Celebrating 25 Years of Excellence

In Remembrance

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In the centenary anniversary year of the end of the First World War and on the eve of the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Second World War, SOMM Recordings pays tribute to those who fought and fell in battle with In Remembrance.

A moving compendium of music spanning 130 years, it features the Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, the Choir of Chelsea Pensioners, Staff and Volunteers, sopranos Katy Hill and Leah Jackson, baritone Gareth John and organists James Orford and Hugh Rowlands under the direction of William Vann.

Founded in 1682 by King Charles II, the Royal Hospital is home to the world-famous Chelsea Pensioners – retired veterans of the British army – whose contributions on three tracks adds its own special poignancy to In Remembrance.

Moving choral works commemorating courage and offering comfort by Hubert Parry (his anthemic Jerusalem), Gustav Holst (the stirring I Vow to Thee, My Country) and Edward Elgar (his serene partsong They are at rest) are heard alongside equally affecting pieces by their contemporaries and successors, Charles Villiers Stanford, John Ireland, Douglas Guest and Charles Harris.

Fauré’s Requiem, arranged for choir and organ by Iain Farrington, and Ian Venable’s newly-composed Requiem aeternam (in its first recording) both offer succour and solace in their conviction that death is not the end but, as Fauré thought of it: “a happy deliverance, an aspiration towards happiness above, rather than as a painful experience”.

Carols from Chelsea, the Chapel Royal Choir, James Orford and William Vann’s first release on SOMM in 2016, was praised for its “luminous, adroitly crafted” singing by Choir & Organ magazine.

On This Recording

  1. Greater Love Hath No Man
  2. Jerusalem
  3. For the Fallen
  4. They are at rest
  5. O Valiant Hearts
  6. There is an old belief
  7. I Vow to Thee, My Country
  8. Justorum animae
  9. Ode to Death
  10. Requiem in D minor (arr. Iain Farrington)
  11. Introit et Kyrie
  12. Offertoire
  13. Sanctus
  14. Pie Jesu
  15. Agnus Dei
  16. Libera Me
  17. In Paradisum
  18. Requiem aeternam