VAUGHAN WILLIAMS, R.: Sacred Choral Music (Clare College Choir, Cambridge, T. Brown)

The Choir of Clare College, Cambridge here performs some of the most richly rewarding British choral music in the repertoire. In his sublime Mass in G minor Ralph Vaughan Williams reveals his absorbing interest in the modal harmonic language and contrapuntal textures of the English late Renaissance, using it to achieve a huge emotional and dynamic range. Undoubtedly the most technically demanding work on this disc is A Vision of Aeroplanes, a virtuosic motet for mixed chorus and organ. Several neglected works also feature here, including The Voice out of the Whirlwind, an anthem for mixed chorus and orchestra or organ, and Valiant-for-truth, one of several works based on Bunyan’s Christian allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress.