Vaughan Williams - Christmas Music
Fox; Williams; The Joyful Company of Singers; CLS / Hickox
Chandos CHAN10385

Release date October 2006

Vaughan Williams loved Christmas. His childhood recollections of Christmas included singing carols and reading aloud from Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, and carols were among the many folksongs he collected in the early years of the 20th century; The Truth from above, noted “from Mr W. Jenkins at King’s Pyon, in Herefordshire in July 1909” made a particularly profound impression. This and many others found their way into the Oxford Book of Carols, co-edited by Vaughan Williams in 1928. Carols also feature prominently in several of his compositions, and on this disc we find three seasonal works spanning his life: the Fantasia on Christmas Carols (1912), the masque On Christmas Night (1924) and a concert version of the nativity play The First Nowell (1958). The first of these is well-known in its version for full orchestra, but the composer permitted alternative scorings, and it is the arrangement for strings and organ that receives its recorded première here. With baritone soloist and chorus, it focuses on four carols (including The Truth from above and On Christmas Night) with hints of others in a heart-warming and uplifting celebration of Christmas. The second première recording featured on the disc, the masque On Christmas Night, was originally called A Christmas Carol. Here, Vaughan Williams was able to couple his fascination with folk dance with his wider interest in ballet. The work consists of fifteen short scenes depicting aspects of Dickens’ story, and incorporates many folk tunes and dances such as Putney Ferry and Sir Roger de Coverley as well as a few carols. Two off-stage singing parts (for baritone and mezzo-soprano) supplement the chorus and small orchestra. The relatively small number of Christmas tunes featured has the happy effect of refreshing one’s ears in time for the equally substantial but very Christmassy third work, The First Nowell. A nativity play for soloists, chorus and small orchestra, it illustrates a script arranged and adapted from medieval pageants by Vaughan Williams’ friend Simona Pakenham and tells the story of Christmas from the Annunciation to Epiphany. The script was delivered at the end of July 1958, and when Vaughan Williams died four weeks later (while working on an arrangement of the carol The First Nowell) he had already orchestrated about two-thirds of the music and chosen the carols to be used in the rest of the play. A dozen carols are featured, in varied and charming arrangements for combinations of male and female chorus and baritone and mezzo-soprano soloist with orchestra. Sarah Fox sings most eloquently and Roderick Williams’ baritone is a pleasure to listen to, while The Joyful Company of Singers gives polished performances, ably backed by the City of London Sinfonia under Richard Hickox. This is a refreshingly different Christmas disc that gives much pleasure, even after repeated hearings.

Anne McAlister