The Reeds by Severn Side Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea & William Vann

• Sir Edward Elgar (1857 - 1934): Gloria in F Major (After Mozart's K. 547) [Arr. for Soloists, Mixed Choir & Organ]:
• 1 Elgar: Gloria in F Major (After Mozart's K. 547) [Arr. for Soloists, Mixed Choir & Organ] 05:06
• Credo on Themes from Beethoven (Arr. B. Pappenheim for Soloists, Mixed Chorus & Organ) [Completed by J. Olsen]:
• 2 Elgar: Credo on Themes from Beethoven (Arr. B. Pappenheim for Soloists, Mixed Chorus & Organ) [Completed by J. Olsen] 11:09
• Drakes Broughton (Arr. for Mixed Choir & Organ):
• 3 Elgar: Drakes Broughton (Arr. for Mixed Choir & Organ) 01:53
• O Salutaris Hostia No. 3 in F major:
• 4 Elgar: O Salutaris Hostia No. 3 in F major 03:20
• 3 Motets, Op. 2 (English Version):
• 5 Elgar: 3 Motets, Op. 2 (English Version): No. 1, Jesu, Word of God Incarnate 02:51
• 3 Motets, Op. 2 (English Version):
• 6 Elgar: 3 Motets, Op. 2 (English Version): No. 2, Jesu, Lord of Life and Glory 02:44
• 3 Motets, Op. 2 (English Version):
• 7 Elgar: 3 Motets, Op. 2 (English Version): No. 3, Jesu, Meek and Lowly 03:39
• Scenes from the Saga of King Olaf, Op. 30:
• 8 Elgar: Scenes from the Saga of King Olaf, Op. 30: No. 18, As Torrents in Summer 02:23
• 4 Part Songs, Op. 53:
• 9 Elgar: 4 Part Songs, Op. 53: No. 1, There Is Sweet Music 04:53
• Psalm 68:
• 10 Elgar: Psalm 68 04:22
• Angelus, Op. 56:
• 11 Elgar: Angelus, Op. 56 03:29
• They Are at Rest:
• 12 Elgar: They Are at Rest 03:27
• O Hearken Thou, Op. 64 (Arr. for Mixed Chorus & Organ):
• 13 Elgar: O Hearken Thou, Op. 64 (Arr. for Mixed Chorus & Organ) 02:44
• Give unto the Lord, Op. 74 (Version for Mixed Chorus & Organ):
• 14 Elgar: Give unto the Lord, Op. 74 (Version for Mixed Chorus & Organ) 08:30
• Fear Not, O Land:
• 15 Elgar: Fear Not, O Land 03:46
• I Sing the Birth:
• 16 Elgar: I Sing the Birth 04:09
• Good Morrow (Arr. for Mixed Chorus):
• 17 Elgar: Good Morrow (Arr. for Mixed Chorus) 04:32
• Queen Alexandra's Memorial Ode (Arr. for Mixed Chorus & Organ):
• 18 Elgar: Queen Alexandra's Memorial Ode (Arr. for Mixed Chorus & Organ) 06:41
• Total Runtime 01:19:38

Info for The Reeds by Severn Side

SOMM Recordings announces the release of The Reeds by Severn Side, a ravishing collection of choral works by Edward Elgar, sung by the Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, led by director William Vann, accompanied by organist Joshua Ryan.

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.

They also reveal what Vaughan Williams described as the “mystery and [the] miracle” of Elgar’s flowering into the music laureate of Edwardian England, as Andrew Neill, former Chairman of the Elgar Society, observes in his authoritative booklet notes.

Alongside juvenilia such as the 16-year-old Elgar’s Credo on Themes from Symphonies 5, 7 and 9 by Beethoven (in James Olsen’s completion) and Drake’s Broughton, to which the 73-year-old composer would return in his Nursery Suite, are diverse works that reveal growing confidence, including early settings of the Mass and first recordings (in English) of the Op.2 trilogy: Jesu, word of God Incarnate; Jesu, Lord of Life and Glory; Jesu, Meek and Lowly.

The masterpiece bitonal setting of Tennyson, There is Sweet Music, one of Elgar’s self-described “choral songs”, is a highlight, alongside twin peaks of his anthem writing: O Hearken Thou (heard as the Latin motet, Intende voci orationis meae) and substantial Give Unto the Lord.

William Vann and the Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea’s previous SOMM releases include In Remembrance (SOMMCD 0187), described by Gramophone as “almost unbearably moving”, and as “an album that will have enduring value into the future” by MusicWeb International. Carols from Chelsea (SOMMCD 0161) was a Best Classical Christmas Release, praised for its “model singing”, in The Guardian.

Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea
Joshua Ryan, organ
William Vann, director

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 The Reeds by Severn Side