The theme of this release
from the enterprising Guild label is
the great climaxes of the Christian
year. These are the three feasts following
Easter: the Ascension (forty days after
Easter), Pentecost or Whitsunday (fifth
day after Easter), and Trinity Sunday
(one week later). Performed by the eminent
Choir of the Queen’s College, Oxford
under the expert direction of Owen Rees,
the Guild label mark these three great
feasts with liturgical choral music
of the late Renaissance and the twentieth
century, together with three organ works
by J. S. Bach. This new Guild release
complements their previous recording
with this choir entitled ‘Christ
Rising’ which presents music from
the same broad territory for the final
days of Holy Week and Easter Day.
This release features
mainly familiar sacred choral music
from four of the greatest figures of
the late Renaissance period: William
Byrd, Tomás Luis de Victoria,
Orlando de Lassus, and Giovanni Pierluigi
da Palestrina together with Byrd’s teacher,
Thomas Tallis, Victoria’s most famous
Spanish predecessor, Francisco Guerrero
and the Portuguese composer Duarte Lobo.
From the twentieth
century come liturgical choral works
from four eminent English composers
Gerald Finzi, Kenneth Leighton, Sir
John Tavener and Jonathan Harvey. The
programme opens with the anthem God
is gone up from London-born Gerald
Finzi, a significant composer who is
now gaining the popularity that his
talents richly deserve.
At the centre of the
programme in Pentecost and the largest-scale
work here, is Come, Holy Ghost
by the progressive and imaginative composer
Jonathan Harvey. Sutton Coldfield born,
Jonathan Harvey's Come Holy Ghost
is an inspired meditation upon the
Pentecost hymn which has been used by
Guild as the title of this release.
Sir John Tavener has steadily gained
popular appeal on a world-wide scale
and the Londoner is represented here
with the world premiere recording
of his Prayer to the Holy Trinity.
The programme concludes with Kenneth
Leighton’s score Let all the world.
The work from the Wakefield-born
composer marks his connection
as a past student of the Queen's College,
Oxford; having studied there with Bernard
Rose.
The mixed voices of
this choir give expressive and finely
shaped accounts of this varied programme
of devotional scores. Owen Rees deserves
considerable praise for his expert direction
of the choir to exemplary and inspiring
heights.
Their extremely convincing
interpretation of Finzi’s God is
gone up which is particularly memorable
and Victoria’s motet Ascendens Christus
together with Palestrina’s Spiritus
sanctus are exceptionally well presented
in vigorous and exhilarating performances.
We are told that Tavener’s Prayer
to the Holy Trinity is receiving
its first recording. The score is ‘typical’
Tavener and the choir’s performance
offers maximum concentration and a successful
blend of vocal security and understated
emotion. Jonathan Harvey’s Come,
Holy Ghost from 1984 is clearly
a major work. I just love the way that
tension is conveyed and how the work
is thrillingly characterised; an atmospheric
and often unnerving score.
It is good to hear
the excellent condition of the 1965
Frobenius organ which has a robust and
most appealing timbre. Organist George
Parsons is an admirable soloist playing
with considerable authority maintaining
high standards of performance. The engineers
have provided a pleasing and well balanced
sound.
No one investing in
this well presented Guild release is
likely to be disappointed.
Michael Cookson
The Choir of the Queen’s College, Oxford/Owen
Rees (director) 