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FULL SANCTA CIVITAS (Vaughan Williams) First Night of the Proms BBC London 2025 Gerald Finley, Caspar Singh
Popular Singers in this Opera Recording
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: Sancta Civitas
- Composer: Vaughan Williams Ralph
- Libretto: Text from the Book of Revelation
- Venue & Opera Company: Royal Albert Hall, London, UK
- Recorded: July 18, 2025
- Type: Concert Live
- Singers: Gerald Finley, Caspar Singh
- Conductor: Sakari Oramo
- Orchestra: BBC Symphony Orchestra
- Chorus: BBC Singers, Symphony Chorus, London Youth Choirs
- Stage Director:
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Published by: BBC
- Date Published: 2025
- Format: Broadcast
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: yessubs, ensubs
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
Programme
Arthur Bliss
Birthday Fanfare for Sir Henry Wood(2 mins)
Felix Mendelssohn
Overture ‘The Hebrides’ (‘Fingal’s Cave’)(10 mins)
Jean Sibelius
Violin Concerto in D minor(35 mins)
interval
Errollyn Wallen
The Elements(10 mins)
BBC commission: world premiere
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Sancta civitas(30 mins)
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Sancta Civitas (The Holy City) is an oratorio by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Written between 1923 and 1925, it was his first major work since the Mass in G minor two years previously. Vaughan Williams began working on the piece from a rented furnished house in the village of Danbury, Essex, found for him by his former pupil, Cecil Armstrong Gibbs.
The work received its first performance in Oxford in May 1926, during the General Strike. Although its title is in Latin, the libretto is entirely in English, based upon texts from Revelation. The text is drawn from several translations, including Taverner’s Bible. Late in life, Vaughan Williams called Sancta the favourite of his choral works. Michael Kennedy described it as “in the form of a homage to Bach from the twentieth century”.
Sancta Civitas is scored for a full orchestra, with optional organ, as well as a mixed chorus, a semi-chorus, a “distant chorus” of boys (accompanied by an offstage trumpet), a baritone solo, and a tenor solo.
The work lasts approximately 30 to 35 minutes. Although Sancta Civitas is presented in the score as a single continuous piece, recordings typically divide it into 10 sections as follows:
I was in the spirit (Lento)
And I saw Heaven opened (Allegro)
And I saw an angel standing in the sun (Meno mosso)
Babylon the great is fallen (Lento)
Rejoice over her O Heavens (Allegro moderato)
And I saw a new heaven (Adagio)
Therefore are they before the throne of God (Poco meno largo)
And I saw a pure river
Holy, Holy, Holy (Andante sostenuto)
Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory (Poco animato)