Vaughan Williams - Choral and Organ Works

My recent post of Coronation choral music elicited a request for this elusive 1976 LP by the same forces - a set of choral and organ works by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

As before, the performers are the Exultate Singers led by Garrett O'Brien, with organist Timothy Farrell. RCA UK issued this disc; the previous item came out on Vista, producer Michael Smythe's own label. The recording location was London's Southwark Cathedral, where O'Brien was assistant organist.

Southwark Cathedral

The LP opens with one of the composer's apocalyptic compositions, A Vision of Aeroplanes from 1929. The work is a setting of a text from Chapter 1 of Ezekiel in which the prophet describes an overwhelming vision of God. The text is frightening in its intensity, which Vaughan Williams captures in both the organ and choral passages. 

The other choral works include the motet O vos omnes from 1922, A Choral Flourish from 1956 (a setting of Psalm 32), and The Hundredth Psalm from 1929.

The LP closes with The Voice Out of the Whirlwind from 1947. The "voice out of the whirlwind" is God's, as captured in a passage from the book of Job. The work includes music related to the composer's ballet Job. 

Texts of the choral works were not supplied with the album, but I've pulled them together because they are essential to understanding the composer's intent, particularly with A Vision of Aeroplanes.

The choral works are interspersed with organ preludes on Welsh tunes as set by Vaughan Williams in 1920 (Three Preludes on Welsh Hymn-Tunes) and 1956 (Two Preludes on Welsh Folk-Songs).

The Exultate Singers never made a huge impact, but they did make some excellent records in the mid to late 1970s. I will be presenting a few more later on.

Music for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth

The coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1953 was accompanied and celebrated by much splendid music, including the choral works heard on this LP, recorded to mark the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977.

Performing are the Exultate Singers under Garrett O'Brien, an ensemble that made several LPs from 1977-80, including music of Vaughan Williams for RCA UK and Finzi for Hyperion. From what I have read, the ensemble was based at Southwark Cathedral, where O'Brien was assistant organist.

The organist here was Timothy Farrell, who was at the Chapel Royal at St. James Palace, and was previously sub-organist at Westminster Abbey. Farrell was for many years organist of the Liberal Jewish Synagogue, St John's Wood, and performed there as recently as last year.

The ceremony in Westminster Abbey

Most of the composers represented on the LP were living at the time of the coronation - Herbert Howells, Sir William Harris, Sir George Dyson, Healey Willan, Ralph Vaughan Williams, William Walton and Gordon Jacob. The works by Howells ("Behold, O God Our Defender"), Harris ("Let My Prayer Come Up"), Dyson ("Confortare"), Willan ("O Lord, Our Governour") and Walton ("We Praise Thee, O God") were written for the ceremony.

Stanley Webb praised the LP in The Gramophone, saying that the ensemble sings "with the fervent intensity of a concert hall performance rather than the reverent dedication of a cathedral choir: they have no difficulty filling the great spaces of Westminster Cathedral with splendid sound." I have to disagree that the group fills the Cathedral with sound. It sounds like quite a small group.

Webb also praised organist Timothy Farrell, writing that he "is a sensitive accompanist throughout and his inspired playing heightens the drama of the Walton Te Deum." (The Walton is indeed dramatic; even O'Brien's sleeve note calls it "vehement.")

As recorded the choral sound lacked presence, which I remember noting when I bought the record nearly 40 years ago. Today's audio tools give me the ability to address the issue to an extent, along with fixing some pitch problems. The result is pleasing, I think - although the singers still seem backwards compared to the dramatic organ sound.

The record came out on Vista, a small label that issued quite a number of LPs of organ, choral and other music in the 1970s, until the early death of its founder, Michael Smythe, who produced this LP.