This recording has
been produced to mark the 75th anniversary
of the Friends of Salisbury Cathedral.
It represents music sung during a liturgical
year, particularly featuring pieces
associated with the Friends and the
cathedral itself, including some new
commissions. There has been church music
at the present cathedral for over 700
years, and for 200 years before that
at the cathedral at Old Sarum. The music
is provided by sixteen boy choristers,
six Lay Vicars, the Director of Music,
the Organist and the Organ Scholar.
In 1991, young girl choristers were
admitted into the Choral Foundation
and Choir School. This is one of the
first things to have struck me on reading
the booklet in that six Lay Vicars (two
each of alto, tenor and bass) with sixteen
of upper voices, (or eighteen girls
voices) the choir seems imbalanced,
but more of this later.
Simon Lole was a chorister
at St. Paul's Cathedral, returning there
as organ scholar. He arrived at Salisbury
in 1997, via Croydon Parish Church,
the parish of Warwick, and Sheffield
Cathedral. David Halls was at Harrogate
Grammar School, and studied the organ
at Ripon Cathedral, and later with Thomas
Trotter. He graduated in 1984 from Worcester
College, Oxford with an Honours Degree
in Music, and was appointed Assistant
Organist at Salisbury in 1985. In September
he took up the full-time post of Organist
and Assistant Director of Music at Salisbury
Cathedral.
Richard Shephard is
a former Lay Vicar at Salisbury and
Director of Music at the Cathedral School;
"And When the Builders" was commissioned
by the Friends to celebrate their Golden
Jubilee in 1980. The text is taken from
Ezra, Ezekiel and Haggai and was selected
by Michael Sadgrove, now Dean of Durham,
formerly on the staff of Salisbury Cathedral.
As in all the modern pieces on this
disc, this is well sung, clearly enunciated,
and the organ playing is excellent.
The choir blends well, and the balance
is good (see above). The ambience is
well controlled, without the prolonged
echo notable in some places of worship.
The pieces from Bruckner
and Brahms are another matter, however;
I would have wished for more sonorous
lower parts in the choir, particularly
in the Bruckner, and the Brahms could
have done with more urgency in the interpretation
to my way of thinking. Without the firmness
of a solid bass line, a hint of flatness
crept into the sound. This is not to
say that given the available forces
the choir did not sing well; indeed
the lack of the more usual numbers makes
their achievement the more remarkable.
However, much as I am personally in
favour of smaller groups, I think there
is no doubt that both these works benefit
from a larger choir; one just gets the
impression that the choir are having
to work that bit too hard.
The Bernard Rose anthem
is the only one to sound "muddy", but
I do not think this is the fault of
the choir; the writing is fairly thick,
and the ambience for once more resonant
(recorded in a different part of the
cathedral?) which makes the otherwise
very good diction difficult to determine.
It is also sung unaccompanied, which
should have aided the hearing of the
text. This is in contradistinction to
the canticles by Richard Shephard, which
are also sung a capella but the
diction is perfect. These are
nice lilting settings, which must be
a delight to sing, being also very tuneful.
Jonathan Dove is an
up and coming composer, and whilst one
may not always agree with his compositions,
one must admire the structure and thoughts
behind them. In "Seek him that maketh
the seven stars", the words, taken from
Amos and Psalm 139, are based on the
words of St. Edmund, and are well set
to give the impression of a search through
the unknown regions. Similarly, the
work by Simon Lole, the choir's musical
director, is evocative and has the choir
intoning the name "Mary" in the background.
These works are much more difficult
in performance, and together with David
Hall's Te Deum form the mid-part of
this disc. The organ and choir fulfil
the pieces admirably within the idiom.
The Frank Bridge and
Francis Jackson items for organ are
given a soundly played rendering, with
suitable registration, and a sound as
full-bodied as anyone can wish. The
latter composition in particular is
a gentle sweetly-flowing piece, which
serves as a good foil to the more modern
harmonies and chords of the preceding
work. The choral items following are
in the same vein; unfortunately, the
anthem by Sir William Harris is marred
by some shaky intonation at the beginning
(sung a capella). No such complaints
for the gently moving "Worthy is the
Lamb" with organ accompaniment by Malcolm
Williamson. Here there are some magnificently
soaring treble lines which are complemented
by the organ. Finally in this more peaceful
interlude is a truly beautiful unaccompanied
setting of words by Thomas Campion "View
me, Lord". The last anthem, the well
known and magnificent "I was glad" by
Hubert Parry, really needs again much
bigger forces than are available here.
The choir do their best, and indeed
the sopranos manage a good and full
sound, but the lower parts need more
volume and tone than is here evident.
Throughout, the recording
is excellent, and the organ playing
more than adequate. The booklet is disappointing;
words are given, and the derivation
of the pieces is mentioned, but not
which pieces are accompanied or sung
a capella. Also, the years of
composition are lacking, and some more
details about the composers and their
works would have been welcome, particularly
of the younger men whose works are not
generally known, except perhaps in church
music circles.
A disc in two halves
then: very interesting for the modern
compositions, but disappointing in the
more traditional field.
John Portwood
Salisbury Cathedral Choir/Simon Lole. 
