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
Ähnliche Künstler
-
The First Nowell (EP of 1961)
Weihnachtsmusik - Erschienen bei Christmas Album am 30.11.2021
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
Klassik - Erschienen bei Christmas Album am 24.12.2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Three Christmas Cantatas
Sir David Willcocks, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal College of Music Chamber Choir
Klassik - Erschienen bei Heritage Records am 04.11.2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Christmas Album
Sir David Willcocks, Choir of King's College, Cambridge
Weihnachtsmusik - Erschienen bei Amra Record am 24.10.2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Christmas Collection - Carols and Hymns
David Willcocks, Choir Of King's College Cambridge
Pop - Erschienen bei Ten Percent Records am 13.11.2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vaughan Williams, Holst & Parry: Choral Works
Sir David Willcocks, Sheila Armstrong, Teresa Cahill
Klassik - Erschienen bei Lyrita am 01.01.1982
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Jesu, Priceless Treasure
Sir David Willcocks, Bernard Richards, Francis Baines, Simon Preston
Klassik - Erschienen bei Hallmark am 01.01.1960
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Magnificat: Choral Music of Jonathan Willcocks
English Cathedral Singers, Sir David Willcocks
Klassik - Erschienen bei Priory Records am 12.10.1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mathias: Lux Aeterna
Messen, Passionen, Requiems - Erschienen bei Chandos am 01.03.1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Choral Christmas
The Hamburg Students Choir, Wiener Sängerknaben, Sir David Willcocks
Weihnachtsmusik - Erschienen bei Night & Time Records am 28.10.2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Nicholas Maw: Life Studies - Richard Rodney Bennett: Spells
Sir David Willcocks, Sir Neville Marriner, Jane Manning
Klassik - Erschienen bei Heritage Continuum am 24.04.2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Playing Christmas Themes
Sir David Willcocks, Choir of King's College, Cambridge
Weihnachtsmusik - Erschienen bei Amra Record am 12.12.2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Saint Noel
David Willcocks & Choir Of King's College Cambridge
Weihnachtsmusik - Erschienen bei Grand Hits Records am 13.11.2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
A Christmas Gift for You
Sir David Willcocks, Choir of King's College, Cambridge
Weihnachtsmusik - Erschienen bei X Select Records am 14.11.2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Choral Music by George Dyson
Royal College of Music Chamber Choir, Stephen Roberts, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Osian Ellis, Nettle and Markham Piano Duo, Sir David Willcocks
Chorwerk (für den Chor) - Erschienen bei SOMM Recordings am 01.02.2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Maw: Life Studies - Bennett: Spells
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Philharmonia Orchestra, Sir Neville Marriner, Sir David Willcocks
Klassik - Erschienen bei NMC Recordings am 01.01.1991
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Der Messias
Sir David Willcocks, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
Klassik - Erschienen bei Warner Music Group - X5 Music Group am 10.12.2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Waiting for Santa Claus
David Willcocks & Choir Of King's College Cambridge
Weihnachtsmusik - Erschienen bei Baby One Records am 27.11.2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Christmas with the King's College Choir
Weihnachtsmusik - Erschienen bei Sunday Club Records am 01.11.2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
On Christmas Night
Weihnachtsmusik - Erschienen bei Sunday Club Records am 01.01.1962
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Christmas Compilation
David Willcocks & Choir Of King's College Cambridge
Weihnachtsmusik - Erschienen bei Valley Records am 18.11.2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo