Hyperion have provided us with an enriching series of recitals
of liturgical music from both Westminster Cathedral and Westminster
Abbey over the last few years. Here is the latest offering from
Britain’s premier Roman Catholic choir.
According to the title of the programme it is a sequence of
music for Lent, taking in two feasts that invariably occur during
that season: St. Joseph (March 19) and The Annunciation (March
25). However, I couldn’t spot any music specifically assigned
to St Joseph’s feast day although the piece by Guerrero
sets an antiphon for the feast of the Birth of St, John the
Baptist (June 24). No matter; the programme is still well constructed
and very satisfying.
Plainchant is at the core of the programme, as we shall see,
but due regard is paid to two of Martin Baker’s distinguished
predecessors as Master of the Music at Westminster Cathedral:
George Malcolm (1947-1959) and Colin Mawby (1961-1976). In addition
there’s a piece by David Bevan who was Mawby’s assistant
between 1972 and 1976. This choir has plainchant as a staple
of its repertoire and the programme includes several examples
of the plainchant Masses that are regularly heard in the cathedral.
There are also some plainchant hymns, of which the Lenten hymn,
Attende, Domine, is a splendid example. Most of the plainchant
is discreetly accompanied, in accordance with normal practice,
by Peter Stevens. Plainchant informs George Malcolm’s
setting of Psalm 51, the Miserere. His piece more than doffs
its cap to Allegri yet I find that Malcolm’s setting is
more imaginative than that of his more celebrated predecessor.
He varies the music in the verses, often only subtly, and provides
further interest by setting individual verses for different
combinations of voices, thereby avoiding the repetitiousness
of Allegri’s setting. David Bevan’s Magnificat,
appropriately preceded and followed by a plainchant antiphon,
is also plainsong-based, as is Malcolm’s equally effective
Nunc dimittis, which is framed by the antiphon for Night Prayer.
I was seriously impressed by Malcolm’s Scapulis suis,
a very fine a cappella setting of words from Psalm 91.
This music is steeped in the choir’s bedrock repertoire
of Renaissance polyphony to which legacy Malcolm adds some well-crafted
twentieth-century twists. Also impressive is Colin Mawby’s
Iustus ut palma, an urgent setting - at least, as performed
here - of words from Psalms 84 and 92. William Gaunt is the
excellent baritone soloist and in this piece the cathedral’s
organ is given a freer rein.
What I called the Westminster choir’s bedrock repertoire
of Renaissance polyphony is well represented too. Byrd’s
magisterial penitential motet Emendemus in melius receives
a sonorous performance. The presentation is a long way from
the intimacy of consort performances but, of course, it’s
entirely appropriate for the large acoustic of Westminster Cathedral
and both approaches are equally valid in my view. The Byrd piece
comes from the Cantiones sacrae (1575) and that’s
also the source for Te lucis ante terminum by Tallis.
Both pieces are extremely well done. The choir proves equally
up to the challenges of the movements from Palestrina’s
Mass Emendemus in melius which is based on a motet with
the same title as Byrd’s though the motet which is the
source for the Mass is unknown.
This is a beautifully performed, discerningly chosen programme
which constitutes a very satisfying sequence. It was, perhaps,
fitting that by sheer chance I did my listening on the two days
preceding Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent but the fine music
included here can be appreciated whatever the time of year.
The choral singing throughout is first class and the recording
team of engineer, David Hinitt and producer, Adrian Peacock
have done their usual excellent job: the choir is very well
recorded and one gets a good sense of the spacious acoustic
of Westminster Cathedral. Excellent notes by Jeremy Summerly
complete the attractiveness of this most desirable disc.
John Quinn
Track listing
Plainsong
Attende, Domine [3:24]
George MALCOLM (1917-1997)
Miserere mei, Deus [8:43]
William BYRD (1539/40-1623)
Emendemus in melius [4:31]
Giovanni Pierluigi da PALESTRINA (1525/6-1594)
Missa Emendemus in melius: Kyrie [2:39]
Missa Emendemus in melius: Agnus Dei [5:05]
George MALCOLM Scapulis
suis [4:11]
Plainsong Audi, benigne conditor [2:39]
Giovanni CROCE (1557-1609)
In spiritu humilitatis [5:35]
Magnificat Antiphon: Evigila super nos [0:46]
David BEVAN (b. 1951)
Magnificat quarti toni [4:45]
Antiphon repeat: Evigila super nos [0:51]
Colin MAWBY (b. 1936)
Iustus ut palma [4:06]
Plainsong
Mass IX ‘Cum iubilo’: Kyrie [2:05]
Gloria [3:21]
George MALCOLM Veritas mea
[3:14]
Plainsong
Credo IV [4:37]
Robert PARSONS (c 1535-1572)
Ave Maria [5:35]
Plainsong
Mass IX ‘Cum iubilo’: Sanctus and Benedictus [1:39]
Agnus Dei [1:31]
Francisco GUERRERO (1528-1599)
Ave virgo sanctissima [4:59]
Thomas TALLIS (c 1505-1585)
Te lucis ante terminum - first setting [2:07]
Nunc dimittis Antiphon: Salva nos, Domine [0:28]
George MALCOLM Nunc dimittis
tertii toni [1:38]
Antiphon repeat: Salva nos, Domine [0:39]
|
Support
us financially by purchasing this disc from:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Choir of Westminster Cathedral/Martin Baker 