Rowan Atkinson joins the Choir of The Queen’s College, Oxford and the Britten Sinfonia for a performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams’s late masterpiece An Oxford Elegy, written in his 70s for The Queen’s College and premiered there in 1952. Another work written for Queen’s receives its first recording here: Kenneth Leighton’s choral cantata Veris gratia Op.6, composed while was a student at Queen’s and premiered there in 1951. Both works imaginatively evoke the pastoral and the bucol- ic: Leighton’s cantata celebrates young love in spring and summer through the hedonistic poetry of the medieval Carmina burana, while Vaughan Williams sets Matthew Arnold’s nostalgic poetry, with its iconic description of Oxford as ‘that sweet city with her dreaming spires’.

“These two quintessentially Oxford works are beautifully sung, sensitively accompanied by the Britten Sinfonia and empathetically interpreted by Owen Rees and Rowan Atkinson, whose role as a reciter is edifyingly understated. Vaughan Williams’s sublime realisation of Matthew Arnold’s An Oxford Elegy is stunning; and Leighton’s colourful and imaginative Veris gratia is a revelation.” – Jeremy Dibble for Gramophone Critics’ Choice 2024

“Two wonderful evocations of English pastoral and bucolic themes…I can highly recommend this recording for its sense of tenderness and reflection. The coupling. Kenneth Leighton’s outstanding Veris Gratia, makes it a must buy for enthusiasts of British music” – Musicweb International

“Tenor Nick Pritchard is on characteristically eloquent form in his two solos, David Cuthbert’s flute solo in the instrumental, Finzi-ish “Elegy” is restrained and poised, and the choir assured…[This] album wins out for quality of sound…the playing (by the Britten Sinfonia) is subtle, especially in the winds, and the choir’s part warmly sung. The tone is elegiac, of course, but also nostalgic and loving” – The Arts Desk