Carols from Herefordshire
Derek Welton (bass-baritone), Iain Burnside (piano)
Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea/William Vann
rec. 2024, Holy Trinity, Sloane Square, London (choir); 2011, Potton Hall, UK (voice and piano)
Texts included
Albion Records ALBCD064 [58]

This album gives us the interesting opportunity to “compare and contrast” (as they used to say in examination questions) two versions of Twelve Traditional Carols from Herefordshire; the songs appear in settings for unaccompanied SATB choir and also in the version for solo voice with piano accompaniment. Actually, there’s quite a bit of recycling going on here. The solo voice performances, recorded by Derek Welton and Iain Burnside in 2011, first appeared on an album entitled ‘On Christmas Day’ (ALBCD013). For some reason we don’t seem to have published a detailed review of that disc, though my late colleague, Brian Wilson included a brief appraisal of it in one of his invaluable Download Roundup features, back in November 2021, when he said he could “thoroughly recommend” the disc. Though we didn’t review the disc I bought it, probably on the back of Brian’s recommendation. As I said, it’s interesting to have the two versions side by side on the same CD though I can imagine that some collectors who already own Derek Welton’s disc might be thoughtful about duplicating half of the contents of this new release. One other factor which purchasers might wish to take into account is that three of the choral performances – Christmas Now Is Drawing Near at Hand, God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen and On Christmas Day – also appear on the disc ‘Christmas Fantasia’ which William Vann and his choir have recently released (review).

As usual, Albion provide excellent notes, authored by John Francis, the Chairman of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society and I’m going to draw on that for some background. In brief, as part of his quest for English folk songs, VW visited Herefordshire in 1908. He was accompanied by Adeline and together they met Mrs Ella Mary Leather (1874-1928) in the village of Weobley. She was a fellow folk song collector and the three of them visited various locations in Herefordshire to collect songs. VW paid further such visits to Mrs Leather and in 1920 they published jointly a volume entitled Twelve Traditional Carols from Herefordshire. That’s the substance of this present programme. 

The first thing to say is that this is not a programme just containing Christmas carols. VW and Mrs Leather understood that to coin a phrase, ‘a carol is not just for Christmas’. It’s true that several of the songs that they collected and published concern Christmas but others do not fall into that category. In fact, five of the carols are not on the subject of Christmas; that’s out of a total of eleven (for this purpose I’m counting the two versions of The Holy Well as one).  

Since three of my colleagues have already commented on this disc in some detail I will restrict myself to mentioning just a handful of the items. God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen is interesting because it’s not sung to the oh-so familiar tune; I think this tune from Herefordshire is a refreshing and pleasant change. You might wonder if Dives and Lazarus is the well-known hymn tune on which VW based his orchestral piece Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus; it’s not, but the tune we hear in this context is a good one. The Seven Virgins has a lovely melody; it’s very poignant. The carol that precedes it, The Saviour’s Love has an equally memorable tune. Actually, all twelve of the carols have fine, sturdy English tunes; we should be truly thankful that assiduous collectors such as VW and Ella Leather ensured that they weren’t lost for ever.

I doubt that anyone would want to listen to the album straight through; you’re likely to want to hear either a choral recital or a solo singer delivering the songs. That said, I did find it rewarding on one occasion to use my remote control so that I could hear each of Derek Welton’s performances immediately after listening to the same carol sung by William Vann’s choir, albeit the choral performances use different keys to those adopted by Welton. Both sets of performances are excellent but I have a subjective preference for the choral versions. William Vann, who has arranged all the choral carols, astutely varies the way his choir treats each verse. Thus, for example, we often hear a verse sung by the sopranos with the rest of the choir singing wordlessly and quietly in accompaniment and then, for the very next verse, full SATB harmonies. When Vann sticks with the same vocal disposition throughout it’s for a good reason. So, in Joseph and Mary all six verses are sung by a solo tenor (the excellent Edward Hughes) while his colleagues accompany him wordlessly; it works well.

Derek Welton doesn’t have the advantage of textural variety; he is only able to offer contrast between verses through vocal expression and colouring. This he does most effectively. Some of the items seem especially suited to solo singing; The Saviour’s Love is arguably his best performance of all; here he offers lovely smooth singing. Not far behind, though, is his sensitive delivery of The Seven Virgins. In Dives and Lazarus Welton tells the story very well indeed. One issue I have with the solo items is that several of them have very plain-spoken accompaniment; in these, for all his artistry, even Iain Burnside can’t really make the piano part sound interesting.  The first version of The Holy Well is one such example, as is the second version of that carol. On the other hand, I should say that the deliberately limited (and hushed) piano part in On Christmas Day works well. Elsewhere, in The Miraculous Harvest it’s interesting to hear VW divide the solo version into pairs of verses with the second of each pair having a more decorative piano part than the first.

One other point which may be worth mentioning is that in a number of carols some verses are sung in the choral version and omitted in the solo version, or vice versa.

This album offers a most interesting opportunity to hear two different – and equally valid – approaches to a collection of fine, traditional carols. The standard of performance in both versions is first class. Deborah Spanton was the engineer responsible for the choral recordings while Mike Clements did the engineering honours for the solo items. Both sets of performances are presented in excellent sound.

John Quinn

Previous reviews: John France (October 2024) ~ Nick Barnard (October 2024) ~ Gary Higginson (November 2024)

Buying this recording via a link below generates revenue for MWI, which helps the site remain free

Contents
Twelve Traditional Carols from Herefordshire (1920)|
For unaccompanied SATB choir
The Holy Well (first version)
Solo: Helen Ashby
The Holy Well (second version)
Christmas Now Is Drawing Near at Hand
Solo: Jonathan Hanley
Joseph and Mary
Solo: Edward Hughes
The Angel Gabriel
God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen
New Year’s Carol
Solo: Katy Hill
On Christmas Day
Solo: Eloise Irving
Dives and Lazarus
The Miraculous Harvest
Solos: Eloise Irving, Samuel Jenkins
The Saviour’s Love
The Seven Virgins

For voice and piano
The Holy Well (first version)
The Holy Well (second version)
Christmas Now Is Drawing Near at Hand
Joseph and Mary
The Angel Gabriel
God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen
New Year’s Carol
On Christmas Day
Dives and Lazarus
The Miraculous Harvest
The Saviour’s Love
The Seven Virgins