Missa San Marco Kyrie

Ave Maria2001

Ave Verum (Corp)

Fear No More

Lute Book Lullaby

Two Part-Songs

Praised for his previous choral music albums, British composer and conductor Ronald Corp now makes his Naxos chamber debut with this disc. 

His "First String Quartet" takes its name from the world's largest, most stately and regal bird, the bustard, whose soaring flight and dance-like gait are evoked in this fascinating piece.

His "Second String Quartet" celebrates a baby boy's birth with joyful and exuberant music.

the Maggini Quartet are renowned for thier authoritative interpretations of English chamber music.

String Quartet No. 2 - 2nd movement, Scherzo

Sinfonia 4711 third movement

And all the trumpets sounded - opening

performed live by the London Chorus and New London Orchestra in Cadogan Hall, London 2010

The Hound of Heaven by Ronald Corp live recording

Every two years the Highgate Choral Society goes abroad to perform concerts and a mass
in a continental cathedral or church. Previous tours have taken us to Paris, Bruges, Prague and,
in 2002, to Venice. We were lucky to be able to perform in a mass in St Mark’s, and I was thrilled
when the authorities agreed that we could perform my new mass setting, which was written
specifically for this tour. The four movements of the mass setting exploit the acoustics of St
Mark’s; cunningly repeated notes in the choir writing give a sense of space and perhaps of
wonder. At the end of mass at its first performance the congregation burst into applause, and
the celebrant asked us to repeat the end of the Gloria!

Review of Ely Consort singing in Ely Cathedral
By rjwestwell 
Ely Consort presented an exquisite programme of delightful music in the presbytery of Ely Cathedral on Saturday 13th March 2010.
The setting was evocative: the lighting enhanced by flickering candles, the lovely sounds of the choir enriched by the high cathedral vaults. Under Matthew Rudd’s s expert directorship, the contrasts these voices achieved were magnificent. The singers explored the subtle, meditative components with rare sensitivity, filling the cathedral with powerful climactic fervour as the compositions developed. The soloists were particularly well chosen: Clare Lloyd (soprano), Johnny Herford (baritone), Christine Bullen (alto) and Johnny Herford (tenor) and the organ accompaniment by Jonathan Lilley was, as expected, first-rate.
Works included Ronald Corp’s Missa San Marco, Ave Maria by Bach and Gounod, Urlicht by Mahler, Five Spirituals from a ‘Child of our Time’ by Michael Tippett and Faure’s Requiem – all highly appropriate for the setting.
Ronald Corp’s Missa San Marco was a fine composition that explored the cathedral environment intuitively. His compositional approach used a more sophisticated but attractive style than the music of 16th -17th century Monteverdi in St. Mark’s Venice (the inspiration for the work). A wholesome tone, long pedal notes, carefully balanced echoing and sustained phrases that allowed the full effect of the acoustics to contribute created a splendid ethereal sound.


Agnus Dei from Missa San Marco by Ronald Corp

Ronald Corp always wanted to be a composer and began composing music even before he was taught to play the piano. There were frequent opportunities for performances at school and University.

The first major work which he today acknowledges is the cantata 'And all the Trumpets Sounded' premiered by the Highgate Choral Society who commissioned it in 1989 and published by Stainer and Bell. Other choral works include Laudamus (1994) performed at St John's Smith Square by the London Chorus to great critical acclaim (the third performance of this work was given in a Gala Concert at the Royal Festival Hall), A New Song, (published by OUP 1999), Mary's Song, (2000) Adonai Echad (2000) and Jubilate(2008). Smaller works include We Will Remember Them, Verbum Patris Umanatur, There is no Rose, Missa San Marco (Stainer and Bell), Christmas Mass (Stainer and Bell) and Forever Child (OUP).

Sainsbury's commissioned Four Elizabethan Lyrics (OUP) for the Farnham Youth Choir, winners of their section of the Sainsbury Choir of the Year. Other compositions for children’s choir include Cornucopia (OUP), a cycle of songs with orchestra (1997), and its successor Kaleidoscope (2002). Both of these have been very successful and have achieved numerous performances. His Christmas opera Wenceslas was premiered in 1982. Of his numerous part songs and carols for children's choir the most notable are For a Child and All Ye Works of the Lord both with instrumental accompaniment, Cradle Song, Flower Songs and Hardy Songs.

He has written many solo songs including the cycles Flower of Cities, Miscellanie, The Music of Whitman and The Music of Wordsworth – the latter with obbligato clarinet.

Orchestral works include and a Piano Concerto (1997) heard in London at St John's Smith Square, at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and most recently at the Cadogan Hall (‘this work is possibly the most winningly successful British Piano Concerto of the last forty years or so' Robert Matthew Walker), Guernsey Postcards, Concerto Grosso and a Symphony. A suite of Purcell arrangements for violin and strings was premiered in 2003 and again in a new version in 2008, and his orchestrations of Satie's Gnossiennes are featured in the film Chocolat.

Of his many instrumental compositions the Homage to Martinu for flute and piano (rev 2003) was performed at a Covent Garden recital and his String Quartet no 1 ‘The Bustard’ was premiered by the Maggini Quartet at the Wigmore Hall in 2008.

In 2003 BBC Radio 3 commissioned a major work for the BBC Singers - a setting of Matthew Arnold's Dover Beach, and this is featured on a disc of Corp’s choral music ‘Forever Child’ on Dutton CDLX 7171 performed by Voces Cantabiles under the composer’s direction.

A concert of Ronald Corp’s choral pieces and songs was given in 2007 at the Wigmore Hall.
 
Large scale community cantatas include Playing with Sun, Urban Voices, Our World, and Waters of Time (Wells Cathedral 2006). He is at present working on a major choral piece for St Edwards School, Romford.

Other new projects include a setting of verses of the Dhammapada, a second string quartet and an opera The Old Woman and the Mountain for the New London Children’s Choir.


ronaldcorp

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