William BYRD (c.1540-1623)
The Great Service (ed. James Wrightson) [30:16]
Second Preces and Psalms: Psalm XXIV. ‘Lift Up Your Heads’ [5:06]
First Preces [1:15]
Psalm XLVII. ‘O Clap Your Hands’ [3:13]
The Great Service [13:59]
Preces and Responses [5:38]
O Lord, make thy servant Elizabeth [2:43]
Sing joyfully [2:46]
Richard Farnes (organ)
Choir of King’s College Cambridge/Stephen Cleobury
rec. 13-14 December 1985, King's College Chapel, Cambridge
First released as CDC747771-2.
Texts not included.
WARNER CLASSICS 9029532656
[64:56]
Released as an inexpensive download at the end of October 2019, to
commemorate Stephen Cleobury’s retirement as director of King’s College
Choir, this now joins the college’s own label’s releases of Evensong 2019 (KGS0038 –
review)
and the 2018 Lessons and Carols (KGS0036: Recommended –
review)
as his epitaph. It comes without a booklet, but the texts of the Book of
Common Prayer Mattins and Evensong are not hard to come by, and the price
is certainly attractive (target price for lossless sound £6, for mp3 £4).
NB: the purchase links are to downloads.
The original release, in June 1987, coincided with Gimell’s of The Tallis
Scholars in the Great Service and Anthems (CDGIM011, now most economically
obtained on 2-for-1 Tallis Scholars sing William Byrd, CDGIM208).
Much as I love the Scholars’ Tallis and certainly would not wish to be
without their recording –
Tallis Scholars at 30
– it’s with a Hyperion recording of The Great Service from Westminster
Abbey that this King’s recording should be compared: both have boys’ voices
on the top line, which Byrd would have expected.
Though we can’t be sure in the case of his Latin music, which had to be
sung hugger-mugger, with whatever singers could be obtained at his Essex
hide-out, boys would have been de rigueur in Elizabeth’s Chapel
Royal, where the music was almost certainly sung. We can be less sure of
the date; the music was not published in Byrd’s lifetime, so anything from
the 1580s to the 1610s has been postulated. Nor is it possible to be
dogmatic about the use of the organ in this music: King’s and Westminster
employ it, The Tallis Scholars don’t. In any case, Richard Farnes’ organ is
not intrusive on the Cleobury recording. Cornets and sackbuts on a Chandos
recording definitely are intrusive and I liked this rather less than my
colleague, despite its attempt to place the music in liturgical context in
the Chapel Royal (CHAN0789 –
review
–
DL Roundup May 2012/2).
Em Marshall thought the Westminster Abbey recording, directed by James
O’Donnell, second only to the King’s (CDA67533 –
review). It’s a very close call for me, even ignoring some fine recordings by
mixed choirs, including another Hyperion album from the Cardinall’s Musick
(CDA67937 –
DL Roundup 2012/19)
and a recent Linn release from the Odyssean Ensemble (CKD608 –
Spring 2019/1).
There are not many other recordings with boys’ voices that merit
consideration, but King’s earlier (1960) offering from the days of David
Willcocks is more than a historical curiosity (evening canticles: Alto
ALC1182, budget price, with Gibbons, or Decca 4789524, with 5-part Mass,
download only, no booklet). An older recording of the evening canticles,
from Jesus College, Cambridge, the provenance of which I am uncertain of,
is surprisingly good. It comes as part of a very inexpensive four-hour
collection entitled The Rise of English Music, which also includes
the same Byrd canticles from Hereford Cathedral, also worth hearing. With
lots of Byrd, Tallis, Morley and Gibbons, this would make a very good
starter for anyone just becoming interested in the music of this period. The
Musical Concepts download from
Qobuz
costs £6.39. They also offer a similar, shorter (2-hour) collection The Rise of English Polyphony.
If you have the Tallis Scholars’ recording in one of its Gimell
manifestations – well worth obtaining for the recordings of the three
Masses on CD1 – you may wish to consider either the Westminster (Hyperion)
or the reissued King’s/Cleobury recording as an example of a different way
with Byrd’s music. If you don’t have a recording of the Great Service –
music in its own kind as valuable as his better-known Latin works – my
first recommendation now becomes the download of the Cleobury. If you are
not yet ‘into’ downloading, screw your courage to the sticking place and go
for this reissue. And don’t forget that once you’ve mastered downloading,
both of the Hyperion recordings and the Gimell can be downloaded from the
Hyperion website, with booklet, for less than the physical product – and
with the option of superior 24-bit sound for the Cardinall’s Musick.
(CDA67533, Westminster Abbey – here;
CDA67937, Cardinall’s Musick – here;
CDGIM208, Tallis scholars – here).
Lovers of Byrd should have at least one recording of the Great Service –
and the one that I now expect to return to most in future is this Cleobury
reissue. With the two King’s own-label recordings recently released, it
makes a very fine tribute to his memory.
Brian Wilson
