David Briggs, Tredegar Town Band, Ian Porthouse, Mary Bevan, Nicky Spence, Roderick Williams, Willi
Release Date: 14 October 2022
Label: Albion Records
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 5060158190539
Genres: Classical Chamber Music
Description
We celebrate the 150th birthday of Ralph Vaughan Williams, on Wednesday 12 October 2022, with this unique compilation album.
The album takes its name from Serenade to Music, transcribed here for organ by David Briggs and recorded on the Willis organ of Truro Cathedral. David also gives us quite an astonishing transformation of the March Past of the Kitchen Utensils from The Wasps.
We hear premiere recordings of a Flourish for Three Trumpets and Four 'Cambridge' Flourishes for Four Trumpets, played by members of Tredegar Town Band, and we hear the whole band later in an arrangement of Two Carols made by Paul Hindmarsh using Vaughan Williams's harmonies.
There are three folk songs from Albion's Complete Folk Songs series, but these are new recordings for this album, each of the three soloists singing a folk song previously recorded by one of the others.
Lynn Arnold and Charles Matthews reprise the early Suite for Four Hands on One Pianoforte, with the original version of the Minuet. Charles Matthews goes on to play organ arrangements of three works by Vaughan Williams.
We conclude with a hymn tune that Vaughan Williams named after his cousin and best man, Ralph Wedgwood, known to his friends as Randolph, set to words that Vaughan Williams salvaged from a Moody and Sankey hymn: God be with you till we meet again.
Serenade is a mixed bag of an album, and is both a celebration of a great anniversary and a further contribution to Albion's rich harvest of lesser-known works and new (and old) arrangements.
Critical Acclaim:
"Tredegar Town Band opens proceedings with a gleaming Flourish for Three Trumpets. […] Soprano Mary Bevan distils a gentle melancholy in 'She's like the swallow', while tenor Nicky Spence finds plangency in 'Now the winter's gone and past'. Both are sensitively accompanied by William Vann" – BBC Music Magazine (Performance 4 STARS, Recording 4 STARS)
"Organist David Briggs shines in his sympathetic transcriptions of the orchestral version of the sublime Serenade to Music […] while the Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea under William Vann deliver the goods with a memorably unstuffy For all the saints […]. Terrific contributions too, from the Tredegar Town Band under the direction of Ian Porthouse in five 'flourishes' for three or four trumpets […]. Lots to enjoy, in sum. Happy 150th, RVW!" - Gramophone
"This album is no mere pot-pourri. The programme has been thoughtfully put together. And, furthermore, the album brings together a collection of artists – and recording producers and engineers – who have been stalwart in their support of Albion's mission to make less familiar music by Vaughan Williams available to a wide audience. It's a most enjoyable programme and a fitting tribute to VW." – MusicWeb International
"[David Briggs's Serendade to Music] glows with affecting twilit colours. More infectious is his boisterous 'March Past of the Kitchen Utensils' from The Wasps. […] a disparate but adroitly programmed, beautifully performed compendium." - Choir & Organ (4 STARS)
Tracklisting
Tredegar Town Band, Ross Knight, Ian Porthouse, Martyn Brabbins
Alessandro Fisher, William Vann, The Navarra Quartet
Adrian Sims & Alan Rowlands
David Briggs
Chapel Choir Of The Royal Hospital, Joshua Ryan & William Vann
Timothy West, Samuel West, Mary Bevan, Sophie Bevan, Choir Of Clare College, Cambridge, Britten Sin
Various
David Welton & Iain Burnside
