Warlock: Corpus Christi

On 24 June 1936, Peter Pears joined his BBC Singers colleague, contralto Anne Wood, at Decca’s studio in Upper Thames Street in the City of London to make his very first commercial recording, of Peter Warlock’s setting of the Corpus Christi carol for unaccompanied voices. The year marked a turning-point for Pears: he met Benjamin Britten that April at the International Society for Contemporary Music festival in Barcelona, joined a vocal group, the New English Singers, and set off on his first trip to North America, on tour with them in November. This Warlock premiere makes its first ever appearance on Decca CD.

Of course, Britten’s Serenade for tenor, horn and strings is inextricably linked with Pears as well as with Dennis Brain, and marks one of the most important of all Decca premieres, particularly given the label’s association with both Britten and Pears. But also of interest are the recorded premieres of Britten’s British and French folk song arrangements by Pears (British folk songs) and the Swiss soprano Sophie Wyss (French folk songs) in the 1940s. All of these make their first appearance on Decca CD, the Sophie Wyss recordings added as a sort of ‘bonus’ midway through the (Pears) CD.

Vaughan Williams’s cycle On Wenlock Edge focuses more on the middle register of Pears’s voice (unlike the upper reaches in Britten’s Serenade). As with the Britten cycle, the first appearances of these recordings received glowing praise in the music press.

Born in 1894, Peter Warlock was one of England’s great songwriters – described by Lennox Berkeley as one of the “most colourful talents in English 20th century music”. His output was prolific. In addition he was a distinguished editor and transcriber of a vast amount of early music as well as an author of several books and many articles, editor and music critic. He was very close to Delius – indeed was obsessed with Delius’s music and wrote a book about him, and also assisted Beecham in organising a Delius festival in 1929. He shared a cottage with fellow composer E. J. Moeran. He suffered bouts of depression and sadly he was found dead in his Chelsea flat in December 1930, of gas poisoning.

Gathered here are the original 78rpm recordings from the John Bishop Collection – divided into Orchestral and Chamber on CD1 and vocal items on CD2. John Bishop was one of the leading lights of the Peter Warlock Society, and all tracks have been remastered by Andrew Rose of Pristine Audio.

The booklet contains fascinating and informative notes, rare photographs and original 78rpm matrix numbers with recording dates.

A set containing The Sixteen's three Christmas CDs:

Christus Natus Est - An Early English Christmas

Hodie - An English Christmas Collection

A Traditional Christmas Carol Collection - Well-known and well-loved arrangements