Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2022 i Choir & Organ

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2022 NYCGB ANNOUNCES YOUNG COMPOSERS THE NATIONAL YOUTH CHOIRS OF GREAT BRITAIN (NYCGB) has announced the four emerging composers selected for its 2022 Young Composers scheme. Thomas Metcalf, Ben Nobuto, Sun Keting and Claire Victoria Roberts join the scheme that supports composers in the early stages of their career. Metcalf, who currently teaches for various Oxford colleges and is a published academic, has written for the Kreutzer Quartet, Horizon Voices and Psappha. Nobuto, a British-Japanese composer with a style described as both ‘postmodern’ and ‘utterly contemporary’, has written commissioned works for Manchester Collective, CBSO and the Ligeti Quartet. Keting is a London based Chinese composer and artist. This past year, she has received commissions from the LPO Young Composers 20/21, BBC Radio 3 for the BBC Singers, Psappha 20/21, the…

EVENTS abcd’s Young Conductor Day is on 9 Apr at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, led by Lucy Hollins. Conducting technique and beating patterns, teaching songs, leading rounds, and directing simple songs in a variety of styles and languages. For 18-25s. Conductor fee: £40 (non-members), £30 (members); observer fee: £15; bursary places are available. Contact elisabeth. brierley@abcd.org.uk. bit.ly/3BDbGA9 Organs, organ music and organists will be celebrated around the world on International Organ Day on Saturday 23 Apr. The RCO will premiere a brand-new edition of The Organ Show, the online magazine-style programme featuring a mix of interviews, chat, features and studio guests. bit.ly/3LJD9Fb South African artist William Kentridge presents SIBYL, an evening in two parts at London’s Barbican Theatre on 22-24 Apr comprising The Moment Has Gone – a short film…

READERS’ OFFERS Your chance to WIN CDs and sheet music and SAVE on DVDs CD DOVE + WEIR + MARTIN Choir of Westminster Abbey, Peter Holder (org) /James O’Donnell (dir) Hyperion CDA 68350 ‘A remarkable achievement’ (see review, p.69) Some of these ‘superb’ anthems and service settings by Jonathan Dove, Judith Weir and Matthew Martin were composed specifically for Westminster Abbey, so it is no surprise that they make the most of the building’s architecture and acoustics. Given the polished hands of the Abbey’s musicians and Hyperion’s recording engineer, the result is ‘a truly thrilling recording in every way’. Courtesy of Hyperion Records, we have 5 copies to give away; quote code ‘WESTMINSTER’. DVDS GRAND ORGAN SERIES Priory Records PRDVD 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12,…

BANKS MUSIC PUBLICATIONS Fifty not out Yorkshire – dubbed ‘God’s own country’ by locals – has many claims to fame, among them world-class cricket, opulent castles and stately homes, three national parks, and the splendour of York Minster. To these and many other attributes was added, half a century ago, a small music publisher that has blossomed to be a major supplier of choral and organ music, especially championing home-grown talent. Stephen Pritchard reports. IMAGES COURTESY BANKS MUSIC PUBLICATIONS You’re reading this magazine, so it’s a fair bet you sing in a choir or play the organ (or maybe both). Perhaps you’ve sung Andrew Carter’s delightful arrangement of I Wonder as I Wander, or T. Tertius Noble’s mighty Evening Service in B minor. Maybe you’ve played Francis Jackson’s Prelude on…

ON RELEASE NEW DISCS COMING OUT IN… APRIL 2022 BRITT OLSEN ECKER The music-making at Saint Thomas, Fifth Avenue, New York City, is internationally renowned, its long tradition of excellence being established and upheld by luminaries such as T. Tertius Noble, Gerre Hancock and John Scott. Jeremy Filsell, who succeeded Daniel Hyde in 2019, has now made the first solo recording of the church’s Dobson organ; Opus 93 – with six divisions and 102 stops – was completed in 2018 (see November/December 2018 issue). On Michel Boulnois (1907-2008) Organ Music [Raven OAR-175], Filsell presents the rarely heard organ works of French composer Michel Boulnois. Boulnois was titular organist at Église Saint-Philippe-du-Roule in Paris for 53 years and, together with contemporaries Jehan Alain and Jean-Jacques Grunenwald, was a member of Marcel…

REVIEWS CHORAL SELECTION A French-Canadian folk song, reworking Byrd, two anthems for Easter, and pieces by Malcolm Archer and Fred Gramann CONCERTS • KEYBOARD CDS • CHORAL CDS • DVDS • ORGAN MUSIC • CHORAL MUSIC • BOOKS Easter is just around the corner, so my first piece is probably one for next year. Jeffrey Smith’s arrangement of This Joyful Eastertide [SATB div. & org.; E.C. Schirmer 0031348889, US$2.85] takes the familiar Dutch carol and adds a characterful organ part that puts me a little in mind of a sailor’s hornpipe. At the opening of the final verse the choir becomes two choirs: otherwise the music is adroitly written in four parts, and the whole piece exudes springtime optimism. Sha! Shtil! [TTBB & pno; Oxford University Press 9780193560826, £2.20] is…

EDITOR’S LETTER Boycotting and the arts Many readers will remember that during the 1980s at the height of apartheid there was strong boycott, disinvestment and sanctions action ostracising all things South African. This included sport – hugely important to that country – and culture. Paul Simon notably came under severe criticism for collaborating with African musicians on his Gracelands album during the cultural boycott, and many more musicians woke up to the fact that what had seemed to them a neutral activity was loaded with political significance. So it is today, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the imposition of strict sanctions by many countries in the west. On 27 February Peter Gelb, general manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, made a statement in which he said, ‘While…

IN BRIEF Daragh Black Hynes has won the 2022 Seán Ó Riada Composition Competition at the Cork International Choral Festival. Hynes’s choral work Behind This Light, which was inspired by James Joyce’s Ulysses, will receive its world premiere by Chamber Choir Ireland directed by Paul Hillier at St Fin Barre’s Cathedral in Cork on 29 April. In 2023, the first rounds of the 13th Mikael Tariverdiev International Organ Competition will be held in Hamburg (17-21 April), New Haven, Connecticut (9-12 May), Beijing (22-25 May) and Moscow (28-31 August). Selected contestants will then participate in the second and third rounds in Kaliningrad, 3-9 September, on the Rieger-Kloss organ Opus 3525 (1982) in Phiharmonic Society Concert Hall and the Schuke organ (2008) in the city’s cathedral. Martin Jean heads the jury. Bryce…

NEWS & PREVIEWS CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED FOR ADJUSTABLE BENCHES THE SOCIETY OF WOMEN ORGANISTS (SWO) has launched the Adjustable Bench Campaign (ABC) in a quest for height adjustable organ benches being made available for every organ in a public venue. Most organ benches are fixed at a height to suit the average male who, in the UK, stands at 5’9”. As the average height for UK women is 5’3”, many struggle to reach the pedals comfortably. This is also the case for younger players. A recent survey that elicited 486 responses from both men and women organists revealed that two-thirds of respondents did not have access to an adjustable bench at their regular practice venue. Almost half have had a performance compromised by the absence of an adjustable bench. One respondent…

NEWS & PREVIEWS INA BOYLE WORK PREMIERED 97 YEARS ON INA BOYLE SOCIETY THE PREMIERE OF A WORK by a pupil of Vaughan Williams is to be given at the Ludlow English Song Weekend. Ina Boyle’s Cædmon’s Hymn will be performed by the Carice Singers, directed by George Parris on 9 April. Boyle (1889-1967) is one of Ireland’s most prolific and significant female composers; interest in her music has been growing recently as the 150th anniversary of RVW approaches. With many still lying in manuscript in the Library of Trinity College Dublin, Boyle’s choral works remain underperformed. Even those that are published – such as the substantial sequence, Gaelic Hymns, and The Transfiguration – are still infrequently programmed. With the permission of Boyle’s cousin Katie Rowan, Parris unearthed and edited…

Fathers of the Victorians Nicholas Thistlethwaite continues his study of formative contributors to the Victorian era in the fields of church music and organ building part 3 Henry John Gauntlett (1805-76) COURTESY ROYAL COLLEGE OF ORGANISTS When Henry John Gauntlett died in 1876, a writer in The Musical Times observed that ‘Few, if any musicians have done so much for Church music in this country as he whose decease we are now recording’.1 Today, that tribute might strike us as excessive. Certainly Gauntlett’s fame is assured by his setting of ‘Once in royal David’s city’ (Irby), heard by millions around the world every Christmas Eve, and also by a number of other hymn tunes that have earned a permanent place in the repertoire of Anglican hymnody, but in other respects…

Fisk Expertise. Artistry. Commitment. +1 978283-1909 www.cbfisk.com “BEAUTY IS ONE OF GOD’S ATTRIBUTES. For the sacred musician, the expression of beauty forms a thin place, a mystical space where the veil between the holy and the human is traversed. Music knits together the physical and the spiritual worlds so we can transcend the ordinary for a glimpse of the infinite. Music speaks when words cannot. EMMANUEL EPISCOPAL CHURCH SOUTHERN PINES, NORTH CAROLINA OPUS 145 • 2015 As an organist, I am drawn to beauty and create beauty through institutional instruments. Pipe organs build community. The music expressed through them is used to lift voices in song, heal the brokenhearted, soothe the suffering, excite the mind, delight the soul, and inspire the heart. Creativity is an inherent human trait. Every artist…

NEWS & PREVIEWS NIIOC CELEBATES 10 YEARS THE NORTHERN IRELAND INTERNATIONAL ORGAN COMPETITION (NIIOC) will celebrate its tenth birthday with a range of events. Following prize performances in venues including Westminster Abbey, Saint Thomas Fifth Avenue and Stockholm Cathedral, NIIOC’s first ten senior winners will unite in this anniversary year to perform joint gala recitals in Southwark Cathedral (28 March, 7.30pm) and Belfast Cathedral (6 April, 7.30pm). In addition, simultaneous lunchtime recitals will take place in each of the six counties of Northern Ireland on 5 April (1.15pm). And in a solo recital in Southwark Cathedral (28 March, 1.15pm), 2013 winner Richard Gowers gives the premiere of Where the Birds Sing, a new organ work by British composer Grace-Evangeline Mason, specially composed for NIIOC and the Commission for Victims and…

NEWS & PREVIEWS PAST LIVES WOLFGANG JUD The composer, conductor and teacher, Joseph Horovitz, has died aged 95. Horovitz was born in Vienna and immigrated to England in 1938. He studied music at Oxford, with Gordon Jacob at the Royal College of Music (RCM), and then for a year with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. A 70-year career in composition includes ballets, concertos – including a much-loved Jazz Concerto – chamber music, works for brass and wind bands, and choral works. He may be best known for his contribution to the seminal series of pop cantatas commissioned by Novello. Captain Noah and His Floating Zoo, a collaboration between Michael Flanders and Horovitz, received the 1976 PRS Ivor Novello Award for the best British work for children. Both authors insisted that this…

PREMIERES [RP = REGIONAL PREMIERE] Grace-Evangeline Mason: Where the Birds Sing Richard Gowers (org) 28 Mar, Southwark Cathedral, London, UK Sarah Quartel: Down the silver road Nazareth College Chamber Singers/Stevens 2 Apr, Nazareth College, Rochester, NY, USA Paul Spicer: Sound the Invisible Trumps Birmingham Bach Choir/Spicer 2 Apr, St Philip’s Cathedral, Birmingham, UK Alison Willis: Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum Luminosa/Abbott 2 Apr, All Saints’ Church, Odiham, UK NYCGB & The Swingles: Until It’s Gone National Youth Choir of Great Britain, The Swingles/Parry 7 Apr, The Fireworks Factory, Woolwich, London, UK Melissa Dunphy: Eight of Swords National Concert Chorus/Wondemagegnehu, Redding 9 Apr, Carnegie Hall, New York, US Ivan Božič ević:: Rivers of Eden Ian Shaw: Solomon and the Gnat Anne Laver and Alex Meszler (org) 10 Apr, Hendricks Chapel, Syracuse University,…

Freestyle BY GRAEME KAY In praise of Liverpool… ROB SHIRET Among the businesses killed off by the pandemic due to the combined effects of the dislocation of supply chains, lockdown affecting retail footfall, and crippling business rates, was the 90-year-old family electrical firm of Andrew Thomson in Dunfermline, Fife. I felt more than the usual pang of remorse at the news because the upper floor of an old Thomson’s store was where I bought my first organ LP: Professor Michael Schneider playing Bach on ‘Schleswig’s Great Cathedral Organ’ [Marble Arch MAL566, released in 1965]. Even then, my nascent sub-editor’s brain was wondering whether it was the cathedral or the organ which was ‘Great’… The second LP I bought there was no.1 in the Great Cathedral Organ Series [HMV CSD1534] –…

REVIEWS EARLY MUSIC Rebecca Tavener rounds up the latest releases CONCERTS • KEYBOARD CDS • CHORAL CDS • DVDS • ORGAN MUSIC • CHORAL MUSIC • BOOKS ‘J.S. Bach would have used an indoor toilet and a piano if he’d had them’ has become a cliché, but what would he think of Wendy Carlos and Jacques Loussier? If music is to stay alive after the composer’s death, is reinvention inevitable and even desirable? How about, ‘Would Josquin have used the ondes Martenot’? What little we know of Josquin’s character suggests that he might not. His 500th anniversary in 2021 inspired some ‘alternative’ approaches, so let’s return to that unanswerable question in a moment. To begin, here’s an uncontroversial interpretation from Metamorphoses in Josquin Desprez Messes Malheur me bat & L’ami…