A recent recording of Elgar’s The Apostles featuring a specially recruited semi-chorus of young RNCM singers has won a 2013 Gramophone Award.
Tenors Sean Boyes, Thomas Kelly, Timothy Langston and Adam Player, and basses Stefan Berkieta, Matthew Kellett, Graham McCusker and Daniel Shelvey, joined the Hallé Orchestra, Choir and Youth Choir for a special performance of the work led by Sir Mark Elder at The Bridgewater Hall last year.
The new recording, which won the Choral category of the 2013 Awards and also featured RNCM alumni Alice Coote and David Kempster, is possibly the first to incorporate the composer’s own intentions after Elder spent time researching a proof copy of the vocal score preserved at the composer’s Birthplace Museum at Broadheath, Worcester.
Gramophone’s review of the recording said: ‘Elder has also gone to considerable lengths to fulfil the composer’s specific request for an ‘Apostolic Choir’, namely a semi-chorus comprising nine male voices to complement the regular soloists assigned the parts of John, Peter and Judas; all are young singers studying either at the RNCM or Manchester University and their contribution is a most eloquent one.’
