David Willcocks – Alto CD

Haydn: Nelson Mass/ Croft: Burial Service / Bach: St John Passion

amuletts — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 23:39:57 +0000

(Haydn) “resonant King’s acoustic…the effect is admirably full-blooded and vivid” (Penguin Guide 3 stars) (Croft) “Another unforgettable experience is the singing of Croft’s Burial Service, recorded in procession with the voices gradually drawing nearer.” (Haydn) “a fine and vital performance under David Willcocks, with a first-rate quartet of soloists (Gramophone)

THE ‘NELSON’ MASS (Missa in augustiis / Mass in Troubled Times)

1. Kyrie 5:02
2. Gloria 10:43
3. Credo 9:51
4. Sanctus 2:22
5. Benedictus 5:57
6. Agnus Dei 6:14

Sylvia Stahlman, Helen Watts, Wilfred Brown, Tom Krause
with the London Symphony Orchestra

7. William Croft: The Burial Service (Recorded in procession) 14:38
8. Thomas Tallis (ed. Ken): Glory to Thee, My God, this Night 2:53
9. Orlando Gibbons: Drop, Drop Slow Tears 1:33

J S Bach: St. John Passion – Excerpts

10. Chorale: O Lord who dares smite Thee 2:05
11. Chorale: O Mighty King. Eternal is Thy Glory 2:03
12. Chorus: Rest calm…Lord Jesu, Thy dear Angel send 10:58

Christmas at King’s College Cambridge

amuletts — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 23:39:57 +0000

‘The number of boy choristers was fixed at 16 by King Henry in 1453 and it is 16 still. While originally there were six lay clerks, there are now 12 choral scholars, who are undergraduates of the college studying for degrees. (The Director) therefore loses about a third of his most experienced singers every year, as the boys’ voices break and the men graduate…. There is, however, a compensatory factor in that much of the music for which the choir is famous is new to a third of its members each year, thus contributing to the remarkable vitality and spontaniety of the singing.’ (Gramophone)

1. O Come All Ye Faithful 3.59
2. In Dulci Jubilo (setting J.L.Pearsall) 3.31
3. Blessed be that Maid 2.35
4. God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen 3.19
5. Lutebook Lullaby 2.01
6. Ding Dong Merrily on High 2.00
7. Myn Lyking 2.55
8. See Amid the Winter’s Snow (Goss) 3.49
9. Personent Hodie 2.37
10. In the Bleak Midwinter 4.45
11. Coventry Carol 2.13
12. O Little Town of Bethlehem (Walford Davies) 4.00
13. Sussex Carol (On Christmas Night..) 1.56
14. Away in a Manger 2.19
15. Shepherds in the Field Abiding 3.00
16. King Jesus Hath a Garden 3.49
17. Torches 1.34
18. Vaughan Williams Fantasia 11.19
(Hervey Alan bass-baritone / London Symphony Orchestra)
19. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing 3.33

Tudor Masters: Taverner & Gibbons

amuletts — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 23:39:57 +0000

(Taverner) “greatest English composer of the reign of Henry VIII, which saw the last fine flowering of our insular school of vocal polyphony…This alone would be enough to make me urge you to buy the record….almost all the works on this disc are great music presented with all the finesse for which the King’s choir is famous.” (Gibbons) “It is appropriate that the choir of King’s should be involved in recording Gibbons’s church music, for he was a chorister there in the last years of the 16th century….I can go on to praise the disc as a whole very highly indeed.” (Gramophone)

JOHN TAVERNER (Ed. Brett)

1. Kyrie ‘le roy’ 3:37
2. Mass: The Western Wynde 28:22
3. Dum transisset sabbatum 7:43
4. Christie Jesu pastor bone 3:08
5. Mater Christi 7:20

ORLANDO GIBBONS

6. This is the Record of John 4:46
7. Song 1: First Song of Moses 1:18
8. Voluntary I: Te Deum (2nd service) 13:45
9. Voluntary II: Jubilate (2nd service) 6:21

Byrd: Mass for 5 Voices/ Ave Verum Corpus etc/ Gibbons: Verse Anthems

amuletts — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 23:39:35 +0000

(Mass for 5 Voices) “the serenity of the King’s account, with its long flowing paragraphs, remains very appealing..Under Willcocks, there is an inevitability of phrasing and effortless control of sonority and dynamics that completely capture the music’s spiritual and e motional feeling”(Gibbons) “the collection is imaginatively chosen…Gibbons is a major musical personality” (Penguin Guide 3 stars)

1. Kyrie 1.51
2. Gloria 5.32
3. Credo 10.30
4. Sanctus 2.37
5. Benedictus 1.41
6. Agnus Dei 4.08
7. Magnificat (from The Great Service) 10.35
8. Nunc Dimittis (from The Great Service) 6.07
9. Motet: Ave Verum Corpus 4.28

(1-9) Recorded 1960
Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625)

10. See, See the Word is Incarnate 7.15
11. Glorious and Powerful God 6.03
12. Second Preces: I Will Magnify Thee /Psalm 145 5.53

(10-12) with the Jacobean Consort of Viols: Thurston Dart (Treble Viol), Desmond Dupre (Tenor Viol), Dennis Nesbitt, Dietrich Kessler (Bass Viols), Nigel Amherst (Violone)
Recorded 1959

J S Bach: Motet BWV227 / Sacred Part-Songs / St John Passion choruses

amuletts — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 23:39:14 +0000

“It’s rather nice to go back to the King’s way, to the old firm of Willcocks and Preston, and remember what it was that pleased us then. We were not ashamed in those days to accept Bach as a decent Englishman, and we liked to hear his church music in a devotional context. BWV numbers aid the listener in the Schemelli Gesangbuch items, and the Bartholomew translation of the motet has been renovated. Frankly, it is a lovely and moving record, which will appeal to far more people than any amount of authenticity—and learned folk can enjoy it as a period piece. There is still a need for Bach in English” (Gramophone)

Motet No.3: Jesu meine Freude / Jesu, Priceless Treasure (BWV 227)

1. Chorale: Jesu, priceless treasure 1.44
2. Chorus: So there is now no condemnation 4.13
3. Chorale: In Thine arm I rest me 1.47
4. Trio: Thus then, the law of the Spirit 1.02
5. Chorus: Death I do not fear thee 2.57
6. Chorus: Ye are not of the flesh 3.25
7. Chorale: Hence with earthly treasure 1.44
8. Trio: If therefore Christ abide in you 2.10
9. Chorale: Fare Thee well that errest 3.34
10. Chorus: If by his spirit God 2.11
11. Hence all fears and sadness 1.55

Die Geistliche Lieder und Arien / Sacred Part-Songs

12. O Jesu so meek, O Jesu so kind (BWV 493) 2.59
13. Jesus is this dark world’s light (BWV 474) 2.30
14. Lord, pour not Thy vengeance on me (BWV 463) 2.56
15. Now is the mournful time (BWV 450) 4.43
16. It is finished (BWV 458) 3.50
17. Breath of God, life giving (BWV 445) 2.42
18. God liveth still (BWV 461) 2.31

St. John Passion (trans. A.Raeburn) with the Philomusica of London / David Willcocks

19. Chorus: Lord, our redeemer 9.55
20. Chorus: Rest calm, O body pure and holy…
Chorale: Lord Jesu, thy dear angel send 11.01