Barry Rose’s recording
of The Crucifixion was one of
the staples of the catalogue and his
reading, with David Hughes and John
Lawrenson, has proved its durability
and effectiveness since it was first
issued back in the late 1960s. His is
the recording that’s been on my shelves
though in one of those quirks the first
recording I heard of the work was on
78s – the stentorian American partnership
of Tibbett and Crooks in a set surely
destined for reissue, and one that gave
me a sense of the dramatic in a work
easily mocked for its static piety.
The good news is that
this newcomer has plenty of virtues
of its own. The Choir of Clare College
are a finely balanced and youthful sounding
body and the two soloists make good
contributions. The recording is an asset
in not inflating the sound. Organist
Stephen Farr chooses his registrations
with care and presiding over all, conductor
Timothy Brown proves to have a sure
hand at building climaxes and keeping
up the momentum. To be super-critical
there is a degree of ambient noise in
the acoustic but that’s only really
noticeable on headphones and then only
briefly.
One can hear Farr’s
sophisticated use of registrations in
The Agony, where James Gilchrist
is appropriately dramatic and bass Simon
Bailey evinces a noble dignity, though
his voice is not as purely distinctive
as Gilchrist’s and there are times when
it’s not firmly centred. I admired the
way Brown insists on the pianissimos
in Fling Wide the Gates as indeed
I do his handling of the hymn, The
Mystery of the Divine Humiliation –
where the reflective and declamatory
are held in balance. The affirmatory
sixth verse is sung with real fervour.
It’s a measure of the success of this
performance that, highlight though it
is, God so loved the World is
not the only peak. Similarly the Litany
of the Passion emerges here as quietly
moving and not as pious-absurd. Brown
has ensured concision and variety by
shortening some of the hymns.
The recording took
place in Guildford Cathedral where,
incidentally, Barry Rose recorded his
own famous disc over thirty-five years
ago. Full texts and notes add up to
a warm recommendation to the work of
a composer omitted from the old World
Encyclopaedia of Recorded Music presumably
on the grounds of distaste for the genre.
This is the kind of disc that gives
considered meticulousness to The Crucifixion
and therefore deserves respect.
Jonathan Woolf
see also reviews
by John
Quinn and Michael
Cookson
James Gilchrist (tenor)
