Vaughan Williams as Conductor

St Matthew Passion, Dorking 1958

Like Bach, VW was a great believer in music made for and made by ordinary people. Recorded in 1958, the year of VW’s death, by Gerald Finzi’s son Christopher and Noel Taylor, this is a uniquely important recording. Lots of coughing and poor recording cannot disguise a moving interpretation of what VW considered along with Bach’s B minor Mass, was the finest music ever written. An amateur Leith Hill Choir with the help of outstanding soloists Wilfrid Brown and John Carol Case.