Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, William Vann, Joshua Ryan, Richard Horne - I Vow to Thee, My Country (2022) [24/96]

SOMM RECORDINGS announces the release of I Vow to Thee, My Country, believed to be the first recording to feature all of Gustav Holst’s sacred choral music, by the Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea directed by William Vann, with organist Joshua Ryan and Richard Horne on tubular and bass bells.

A prolific composer best known for his orchestral spectacular The Planets, Holst was an expressive and sincere composer and arranger of religious music despite his professed agnosticism.

Included are his only setting of the Anglican Service for Evening Prayer, Nunc Dimittis, and his substantial Two Psalms and Four Festival Choruses, whose inspirations range from the Bible, Byzantine liturgy, 16th-century sources (not least Bach), and Welsh hymns.

The 12 other featured songs see Holst setting an impressive array of centuries-spanning texts, and include the striking eight-part setting of Ave Maria for unaccompanied female voices, the ecstatic Not Unto Us, O Lord, premiered by the Royal Hospital Chelsea and William Vann in 2020, and the disc’s anthemic title song, its melody borrowed from The Planets’ ‘Jupiter’.

I Vow to Thee, My Country is sponsored by The Holst Society, who also commissioned four new arrangements making their debut on disc by Iain Farrington, and includes extensive, authoritative notes by Andrew Neill.

William Vann and the Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea’s previous SOMM releases include Carols from Chelsea (SOMMCD 0161), a Guardian Best Classical Christmas Release admired for its “model singing”; In Remembrance (SOMMCD 0187) marking the centenary of the 1918 Armistice was praised by Gramophone for its “beautifully nuanced performances”; and The Reeds by Severn Side (SOMMCD 0278), choral music by Elgar, which BBC Music Magazine hailed as “another feather in the cap for the Vann- Royal Hospital Chelsea partnership”.

Tracklist:
01. Holst: Nunc dimittis, H. 127
02. Holst: Songs of Praise (1931 Version): No. 498, Gird on Thy Sword, H. 168 "Chilswell"
03. Holst: 2 Psalms, H. 117: Psalm 86 "To My Humble Supplication"
04. Holst: 2 Psalms, H. 117: Psalm 148 "Lord, Who Hast Made Us for Thine Own"
05. Holst: 4 Hymns for Songs of Praise, H. 161: No. 2, In This World, the Isle of Dreams "Brook End"
06. Holst: Not Unto Us, O Lord, H. 22
07. Holst: Our Blest Redeemer "Essex"
08. Holst: Short Festival te Deum, H. 145
09. Holst: 3 Hymns for The English Hymnal, H. 73: No. 2, From Glory to Glory Advancing "Sheen"
10. Holst: Man Born to Toil, H. 168
11. Holst: Eternal Father, H. 169
12. Holst: The Coming of Christ, H. 170: By Weary Stages the Old World Ages "Hill Crest"
13. Holst: Christ Hath a Garden, H. 167 "Leighton"
14. Holst: Ave Maria, Op. 9b, H. 49
15. Holst: I Vow to Thee, My Country, H. 148 "Thaxted"
16. Holst: 3 Festival Choruses, Op. 36a, H. 134: No. 3, A Festival Chime
17. Holst: All People That on Earth Do Dwell
18. Holst: 3 Festival Choruses, Op. 36a, H. 134: No. 1, Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence
19. Holst: 3 Festival Choruses, Op. 36a, H. 134: No. 2, Turn Back, O Man


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