As with Hodie, David Willcocks conducts the London Symphony and the Bach Choir, adding the King's College Choir for Sancta Civitas. The soloists are again among the best that the UK had to offer - baritone John Shirley-Quirk returns for Sancta Civitas, with soprano Heather Harper the soloist in Benedicite. Tenor Ian Partridge makes a brief but effective appearance in the first work.
The recordings derive from January 18-20, 1968 sessions in London's Kingsway Hall. Leading the recording team were producer Christopher Bishop and engineer Christopher Parker.
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| Ralph Vaughan Williams and David Willcocks, circa the 1940s |
Sancta Civitas
In his Gramophone review, Roger Fiske remarked that neither Sancta Civitas nor Benedicite are heard in the concert hall - they require elaborate forces and are too short to command a program by themselves.
The longer work, Sancta Civitas, calls for orchestra, three choirs (one off-stage) and two soloists, one of whom (the tenor) has only one line. It lasts barely more than a half-hour. Still and all, Fiske called it "a masterpiece and among Vaughan Williams' greatest achievements."
While the composer termed Sancta Civitas an oratorio, it will not remind you of The Messiah, or closer to Vaughan Williams' time, The Dream of Gerontius. As with the latter work, however, Vaughan Williams' intent was spiritual. In his notes, Michael Kennedy quotes the composer as writing, "The object of all art is to achieve a partial revelation of that which is beyond human senses and human faculties, of that in fact which is spiritual." The work is from 1923-25, and sets texts from the Book of Revelation and other sources.
As Fiske wrote, the performance is superb, and the recording is all one could wish. (Perhaps a bit more than one would wish; it is quite bright sounding.) Shirley-Quirk and Partridge are excellent.
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| John Shirley-Quirk and Ian Partridge |
Benedicite
In his High Fidelity review, Alfred Frankenstein noted that Benedicite "is quite different from Sancta Civitas. It is rugged, vigorous, effervescent with reminiscence of English folk song in tune and text."
The text leaflet optimistically calls the work a setting "of the familiar canticle." A canticle is a liturgical setting, in this case "Benedicite, omnia opera Domini, Domino" in the Latin Rite, or "O all ye Works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord" in the Book of Common Prayer. Vaughan Williams set the latter version, interpolating a 17th century poem by John Austin.
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| Heather Harper |
The work, which dates from 1930, is half as long as Sancta Civitas, but no less worthy. Frankenstein considered it "one of the most important of Vaughan Williams' numerous brief choral works." Here, the soloist is Heather Harper, who distinguishes herself, as do the choral and orchestral forces under Willcocks.
The download includes reviews, texts, and front and back cover scans. Although I possess both the original HMV and Angel pressings of this coupling, I made use of a lossless transfer of the HMV from Internet Archive, which seemed marginally cleaner than my LPs.
In later posts, I will have more of Willcocks' Vaughan Williams choral recordings from the 1960s.
