VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Mass in G minor

Edison, Noel, Elora Festival Singers, Fitches, Thomas

8.554826

" This fine Canadian choir perform very beautifully in a style which seems natural and right. The Elora Festival Singers have much in common with King's College, Cambridge under Willcocks; relaxed and habituated, they offer the welcome loveliness of a choral tone where the blend and match of voices produce a sound that's eminently 'at unity with itself'. There's no shortage of good recordings of the Mass in G minor, the one that stands out as being openeyed and adventurous in spirit being the version on Meridian by the Choir of New College, Oxford. They favour a sharper tone, a quicker tempo in the Credo and a brighter acoustic. The choice between women's and boys' voices may prove the deciding factor when it comes to which version; the Elora Singers' female voices seem to give this music precisely what's required. • Yet more decisive may be the coupling. The two recordings by the college choirs couple music by other composers. The Canadians stay with Vaughan Williams, in a mood which assorts well with the Mass. Particularly apt is O vos omnes, also written for Sir Richard Terry and the Choir of Westminster Cathedral. The Skelton setting, Prayer to the Father of Heaven, from 1948 – a comparative rarity and sensitively performed – has a chill which is partly medieval, partly perhaps from the Antarctica of VW's Seventh Symphony. Down Ampney ('Come down, O Love divine') brings the warmth and cheer of a settled major tonality at the close. " • Gramophone

CD

Naxos

19.11.2001

636943482629