• Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958): 8 Traditional English Carols:
• 1 No. 1, And All in the Morning 03:55
• 2 No. 2, On Christmas Night 01:33
• 3 No. 3, The Twelve Apostles 04:02
• 4 No. 4, Down in Yon Forest 02:40
• 5 No. 5, May Day Carol 02:03
• 6 No. 6, The Truth Sent from Above 02:37
• 7 No. 7, The Birth of the Saviour 03:27
• 8 No. 8, Wassail Song 02:17
• 2 Carols:
• 9 No. 1, Come Love We God 02:33
• 10 No. 2, There Is a Flower 02:21
• Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958):
• 11 O Little Town of Bethlehem (Arr. R. Vaughan Williams for Choir) 03:44
• 12 The Golden Carol 02:01
• 13 Wither's Rocking Hymn 04:00
• 14 Snow in the Street 03:33
• 15 Blake's Cradle Song 03:08
• 9 Carols:
• 16 No. 1, God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen 02:23
• 17 No. 2, As Joseph was a-Walking 01:48
• 18 No. 3, Mummer's Carol (Cherry Tree Carol) 02:30
• 19 No. 4, The First Nowell 03:30
• 20 No. 5, The Lord at First 03:27
• 21 No. 6, Coventry Carol 02:28
• 22 No. 7, I Saw Three Ships 01:20
• 23 No. 8, A Virgin Most Pure 04:08
• 24 No. 9, Dives and Lazarus 03:59
• Total Runtime 01:09:27

Info for A Vaughan Williams Christmas

Vaughan Williams was (with Cecil Sharp) one of the foremost collectors of folk songs during the early 1900s. He collected many traditional Christmas carols as well. This collection is of carols as he arranged them, thus presenting his view of Christmas in the first half of the 20th century. He also wrote four completely new carols for the Oxford Book of Carols, which are also all included here. This release includes world première recordings of two sets of carols: 'Two Carols' from 1945 and Nine Carols for Male Voices, commissioned by the British Council in 1941 for performance by and for British troops serving in Iceland. They are performed by the outstanding Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea (of which all members are professional musicians) under the directorship of William Vann.

Hugh Rowlands, organ
Thomas Stoddart, baritone
Edward Hughes, tenor
Angus McPhee, baritone
Chapel Choir Of The Royal Hospital Chelsea
William Vann, direction

William Vann
Gramophone, reviewing Purer than Pearl, Albion Records’ latest disc of Vaughan Williams song, reserved “a special word of praise for William Vann’s deft pianism”. A multiple-prize winning conductor and accompanist of growing renown and former pupil of Malcolm Martineau, William performs with a host of major singers and instrumentalists across the world and is the founder and Artistic Director of the London English Song Festival.

Born in Bedford, William was a Chorister at King’s College, Cambridge and a Music Scholar at Bedford School. He subsequently read law and took up a choral scholarship at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he was taught the piano by Peter Uppard, and studied piano accompaniment at the RAM with Malcolm Martineau and Colin Stone, where he has recently been made an Associate.

He has been awarded many prizes for piano accompaniment, including the Wigmore Song Competition Jean Meikle Prize for a Duo (with Johnny Herford), the Gerald Moore award, the Royal Overseas League Accompanists’ Award, a Geoffrey Parsons Memorial Trust award, the Concordia-Serena Nevill Prize, the Association of English Singers and Speakers Accompanist Prize, the Great Elm Awards Accompanist Prize, the Sir Henry Richardson Scholarship and the Hodgson Fellowship in piano accompaniment at the RAM.

William has collaborated on stage with a vast array of singers and instrumentalists, among them Sir Thomas Allen CBE, Mary Bevan, Katie Bray, Allan Clayton, James Gilchrist, Thomas Gould, Johnny Herford, Guy Johnston, Jennifer Johnston, Aoife Miskelly, Ann Murray DBE, Brindley Sherratt, Nicky Spence, Andrew Staples, Kitty Whately and the Benyounes and Navarra Quartets. Recent performances have included appearances at Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, the ROH Crush Room, Sage, Gateshead and St John’s, Smith Square, at the Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, Oxford Lieder, Machynlleth and City of London Festivals, the Northern Ireland Festival of Voice (broadcast on Radio 3) and abroad in France, Germany (on live ZDF television), Ireland, Nigeria, South Africa (National Arts Festival) and Sweden. His discography includes recordings with Albion Records, Champs Hill Records, Navona Records and SOMM. Purer than Pearl, Albion’s 2016 release, featured six previously unrecorded songs by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

In addition to his performances of standard song repertoire, he has also either commissioned or given the first performances of new English songs and song cycles by several English composers, including Christian Alexander, Joseph Atkins, Martin Eastwood, Johnny Herford, Ian Venables, David Nield and Graham Ross (the latter two at Wigmore Hall).

He is a Trustee of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society, a Samling Artist, a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians, the Co-Chairman of Kensington and Chelsea Music Society, the Artistic Director of Bedford Music Club, a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists and a conductor and vocal coach on the Dartington and Oxenfoord International Summer Schools. He is also the Director of Music at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, where he directs the choir and a programme of concerts in the Royal Hospital’s Wren Chapel, the Assistant Conductor of the English Chamber Choir and the founder and Artistic Director of the London English Song Festival, the sixth season of which took place at Wilton’s Music Hall in July 2017. Projects in 2018 include discs of song with Mary Bevan, Gareth John, Kitty Whately and Roderick Williams and a recital to commemorate the centenary of Parry’s death at Wigmore Hall on 23rd September.

Booklet for A Vaughan Williams Christmas