Vaughan Williams: Mass In G Minor – Choir of St John’s College

Choir of St John’s College


   in Choir & Organ (May, 2018)
This CD of Vaughan Williams’s church music follows on from several recent splendid recordings from the Choir of St John’s, Cambridge, under their music director Andrew Nethsingha; it is every bit as accomplished. Clean lines, rounded tone and a near perfect balance of voices characterise this performance of Vaughan Williams’s 1922 Mass in G minor (an odd title, as mostly it isn’t in G minor at all but rather in modal tonalities), its double choir and quartet writing the vocal equivalent of what the composer achieved in his celebrated Tallis Fantasia. The world of Tallis and his contemporaries is evoked in the Mass, and Nethsingha and his forces relish the …