Rejoice! 20th Century British Church Music
Benjamin BRITTEN Festival Te Deum
Benjamin BRITTEN Rejoice in the
Lamb
Michael TIPPETT Five Negro
Spirituals
C. Hubert PARRY I was glad
William WALTON Set me as a seal
Ernest BULLOCK Give us the wings of
faith
Herbert HOWELLS Like as the hart
Gerald FINZI God is gone up
William McKIE We wait for Thy loving
kindness
Charles WOOD Expectans expectavi
John IRELAND Greater love
Charles Villiers STANFORD Coelos
ascendit
Henry Balfour GARDINER Evening
Hymn
Choir of Clare College,
Cambridge/Timothy Brown
Regis RRC 1040 DDD
[76:45]
Around £6 from your dealer
This interesting collection of British choral music mixes the familiar with
the unfamiliar, the inspired with the mainstream. Several of the composers
represented can be classed as significant figures in the revival of the British
choral tradition during the early years of the twentieth century and there
are indeed some real gems of the period on display. By contrast there are
anthems which whilst perfectly competent in their compositional execution,
have little to offer in terms of originality.
The most substantial work is Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb, completed
in 1943 as a commission for William Hussey, the vicar of St Matthews in
Northampton as a fiftieth birthday present for the church, which was also
the recording venue for this disc. This is Britten in mystical mood, the
work being cast in ten sections and dealing with the worship of God by all
creation as presented in the poem Jubilate Agno by Christopher Smart.
There is much to enjoy here, the choir demonstrating an ability to sing with
considerable sensitivity when called for. I did feel on several occasions
however (both in Rejoice in the Lamb and elsewhere on the disc) that
they are a little less comfortable in some of the more powerful passages
where there can be a tendency to force the sound of the voices a little too
much.
Of the more familiar works, Britten's Festival Te Deum gets the disc
off to a pleasing start, its lively central section framed by a contemplative
opening, which is mirrored at the end of the work. Tippett's Five Negro
Spirituals, Steal Away, Nobody Knows, Go down Moses,
O by and by and Deep River, are of course extracted from his
oratorio A Child of Our Time. Nobody Knows is particularly
effective with some impressively nimble singing giving the quieter passages
excellent clarity, less successful perhaps in Go down Moses
which for me fails to capture the true character of this particular spiritual.
There are some lovely sounds in Deep River to round the set off. I
have heard more rousing performances of Hubert Parry's famous anthem I
was glad, although the choir are clearly on familiar ground here and
despatch a confident performance.
And so to the aforementioned gems. Herbert Howells' setting of Like as
the hart, is wonderfully haunting and sung with obvious affection and
tenderness by the choir. It is pleasing to see that a considerable quantity
of choral music by Howells has surfaced on disc recently and this exquisite
setting, in which the gentle influence of Vaughan Williams is present in
the background, is surely one of his most sublime inspirations. John Ireland's
Greater love builds to a majestic central climax before subsiding
to a hushed and moving conclusion whilst Finzi's God is gone up, possesses
a sense of joy which the choir clearly relish. A similar sense of unashamed
joyousness is evident in Stanford's brief Coelos ascendit, as is the
very clear influence of the English madrigalists. Walton's Set me as a
seal completes a fine group of works that show the wealth of variety
that was emerging in British music during the first half of the twentieth
century.
It is good to hear the works by Ernest Bullock, William McKie, Charles Wood
and Henry Balfour Gardiner alongside some of their more illustrious colleagues
although ultimately, whilst there is much to enjoy in the performances, it
is clear that they do not stand close comparison with their bedfellows.
At budget price this disc has to be considered an excellent buy in terms
of value for money. Not a disc to listen to all the way through in one sitting
perhaps, but I have enjoyed dipping into it regularly since it came my way.
There are straightforward booklet notes provided by David Doughty although
it is a shame that Regis were not able to reproduce the texts in the booklet.
Still, at around six pounds I guess you can't have everything!
Christopher Thomas
