David Briggs, Tredegar Town Band, Ian Porthouse, Mary Bevan, Nicky Spence, Roderick Williams, William Vann, Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, Lynn Arnold, Charles Matthews
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We celebrate the 150th birthday of Ralph Vaughan Williams, on Wednesday 12 October 2022, with this unique compilation album.
William Vann, Timothy West, Samuel West, Mary Bevan, Sophie Bevan, Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, Britten Sinfonia
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In 2022, we celebrate Vaughan Williams’s 150th birthday, and the pinnacle of Albion Record’s contribution to this important milestone is this Pan’s Anniversary album, which contains five world premiere recordings.
Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, Joshua Ryan (organ), William Vann (conductor)
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The Reeds by Severn Side is a ravishing collection of choral works by Edward Elgar. Of the 18 featured works, six are first recordings. They traverse Elgar’s remarkable ascension from lowly lawyer’s clerk to self-taught composer to Master of the King’s Musick and chart the impeccable fusing of his Roman Catholic heritage with the Anglican church tradition to which he contributed several masterpieces.
Mary Bevan (soprano), Nicky Spence (tenor), Roderick Williams (baritone), William Vann (piano)
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“I can’t say that I found a special favourite here; every item is a delightful little gem. Five stars: The superb fourth and last instalment of Vaughan Williams’s complete folk song settings.”
James Altena – Fanfare
The Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, William Vann (director), Joshua Ryan (organ)
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“An extra mince pie for the Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, whose An Oxford Christmas is a characteristically clear-headed salute to Percy Dearmer’s The Oxford Book of Carols via Vaughan Williams’s contributions to it.” Gramophone
Mary Bevan (soprano), Nicky Spence (tenor), Roderick Williams (baritone), William Vann (piano)
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“‘Bushes and Briars’ leads off the recital in baritone Roderick Williams’s sensitively expressive performance…Vann’s accompaniments are a model of tact and supportiveness throughout, and he gives the Twelve Traditional Country Dances for piano just the right degree of lilt and cheerfulness.” BBC Music Magazine
Mary Bevan (soprano), Nicky Spence (tenor), Roderick Williams (baritone), Thomas Gould (violin), William Vann (piano)
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“This is one of the finest produced song albums that’s come my way. All three singers, recognised artists in their vocal prime, perform their allotted songs with commitment and character. They are given first rate accompaniment by pianist William Vann and, in the Two English Folk Songs for voice and violin, appropriately ‘rustic’ playing by Thomas Gould – a highlight of this album.” BBC Music Magazine
Rowan Pierce (soprano), Gareth Brynmor John (baritone), William Vann (piano), Iain Farrington (piano)
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This recording is of songs, solo piano works and a piano duo by John Sykes. The songs are largely settings from William Blake’s poems of Innocence and Experience, but there are also settings of poems by Sykes’s friend and contemporary, Randall Swingler.
Mary Bevan (soprano), Nicky Spence (tenor), Roderick Williams (baritone), Jack Liebeck (violin), William Vann (piano)
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This is the first in a series of four albums recording all 80 of the folk songs in English that Ralph Vaughan Williams arranged for voice and piano or violin. 57 of the 80 songs have not previously been recorded in these arrangements, so there is a good deal of unknown – but very beautiful – music to be found here.
Sarah Fox (soprano), Toby Spence (tenor), Henry Waddington (bass-baritone), Crouch End Festival Chorus, London Mozart Players, William Vann (conductor)
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“Every aspect of this performance sounds like a labour of love. Rudge’s soaring, expressive singing as Meshullemeth gives the piece its real heart, and she’s accompanied with intense sympathy by the conductor William Vann, who avoids any suggestion of bombast or sentimentality, and builds Parry’s great paragraphs so eloquently and with such assurance that you’d think he’d been conducting this music all his life.” Gramophone
Parry’s 1888 oratorio on the Apocryphal tale of an avenging Jewish widow emerges as a worthy successor to Mendelssohn’s Elijah in this gripping world premiere recording with Sarah Fox, Kathryn Rudge and Toby Spence.
© 2025 William Vann