MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

alternatively
CD: MDT

My spirit hath rejoiced - Settings of the Evening Canticles (Magnificat and Nunc dimittis)
Thomas Tertius NOBLE (1867-1955)
B minor Op 6 [8:18]
Herbert HOWELLS (1892-1983)
“Gloucester Service” [11:18]
Herbert MURRILL (1909-1952)
E major [7:21]
Basil HARWOOD (1859-1949)
A flat major Op 6 [8:12]
Harold DARKE (1888-1976)
F major [9:51]
Herbert SUMSION (1899-1995)
G major [7:42]
Sir George DYSON (1883-1961)
D major [7:54]
Choir of St Paul’s Cathedral/John Scott
Christopher Dearnley (organ)
rec. St Paul’s Cathedral, 7, 8, 24 March 1988
texts included
HYPERION HELIOS CDH55402 [60:50]

Experience Classicsonline


Whilst the choice of anthem at Evensong in the Anglican Church involves the Precentor or Choirmaster in a search for words appropriate to the date within the Church year, the two Canticles, Magnificat and Nunc dimittis, remain unchanged.
 
Generations of composers, most of them involved in practical performance on a day to day basis, have provided settings appropriate to particular choirs or buildings. It is in many ways the ultimate gebrauchsmusik, where the composers work to strict requirements, and where opportunities for a sudden burst of the unexpected are few and inspiration must come from within a tight discipline rather than from the composer’s freedom of choice.
 
Under these circumstances the surprising thing is just how good the general standard of music is, even when, apart from Howells, the composers are scarcely known outside the writing of church music. When I reviewed an earlier disc of these Canticles by the St Paul’s Choir (My soul doth magnify the Lord Helios CDH55401) I noted that even the least inspired of the settings were wonderful examples of sincerity and musical craftsmanship. The same applies here, although I must admit that the quality of the music is generally less high than the earlier issue.
 
The one clear masterpiece here is Howells’ Gloucester Service, a superb example of his ability to draw inspiration from the building as well as the choir for whom he was writing. Gloucester Cathedral has a wonderful resonance, but so does St Paul’s so that the sound here matches that that the composer and the work require. There is something intoxicating about the overall effect which goes far beyond the disciplined requirements of daily worship into realms of pure music. The same cannot really be said of the other works here, although all meet those basic and by no means straightforward requirements. Those by Noble and Dyson are probably the best, confident and purposeful, as to a lesser degree is that by Harwood. Those by Murrill and Sumsion are more individual but I must admit to a blind spot for the popular but to my mind dull Darke in F.
 
Both choir and organist must have performed these pieces many times but there is no sense of routine in the performances here. Any recording in St Paul’s has to find a way of coping with the notorious echo and that achieved on this disc is as good as any in a building whose suitability for any kind of music is doubtful. There are good notes by Sarah Langdon. Like its predecessor it makes me long for more - all those composers known now (if at all) only by a key after their name, such as Tudway in G, Turle in D, Heathcote in A and Albertus Bryan in G. The list reads like the stations lost to Dr Beeching and perhaps it has the same appeal to those of a certain cast of mind.
 
John Sheppard
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.