BBC Music Magazine blog November 2010

On Holst's, Two Psalms and The Coming of Christ:
‘... the performers, the youthful City of London Choir under its director Hilary Davan Wetton (himself a long-standing champion of Holst’s work) proved that magic could be kindled there in their opening performance of Holst’s Two Psalms – modest yet emotionally stirring works. One soloist from the choir in particular, soprano Marta Fontanals-Simmons (uncredited in the programme), had an intense, expressive and attractive voice which reminded me keenly of Susan Gritton’s, raising my hopes about the forthcoming performance of that spring chorus from The Coming of Christ.

Church Times November 2010

On Holst's, The Coming of Christ:
‘...The City of London Choir, under the energetic leadership of Hilary Davan Wetton, maintains close links to the English Music Festival (based in Dorchester on Thames); and the two share a laudable commitment to ensuring that less well known English repertoire, especially of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, is given a chance to be heard, and now also recorded.

The choir’s latest enthusiastic foray at St John’s, Smith Square, brought a chance to hear a rarity: Holst’s Christmas Sequence The Coming of Christ, with a narrative text and hymn stanzas written by the poet laureate John Masefield.

Only in two beautifully sung solos, the first by a soprano from the choir, pure in tone and melt­ingly well sung, the second a tenor singing softly and unaccompanied, did one sense that the composer of Egdon Heath, The Hymn of Jesus, and Hymns from the Rig Veda was at work. In the late “Host of Heaven” section, the SATB choir came alive, prising out the colour from “the first blackbird’s cry Come, with the dripping of the new-shaken From twigs where yellowing leaves and reddening berries lie”, and achieving a perfectly timed, stilled effect from the quizzical, almost Eliot-like “and how night goes, but, on a sudden, is not, even”. Holst’s final hymn was enchanting and exhilarating — and soon made it into the hymn-book Songs of Praise.

The finest, subtlest singing from the City of London Choir came at the very start: Holst’s setting of a 17th-century paraphrase of Psalm 86, in which the unison pianissimo lead-in by altos and basses was magical, and the ensuing tenor solo, first unaccompanied and then sus­tained by female voices, was won­der­fully atmospheric. The choral tutti that concluded was likewise uplifting and first-rate...’

On Britten’s St Nicholas Cantata:

‘...It was to Britten’s cantata St Nicolas that the second half was de­voted — a judicious pairing, in that the forces called for are broadly simi­lar.

The tenor Justin Lavender brought a fine dramatic character­isation to the imagined scenes of Nicolas’s life by the librettist, Eric Crozier. Britten’s score is not with­out its own rumty-tum element; but the City of London Choir’s contri­bu­­tions were vital and galvanised, and the work came over particularly well as a vivid dramatic entity, not least in the vigorous storm scene and at Nicolas’s farewell, touchingly offset by the Nunc Dimittis.

Special credit is due to the girls from the Chamber Choir of St Paul’s Girls’ School (where Holst was the first Director of Music), especially their vitalising conductor Yat-Soon Yeo; and to four capable young boy soloists from West­minster Under School...’
Roderic Dunnett

MusicWeb International November 2010

On Holst's, The Coming of Christ:

‘... Quite why this work has languished in obscurity for so long is a mystery to me for it is very approachable and makes an appealing addition to the few great works which are heard every Christmas. The City of London Choir did Holst proud tonight, with their vibrant advocacy which conveyed their obvious delight in the music. It’s always difficult finding exactly the right voice for a speaking part, in a musical work, but the choice of Timothy Bentinck (12th Earl of Portland, 8th Count Bentinck und Waldeck Limpurg, David Archer in the BBC Radio 4 serial The Archers and the voice of “Mind the Gap” on London Underground’s Piccadilly Line) was an inspired one and he proved to be perfect – his quiet authority being most welcome in the storytelling. Overall, this was an occasion to be relished and the City of London Choir is to be applauded – as it was, for over 2 minutes! – for giving us this opportunity to hear this wonderful music. It was preceded by Stephen Farr playing J S Bach’s Chorale-Prelude In dulci jubilo, as requested by Holst.

The neglect of Holst’s earlier Two Psalms is equally mystifying. These delicate, unpretentious, settings, for chorus with organ and strings, are full of good things and show Holst at his best; writing music of praise which is a joy both to sing and to hear. The first is mystical and the second exuberant, and the choir responded to both with, by turns, singing of quiet ecstasy and jubilant exuberance. In both Holst works soloists from the chorus gave solid and distinguished performances.‘

On Britten’s St Nicholas Cantata:

‘...Using all the forces in the hall, the four trebles, as the baby Nicholas and the Pickled Boys were excellent, the small, but significant, contribution from the St Paul’s Girls School Chamber Choir, placed in the gallery, was most welcome, and with Justin Lavender a fine soloist, totally in command of the music, and delivering a muscular and insightful account of his part – it’s good that we have now reached a point where it’s not obligatory for tenors singing Britten’s music to sound like Peter Pears – Davan Wetton directed a fine performance which raised the work onto a higher plain than that on which it actually resides.

But the evening was most memorable for the fine singing of the City of London Choir, and full praise to them and their director Hilary Davan Wetton for such an inspired programme...’
Bob Briggs

The Guardian March 2010

‘During the Congress of Vienna, when the European map was redrawn following a decade of Napoleonic interventions, Beethoven was commissioned to write a work to hymn the occasion and the new beginning it seemed to offer. The result, the substantial cantata Der Glorreiche Augenblick, was successfully unveiled in November 1814, though little has been heard of it since. The original text has been blamed for the piece's neglect and replaced more than once. In this extremely rare performance, the City of London Choir, under conductor Hilary Davan Wetton, sang a partial rewrite by the German conductor Hermann Scherchen that removes references to Vienna and the Austrian emperor Francis I (under whose auspices the congress was held). But such cosmetic changes only serve to render more anodyne something specific to a historic occasion. Good or bad, the text of The Glorious Moment is probably best left as it is.

The cantata, though no lost masterpiece, is well worth encountering. Despite episodes that are rhetorical or even bland, the best of the 40-minute piece expresses the same kind of humane optimism Beethoven would fully explore in his Ninth Symphony. The final section, in which a children's choir and Turkish instruments add to the general rejoicing, achieves a genuine sense of celebration. The City of London Choir and the Royal Philharmonic were on impressive form throughout.

Davan Wetton programmed it with another piece covering similar ground: Beethoven's 1808 Choral Fantasy, a more consistent work that triumphs over its odd construction to praise the benefits of the arts and music in particular. Leon McCawley was the exemplary piano soloist here, as he was in the Emperor Concerto, which he played with commanding technical authority and a shining, enriched tone.’ George Hall

Sunday Telegraph November 2008

‘The City of London Choir’s Advent programme at the Barbican was devoted to Vaughan Williams and Gerald Finzi: fellow agnostics, they composed music of greater peace and goodwill than many of their more obviously devout colleagues. Finzi's late In Terra Pax (1954) transplants Christmas into an English pastoral scene, as if envisioned by Samuel Palmer, and the text mixes St Luke with Robert Bridges. Singing with consoling warmth here, the choir found full-throated power where needed in Hodie, Vaughan William’s last major score (also 1954) and a work of visionary beauty. Marshalling the Royal Philharmonic, the boys of Westminster Under School and a trio of soloists along with his well-blended choir, Hilary Davan Wetton was the commanding conductor. I don't expect to hear better Christmas music this season.’

Sunday Telegraph May 2008

‘Vaughan Williams once said that he was 'tired of choral works in which one couldn't hear the words'. His solution was An Oxford Elegy, a piece for orchestra and largely wordless chorus in which most of the text - drawn from Matthew Arnold's poem The Scholar Gipsy, which the composer had long dreamed of turning into an opera - is left to a narrator. The nostalgic effect was superbly captured by the City of London Choir together with Timothy West in the Queen Elizabeth Hall on Tuesday; the singers, in notably fresher and more blended voice than their Brighton counterparts, supplied an idyllic soundscape, and the ripe-toned speaker etched in all the poetic detail. Conducted with nuance by Hilary Davan Wetton, this programme (with the London Mozart Players) also featured the violinist So-Ock Kim in Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending, a poised performance that took gentle flight, plus rare choral treasures by Holst and Bliss.’

Sunday Telegraph March 2007

‘Concert-goers tired of bumping up against Bach Passions everywhere this Easter will have welcomed the City of London Choir’s latest outing at St. John’s, Smith Square: making a different sort of seasonal nod, the centrepiece of its concert was Arthur Bliss’s rarely heard Pastoral: ‘Lie Strewn the White Flocks’.  Evoking gentle rites of spring, this work for chorus, mezzo, solo flute and orchestra is one of those pieces more often mentioned in musical histories than performed today, but well worth reviving… and the conductor Hilary Davan Wetton unlocked its elusive beauty. The choir sang with well-blended tone throughout, most memorably in ‘The Naiads’ Music’, where the women's voices had gossamer lightness. Heather Shipp brought plenty of colour to her languid solo. Set in the context of Holst’s Two Psalms and a moving performance of Duruflé’s Requiem, this was another of the City of London Choir's enterprising programmes.’

The Guardian December 2007

‘A carol concert with bells on, this annual appearance [at the Queen Elizabeth Hall] by the City of London Choir – one of the country’s leading amateur outfits – does away with stiff British reserve.’

The Independent October 2006

reviewing a concert given by the choir during the inaugural English Music Festival in Dorchester Abbey

It would be difficult to find a more appropoiate setting for this concert (which was part of the inaugural English Music Festival) than the glorious Dorchester Abbey in the quintessentially English village of Dorchester-on-Thames. Here was a wide range of English music – some of it well known, some of it neglected. In the former category were the strings of the Milton Keynes City Orchestra, under the precise, capable and supportive direction of Hilary Davan Wetton, which produced a lively account of Britten’s youthful Simple Symphony…

The orchestra was joined by the excellent City of London Choir for the two works that framed the concert. The first of these was Holst’s rarely performed Two Psalms for chorus, string orchestra and organ. These settings of Psalm 86 and Psalm 148 were delightful. The first is full of rhythmic and harmonic interest, with a senza misura interjection by the tenor soloist (Lionel Steuart Fothringham), and ending in a blaze of colour provided by the organ, chorus and orchestra. The second of them is of simpler construction, but no less beautiful. Jeremy Irons provided a well-paced and nuanced narration for Vaughan Williams’s rarely performed An Oxford Elegy, which brought the concert to a wonderful climax. First performed in 1952, it is based on two poems by Matthew Arnold, ‘The Scholar Gypsy’ and ‘Thyrsis’.

The orchestra, chorus and narrator all caught the melancholic mood of the piece, which, for all its sadness and resignation, ends on a note of hope and defiance. This work of aching beauty should be performed more often. Very occasional imperfections in ensemble aside, the concert was beautifully performed. The choir and orchestra excelled under the adroit direction of Davan Wetton. Together, they were able to demonstrate what great English musical treasures have been allowed to gather dust, and to show what a great shame it is that they have been allowed to do so.

Sunday Telegraph April 2006

of the choir’s performance of Janácek’s Otce nás

‘[Janácek’s] 1901 setting in Czech of the Lord’s Prayer – something approaching a tone poem for solo singer, chorus, organ and harp – is another work close to Czech hearts, given a rare and welcome airing by the City of London choir at St. John’s, Smith Square. Section by section, from the dream-like wonder of “Thy kingdom come” to the hearty pastoralism of “Give us this day our daily bread”, this mosaic-like score came across with flow and propulsion thanks to the sympathetic conducting of Hilary Davan Wetton. The choral singing was richly detailed, and softly floated textures contrasted effectively with episodes of full-voiced power.’

and of Fauré’s Cantique de Jean Racine and Requiem:

‘Pleasure is exactly what this performance generated.’

The Guardian November 2006

reviewing a performance of Haydn’s Mass in Time of War and Vaughan Williams’s Dona nobis pacem

‘The CLC, one of the capital’s leading amateur choirs, isn’t quite accustomed to venues as big as the Barbican; but if there were times in the Haydn when it seemed to need more heft, there was always something in reserve to surprise us with when it really mattered. And the choir’s handling of the Vaughan Williams, the difficult chromatic lines tackled with secure intonation and clear, confident articulation, was an achievement of which it can be proud.’

The Times March 2003

‘This performance of the St. John Passion certainly stood out, with the City of London Choir confirming its reputation as a leader among non-professional choruses. 

Next season sees the choir’s fortieth anniversary, but few of its members would have been born when the group was founded: the choir sings with fresh vitality. Under the baton of its music director, Hilary Davan Wetton, the opening chorus rolled out majestically, yet there was also a lightness of attack essential in this music. Though the choir is hardly small, it can sing with soft control. There was a strong sense of performance pleasure here, making for musical results a far cry from those rooted in maudlin routine.

Such a lively, responsive chorus is well suited to this work, characterised as it is by dramatic interventions. The restrained drama of the rush to Golgotha, where the chorus joins the bass soloist, was superbly managed. And the consoling final chorus was sung with expressive warmth.’

Early Music Today June/July 2003

‘….an attractive, fresh tone…’