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: AmazonUK AmazonUS

And So It Goes
Welsh Traditional arr. HOLST (1874-1934)
My sweetheart’s like Venus [2.02]
TALLIS (c1505-1585)
If ye love me [2.14]
STANFORD (1852-1924)
The Bluebird
Billy MAYERL (1902-1959) arr. Chilcott
and so it goes
[2.59]
BRUCKNER (1824-1896)
Os Justi [4.59]
Spiritual arr. Alan Woods
Listen to de lambs [2.44]
Billy JOEL (b. 1949) arr. Philip Lawson
Lullaby [3.56]
BYRD (1543-1623)
Ave verum Corpus [4.13]
Robert Lucas DE PEARSALL (1795-1856)
Lay a garland [2.50]
Paul McCARTNEY (b. 1942) arr. Daryl Runswick
Blackbird [2.31]
Jerome KERN (1885-1945) arr. Alan Summers
The way you look tonight [2.11]
John TAVENER (b. 1944)
The Lamb [3.41]
SULLIVAN (1842-1900)
The Long day Closes [3.46]
Barry MANILOW arr. Stephanie Benavente
One voice [2.34]
Priory Singers/Stephen Benavente
rec. St. John the Baptist Church, Newport, Gwent, 27 February 2010.
PRIORY SINGERS PS001 [44.02]

Experience Classicsonline



The Priory Singers celebrated the tenth anniversary of their first rehearsal in late 2009 and recorded this disc in 2010 as part of their celebrations. It includes pieces, so their ‘blurb’ says in the rather slim booklet, that are typical of their repertoire and of their concerts. The booklet does not make clear where they are based. However the recording was made in Newport and anyway their very good website tells us that they are based in South Wales. Their membership is a mixture of professional, semi-professional and amateur singers. The repertoire ranges from Tudor anthems to contemporary arrangements and this cross-section is represented on this CD.

As can seen from the heading we move rapidly around from Byrd and Sullivan to Negro spirituals and tasteful arrangements of recent popular music. It’s the sort of varied repertoire that keeps a choir interested and on their toes. Each style or type of piece needs a differing approach either in technique or in vocal colouring.

On the plus side I should say immediately that if this choir came to my town I would go to hear them. They have a fresh enthusiasm which is infectious and an evening in their presence would give much pleasure. In addition the CD has many good things about it. For example the arrangements of the popular songs, those by Paul McCartney, Billy Joel and Barry Manilow. Manilow’s song ends the CD with a burst of power and joy. Stephanie Benavente’s skilful arrangement seems to be very much in the choir’s bloodstream. They seem well suited to and most comfortable in these arrangements. Incidentally three members of Benavente family are listed: there’s also a lovely soloist, Genevieve Benavente. In fact each of the soloists and there are six listed, has good diction, and clear attractive voices. Although there are occasional moments of wobbly intonation in the choir they are almost unnoticeable.

There are several things about the presentation of this CD which need to be commented upon for the benefit of potential purchasers. It is to be hoped that these things can be taken on board for future CDs that the Priory Singers might produce. The double page insert contains two attractive black and white photos of the choir and something of their history but although it was probably too much to expect texts to be reproduced there are no comments at all about the individual pieces nor any account of how they came to be chosen. Secondly the repertoire is fairly standard stuff and as the longest piece is just less than five minutes (the negro spiritual) there is no single work which really shows the choir off. The recording weighs in at less than 45 minutes which nowadays is unusually short-winded. Surely a more demanding, longer and more complex piece, perhaps something renaissance, could have been accommodated so that the choir’s full potential might have been more fully demonstrated. Curiously, as there is so much spare CD space it is surprising that there is very little time between the tracks. For example the Bruckner runs almost imperceptibly into the spiritual.

With such a wide repertoire clear characterisation of each style and work is important. I have already mentioned how the popular arrangements generally come off well,. However more distinction of character is needed elsewhere. As one moves between Byrd, Pearsall and Jerome Kern there is a danger that everything comes out sounding the same.

The recording has a keen sparkle and clarity. This enables the words to shine out. The stereo spacing is clear and well focused. For some tastes the slight emphasis towards the upper voices might mean that the treble of the amplifier needs to be turned down a little more than usual.

Nevertheless, despite these cavils there is much here to enjoy and much latent virtue in the choir. Let’s hope that they are able to follow up this recording and continue to work and develop as a successful unit in the years ahead.

I completed this review on St. David’s Day 2011.

Gary Higginson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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.