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Track(s) taken from SIGCD257

Welcome, Yule!

First line:
Welcome be thou, heavenly king
composer
Sir Hubert Parry (1848-1918)
author of text
Anonymous - Medieval
fifteenth century

The Rodolfus Choir, Ralph Allwood (conductor)
Studio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
CD-Quality:
Studio Master:
CD-Quality:
Studio Master:
Recording details: September 2010
St Jude-on-the-Hill, Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Nigel Short
Engineered by Mike Hatch
Release date: September 2012
Total duration: 1 minutes 11 seconds
 

Other recordings available for download

Westminster Cathedral Choir, James O'Donnell (conductor)

Reviews

'The freshness of attack you get with younger voices is put to incisive use by conductor Ralph Allwood, whose Rodolfus singers are all products of the famous Eton choral courses. Parry's Welcome, Yule! can seldom have had a more sheerly ebullient performance, but the choir also brings formidable precision of pitching and ensemble to quieter settings, such as Tavener's The Lamb and Poulenc's O Magnum Mysterium. Some of the emotional deepening which comes with vocal maturity is occasionally missing, but there are many qualities here that compensate' (BBC Music Magazine)
PERFORMANCE
RECORDING

'This beautifully sung sequence ranges through 500 years of Christmas music, with a bias towards the twentieth century and some of the exquisite carols and anthems composed by the likes of Vaughan Williams, Holst, Morten Lauridsen and John Tavener. The mood is one of quiet reflection rather than overt jubilation, although Parry's Welcome, Yule! and Tavener's rhythmically punchy Today the Virgin are exceptions. but there is a broad spectrum of texts and technique to lend the programme stylistic variety' (The Daily Telegraph)

'From Signum comes A Choral Christmas, a fine collection of largely unfamiliar seasonal music from the Rodolfus Choir conducted by Ralph Allwood, who has recently stepped down after 26 years as Eton's director of music. His choir are youngsters, aged between 16 and 25, who applied for choral scholarships at the college. Their discipline and diction throughout a testing programme is exemplary' (Daily Mail)
The words of Welcome, Yule! date from the fifteenth century and have a lilting rhythm which invites singing. There are several versions, one of which appears in a collection made in about 1430 by John Awdlay, the blind chaplain of Haughmond Abbey in Shropshire. Sir Hubert Parry (1848–1918) obtained his Bachelor of Music degree while still a pupil at Eton but went on to Oxford to study composition. Eventually he became director of the RCM and professor of music at Oxford. He is known for his choral piece Blest pair of sirens, for the unaccompanied Songs of Farewell and, of course, for Jerusalem. The lively setting of Welcome, Yule! is a minor piece but none the less enjoyable.

from notes by Wadham Sutton © 1993

Other albums featuring this work

Adeste fideles
Westminster Cathedral Choir, James O'Donnell (conductor)
CDA66668

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