CD1
Sir Charles Villiers
STANFORD (1852-1924)
Magnificat in G op.81
Nunc Dimittis in G op. 81
Soloist: Oliver Lepage-Dean, treble
Justorum Animae
Sir Edward ELGAR
(1857-1934)
Ave Verum Corpus, op.2 no.1
Give unto the Lord (Psalm 29), op.74
Ralph VAUGHAN
WILLIAMS (1872-1958)
The Call
Soloist: Oliver Lepage-Dean, treble
Herbert HOWELLS
(1892-1983)
Magnificat, St. Paul’s
Nunc Dimittis, St. Paul’s
Paean for Organ
Organist: Iain Farrington
Take him, earth, for cherishing
Peter HURFORD
(b.1930)
Litany to the Holy Spirit
Soloist: Oliver Lepage-Dean, treble
Gerald FINZI (1901-1956)
Welcome Sweet and Sacred Feast, op.27
no.3
Edmund RUBBRA
(1901-1986)
Tenebrae Motets – Third Nocturn, op.72
Magnificat in Ab
Gerald FINZI
God is gone up, op.27 no.2
CD2
Sir William WALTON
(1902-1983)
Set me as a seal upon thine heart
Soloists: Oliver Lepage-Dean, treble,
Edward Lyon, tenor
Coronation Te Deum (arr. Simon Preston
and Mark Blatchley)
Gloria from Missa Brevis
Soloists: Oliver Lepage-Dean, treble,
Geoffrey Silver, tenor
Benjamin BRITTEN
(1913-1976)
A Hymn to the Virgin
Soloists: William Goldring, treble,
Christopher de la Hoyde, alto, Simon
Wall, tenor, Reuben Thomas, bass
Jubilate Deo
Hymn to St. Cecilia, op.27
Soloists: Benedict Giles, Ben Harrison,
trebles, Richard Moore, alto, Jonathan
Bungard, tenor, Reuben Thomas, bass
Lennox BERKELEY
(1903-1989)
The Lord is my Shepherd, op.91 no.1
Soloist: Benjamin Durrant, treble
Crux Fidelis, op.43 no1
Soloist: Allan Clayton, tenor
Look up, Sweet Babe, op.43 no.2
Soloist: James Geidt, treble
Kenneth LEIGHTON
(1929-1988)
Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis from
Collegium Magdalene Oxonienses
An Easter Sequence – Sortie
Soloist: Crispian Steele-Perkins, trumpet
Sir John TAVENER
(b.1944)
The Lamb
The Lord’s Prayer
Song for Athene
The somewhat unhelpful
title of these discs –‘English Choral
Music’ could after all mean almost anything
– gives little indication of the riches
that lie within. What we have here is
a valuable ‘rough guide’ to English
religious (mostly Anglican) choral music
of the past century or so, ranging from
Stanford through to Tavener. (I say
‘religious’, though there are several
exceptions, notably Britten’s ‘Ode to
St. Cecilia’ and Howells’ ‘Take him,
earth, for cherishing’.)
Looked at another way,
the set is a compilation from the fine
series of CDs Christopher Robinson and
the St. John’s Choir have made for Naxos
over the last few years. Robinson has
now retired as their conductor, but
the CDs act as a fine memorial to his
time at St. John’s.
As most of the CDs
were devoted to individual composers,
it is natural to find the numbers here
by and large grouped in the same way.
Thus we start with Stanford, the lovely
Magnificat in G, the solo part
sung by a quite exceptional treble,
Oliver Lepage-Dean. He appears on quite
a number of tracks on the first CD,
and displays a maturity of musicianship
together with a purity of tone which
make him a pure joy to listen to.
Elgar is represented
by two pieces; the very early Ave
Verum has a fine, suave melody,
to which the boys of St. John’s respond
with their richest tone. Robinson’s
voice training is very clearly in evidence
here. The much later Give unto the
Lord is a powerful, assertive anthem
that was new to me – its sweeping choral
writing is worthy of the composer of
Gerontius.
Vaughan Williams’ tranquil
The Call, another solo item for
Oliver Lepage-Dean, is followed by a
sequence of music by Herbert Howells,
concluding with his anthem in memory
of JFK – Take him, earth, for cherishing.
Though probably more suited to a mixed
choir, this nevertheless works very
well, for Robinson lets it flow, which
is not only sympathetic to the boys’
breathing limitations but compensates
for the very sectional nature of the
piece.
Howells’ Paean for
organ draws some fine playing from
Iain Farrington, alerting me to the
fact that organists don’t appear to
be credited at all, a strange state
of affairs, of which I’m sure Christopher
Robinson would not approve, being himself
a very fine proponent. The instrument
itself, though sometimes a little too
far back in audio terms, performs admirably;
whoever played it in, for example, the
concluding item of CD1, Finzi’s joyous
God is gone up, coaxed some splendidly
brassy noises out of it.
CD2 starts with Walton
– the melting Set me as a seal
performed with great sensitivity. The
Coronation Te Deum, in an arrangement
for smaller forces, is nothing
like so satisfactory. The men of the
choir, in particular, go ‘over the top’
rather in their attempt to emulate the
power of a larger ensemble. This is
a fairly rare lapse, but does tend to
characterise some of the more extrovert
numbers.
Britten and Berkeley
suit Robinson and this choir down to
the ground, for they are completely
at home in the subtle blend of sensuality
and purity that the music demands. This
version of Britten’s great Hymn to
St. Cecilia doesn’t really compare
with the best mixed choir versions in
my view. Yet here, it seems in place,
and the freshness of the boys’ voices
does provide a unique poignancy to phrases
such as ‘O dear white children casual
as birds’. Another highly accomplished
treble, Benjamin Durrant, adds distinction
to Berkeley’s exquisite setting of Psalm
23 – in fact most of the solos are taken
with great aplomb and confidence (though
I personally found the strangled baritone
in Stanford’s Nunc dimittis distasteful
both in tone and phrasing – perhaps
it’s just as well he remained uncredited!).
Music by Kenneth Leighton
– a superb choral composer whose work
is still scandalously underperformed
– and Tavener completes the second disc.
Song for Athene may be a somewhat
obvious choice, but this choir does
do it wonderfully well, and it makes
a splendid closing item.
A treasure-trove, then,
albeit an unusual one. There are some
oddities in the booklet (though the
notes themselves are fine); as well
as the absences of some credits mentioned
above, Berkeley’s Crux Fidelis is
op.43 no1, not no.2 as given. And why
do we get Sir William Walton,
Sir John Tavener etc., but just
plain ol’ Benjamin Britten and Lennox
Berkeley? There may be a reason, but
if so, we should be told!
These are minor carps
– this is a beautiful and valuable issue,
splendidly performed and recorded.
Gwyn Parry-Jones
see also review
by John Quinn
Choir of St.John’s College Cambridge/Christopher
Robinson 