Sir David Willcocks
There are few conductors of choral music who achieved higher levels of recognition or acclaim than Sir David Willcocks. For over 30 years, as conductor of the Bach Choir and director of the Royal College of Music, he achieved a standard of performing and teaching second to none in the musical world.
Willcocks was a chorister at Westminster Abbey from ages ten through 14, and later studied at Clifton College before becoming an organ scholar at King's College, Cambridge in 1939. His studies were interrupted by the outbreak of World War II, during which he served in the British Infantry, winning the Military Cross in 1944. He returned to King's College in 1945 to complete his studies, and became a Fellow of King's College in 1947 and conductor of the Cambridge Philharmonic Society that same year, as well as conductor of the Salisbury Musical Society and organist at Salisbury Cathedral. In 1950, he took the post of organist at Worcester Cathedral, and became conductor of the Worcester Festival Choral Society and the City of Birmingham Choir, a position he kept for seven years.
By the end of the decade, he was the director of music at King's College Cambridge, the organist of Cambridge University, and the conductor of the Cambridge University Music Society, posts that he held into the 1970s, when he accepted the post of director at the Royal College of Music. In 1960, he also became music director of the Bach Choir. Willcocks conducted in most European countries as well as Japan and the United States, and edited several collections of choral music.
Willcocks made relatively few recordings since the end of the 1950s, principally with the King's College Choir and the Bach Choir, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, the Jacques Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, and the London Symphony Orchestra. His repertoire ranged from England's Tudor era -- especially the music of John Taverner -- to such 20th century composers as Ralph Vaughan Williams. In addition to such works as Haydn's The Creation and The Nelson Mass, masses by Palestrina and Charpentier, and Taverner's The Western Wind, he conducted such modern music as Britten's War Requiem and Hymn to St. Cecelia, Vaughan Williams' Mass in G, Hodie, and Sancta Civitas, and a relative handful of pure orchestral works, such as Vaughan Williams' Five Variants on Dives and Lazarus (of which he made the definitive recording of this gorgeous work). Willcocks' 1962 recording of Haydn's Mass No. 9 almost single-handedly began the restoration of the composer's choral music before the modern listening public. His crowning achievement, however, could be his recording of Handel's Messiah, featuring a contingent of all male singers (with counter-tenor replacing the alto) with the King's College Choir and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields for EMI, a superbly paced, exquisitely textured recording.
© Bruce Eder /TiVo
Artistas similares
-
-
Gabriels Message
Músicas navideñas - Editado por Nostalgia Gold Records el 17 oct. 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Christmas With: David Willcocks & Choir of King's College Cambridge
Sir David Willcocks, Choir of King's College, Cambridge
Músicas navideñas - Editado por Wind & Broomfield Records el 24 oct. 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tallis: Tudor Church Music II (Lamentations of Jeremiah) (Remastered 2015)
Choir of King's College, Cambridge, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Sir David Willcocks
Clásica - Editado por Decca Music Group Ltd. el 1 ene. 1966
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vaughan Williams An Oxford Elegy etc
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 28 feb. 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
King's College Choir - A Bach Christmas
Sir David Willcocks, Sir Andrew Davis, King's College Choir, Cambridge
Clásica - Editado por Warner Music Group - X5 Music Group el 26 nov. 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Adeste Fideles
Músicas navideñas - Editado por Christmas Evening Records el 14 oct. 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Handel: Ode For St. Cecilia's Day
April Cantelo, Ian Partridge, Choir of King's College, Cambridge, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Sir David Willcocks
Clásica - Editado por Decca Music Group Ltd. el 1 ene. 1968
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Taverner: Tudor Church Music; Croft: Burial Service
Choir of King's College, Cambridge, Sir David Willcocks
Clásica - Editado por Decca Music Group Ltd. el 1 nov. 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Belshazzar's Feast - Te Deum - Gloria
Clásica - Editado por Chandos el 1 oct. 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Palestrina: Choral Works
Choir of King's College, Cambridge, Sir David Willcocks
Clásica - Editado por Decca Music Group Ltd. el 1 ene. 1964
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Holy Night, A Choral Christmas
Sir David Willcocks, The Temple Church Choir, The Hamburg Students Choir
Músicas navideñas - Editado por Night & Time Records el 13 nov. 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
A Very Choral Christmas
The Hamburg Students Choir, Wiener Sängerknaben, Sir David Willcocks
Músicas navideñas - Editado por Night & Time Records el 28 oct. 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Christmas with the Master Chorale of Washington
Clásica - Editado por Albany Records el 1 nov. 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Jonathan Willcocks: A Great and Glorious Victory & Other Choral Music
Portsmouth Choral Union, English Cathedral Singers, Southern Pro Musica, Sir David Willcocks
Clásica - Editado por Priory Records el 5 sep. 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Jonathan Willcocks: Lux perpetua
English Cathedral Singers, Southern Pro Musica, Jane Watts, Sir David Willcocks
Clásica - Editado por Priory Records el 18 dic. 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Great Cathedral Anthems, Vol. 12
The Choir of Worcester Cathedral, Sir David Willcocks, Adrian Lucas, Unknown Artist
Clásica - Editado por Priory Records el 1 ene. 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Popplewell: Organ Concertos Nos. 1 & 2
Jane Watts, Ulster Orchestra, Sir David Willcocks
Clásica - Editado por Priory Records el 13 ago. 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The First Nowell (EP of 1961)
Músicas navideñas - Editado por Christmas Album el 30 nov. 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
A Festival Of Lessons And Carols As Sung On Christmas Eve, 1958 In King's College Chapel, Cambridge (Album of 1959)
The King's College Choir Of Cambridge, Sir David Willcocks
Clásica - Editado por Christmas Album el 24 dic. 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Three Christmas Cantatas
Sir David Willcocks, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal College of Music Chamber Choir
Clásica - Editado por Heritage Records el 4 nov. 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo