Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2022 i Choir & Organ

Mad dogs and Englishmen (and -women) … throng the streets of Oxford in their tens of thousands at the crack of dawn on 1_May. The starting point is the clock of Magdalen College striking 6am, followed by the College Choir singing from the top of Magdalen Tower. This year Mark Williams, the College’s Informator Choristarum and Organist, led the choir through the traditional five-verse thanksgiving, Hymnus Eucharisticus, written by the 17th-century Oxford Doctor of Music Benjamin Rogers. As is customary, it was followed by the Morley’s madrigal Now is the month of Maying; then came The Lark in the Clear Air and Stanford’s The Blue Bird. After that, the crowds drifted back towards the city centre, cheered by jazz bands and groups of morris dancers. An atmosphere of jollity apparently…

NASA/BILL INGALLS CONCERTS TO CELEBRATE THE PLATINUM JUBILEE of HM The Queen have been planned nationwide. Although musical events have been scheduled since the 6 February accession date, most are timed to coincide with the culmination of the celebrations, the four-day UK bank holiday weekend 2-5 June, and the Queen’s Official Birthday on 11 June. The Royal School of Church Music, of which the Queen is Royal Patron, has launched the Platinum Project, encouraging all choirs, whether school, community or cathedral, to perform a specially commissioned four-minute anthem by Thomas Hewitt-Jones, In Our Service, over the Jubilee bank holiday weekend. A new song for the Commonwealth – A life lived with grace by Nigerian composer Vincent Atueyi Chinemelu – has been commissioned to be sung by choirs in all 54…

MATTHEW O’DONOVAN, COURTESY DAVID GOODE This sonata is a fascinating example of a genre that was widely cultivated in the romantic period in Germany. Mendelssohn’s organ sonatas were put together, almost as suites of movements, in the mid-1840s. They probably arose out of his trips to England: he travelled here several times, and his London organ performances were noteworthy events, even though he was a late starter as an organist. So in performance we bear in mind the still rather limited English organs of the time, as well as remembering that Mendelssohn was familiar with marvellous organs by Silbermann and others in Germany. (To investigate the issues surrounding this repertoire further, see Graham Barber’s article on German romantic organ music in the Cambridge Companion to the Organ, eds. Thistlethwaite and…

Handel’s Eight Great Harpsichord Suites Bridget Cunningham, harpsichord by Andrew Wooderson after Ruckers Signum Classics SIGCD 679 (2CDs) [154:10] Handel’s Suites de pièces pour le clavecin (London, 1720) contains an imaginative mix of genres – improvised (French) preludes, overture, standard dances, passacaille, Italian andantes and allegros, decorated arias and variations – making the set one of the most cosmopolitan from the period. Bridget Cunningham has added Handel’s arrangements of two opera overtures (Muzio Scevola and Riccardo Primo) and four operatic arias, concluding with the massive Chaconne in G major. Cunningham is best in the allegro and andante movements. There is scope for more improvisatory imagination in the preludes, and more rhythmic excitement in the overtures, but this is a worthy project. DAVID PONSFORD Nicolaus Bruhns: Cantatas and Organ Works vol.1…

ASSOCIATES American Guild of Organists American Institute of Organbuilders Association of Canadian Choral Conductors Chorus America Cornell University International Society of Organbuilders Leicester Chorale Mount Royal University Oberlin College Conservatory Thornton School of Music USC To find out more about becoming a Partner or Associate, email choirandorgan@rhinegold.co.uk…

Correction: In the May 2022 issue, Jeremy Summerly’s review of Handel’s Brockes-Passion gave incorrect catalogue details. The score is published by Bärenreiter and the catalogue number is BA 11311-90; full details can be found at bit.ly/3EDsFUG. We apologise for the error. Westminster Abbey has announced that James O’Donnell, Organist and Master of the Choristers, is to leave at Christmas 2022 to take up a post as Professor at Yale School of Music and Yale Institute of Sacred Music. The BBC Singers have announced the following appointments: Owain Park as principal guest conductor; Roderick Williams OBE as composer-in-association; and Anna Lapwood and Abel Selaocoe as artists-in-association. Chief conductor Sofi Jeannin has extended her contract until the end of the 2025-26 season. The IFCM International Composition Competition 2022 winners are: World Choral…

ROYAL BIRMINGHAM CONSERVATOIRE AND BIRMINGHAM CITY UNIVERSITY have announced a significant investment in their organ department. This new development will see the Conservatoire’s award-winning building equipped with four new world-class organs. The procurement of three of the four new organs has been made possible by a recent multi-million-pound anonymous donation. William Drake will supply two organs: a moveable early English-Italian baroqueinspired instrument (I/6) which will be tuned to fifth (syntonic comma) meantone temperament; and a second instrument (II/19) specifically for romantic repertoire. These will complement the recently completed German baroque-style Wolfson organ (II/18) built by Flentrop and housed in the Organ Studio (see cover feature, January/February 2022 issue); the £550,000 instrument was fully funded by the Wolfson Foundation and the George Cadbury Fund. It is closely based on the 1698…

David Hill: What is your favourite beverage? Adrian Partington: During the day I drink endless cups of something called Barley Cup – I have done for years. It’s a bit like coffee but there is no caffeine, which I can’t take. I’m totally addicted to it with a little milk and sugar. It’s really tasty and I thoroughly recommend it. In the evenings it’s Herefordshire pale ale. You can’t beat it: it’s not very strong but has a great flavour. DH: What about favourite food and cuisine? AP: I thought very carefully about this and the answer is that it’s anything with eggs in! Whether it’s egg and chips or an Indian dish with eggs included. In fact, I intend to have scrambled eggs for my lunch today! DH: Can…

CD GUNNAR IDENSTAM AND OLA STINNERBOM: A SAAMI REQUIEM Gunnar Idenstam, Woehl organ, Studio Acusticum, Piteå; Ola Stinnerbom (yoik), Henrietta Wallberg (vocalist), Erik Weissglas (gtrs), Rafael Sida Huizar (perc) Toccata Next TOCN 0017 An ‘inspired’ and diverse range of styles has influenced this major work, on which a Swedish organist has collaborated with a Sámi vocalist to produce a unique composition of ‘hallucinogenic beauty’ (see review, p.66), recorded here in the state-of-the-art concert hall in the north of the country. Courtesy of Toccata Music Group, we have 5 copies to give away; quote code ‘SAAMI’. CD MISSA FESTIVA: CHORAL MUSIC BY FLOR PEETERS Choir of Royal Holloway, Onyx Brass, Matthew Searles & George Nicholls (org) / Rupert Gough (dir) Ad Fontes AF008 While the organ works of Belgian composer Flor…

part 5 Henry Smart (1813-79) Henry Smart died on 6 July 1879. Three weeks later, on the last Sunday of the month, the organists of 15 London churches and no fewer than 89 provincial churches included compositions by Smart in their music lists. There were voluntaries, hymn tunes and chants in all the participating churches; a handful of those with choirs also included anthems and canticle settings. It was a remarkable national tribute to a much-loved and admired musician whose compositions seemed to his contemporaries to encapsulate the progress that organ and choral music had made in the first three decades of Victoria’s reign. In retrospect, this was probably the highpoint of Smart’s reputation. His star faded as later-Victorian church composers such as Stanford and Parry came to the fore,…

Philip Wilby: An English Passion according to Saint Matthew; The Knaresborough Service; God’s Grandeur Mhairi Lawson (s), Helen Charlston (m-s), Thomas Elwin (t), Seán Boylan (bar), Ben McAteer (bar), David Lee (chamb.org), Jack Wilson (org), Belfast Cathedral Choir / Matthew Owens (dir) Resonus RES 10298 [67:44] Philip Wilby is well known in two contrasting spheres: brass bands, and music for the Christian liturgy. Recent examples of the latter concern the present CD, whose chief work is An English Passion according to Saint Matthew (2018), a substantial setting for soloists, chorus and organ. Wilby’s Passion is underpinned by a sequence of Anglican hymns, taken from Vaughan Williams’s English Hymnal (1906). The hymns are to be sung by the congregation; as the composer remarks, they are ‘designed to involve rather than impress’.…

Church music by Karen Marrolli, Robert Fielding, Andrew Millington and Stanford, and Eleanor Daley’s Yeats setting Karen Marrolli’s We Walk By Faith can be obtained in various different versions – as a solo song, as a duet, and in the arrangement I recently received for SAB and piano (SAB & pno; MorningStar Music MSM-50-6213, US$2.25). It is essentially a four-verse treatment of her melody for an unaffected text by Henry Alford. This piece may well be the simplest I have ever reviewed in these pages, but its very naivety brings with it an affecting sincerity. The piano part is technically unchallenging, and the vocal lines can be learned in a matter of minutes. I wish this simple statement of faith well on its journey from chapel to chancel. It is…

On 11 Jun, in collaboration with Worcestershire Organists’ Association, Worcester Cathedral marks the 450th anniversary of the birth of its former organist Thomas Tomkins with an organ recital, a lecture by Prof. John Caldwell, a viewing of historical documents in the Cathedral library, and refreshments in Tomkins’s former home on College Green, followed by Evensong sung by the Cathedral Choir featuring Tomkins’s music. The event is free; worcestercathedral.co.uk The Huelgas Ensemble’s second festival, (3-5 Jun, Talant, Burgundy) features medieval and renaissance works by Karel Luython (1557-1620), Robert White and Hildegard von Bingen; works from Cyprus, Naples and Palermo; and a contemporary work, Wolfgang Rihm’s Et Lux for vocal ensemble and string quartet. huelgasensemble.be On 19 Jun, abcd’s ‘The Twelve’ masterclass returns with Neil Ferris leading a day on Elgar’s The…

LIVES CELEBRATED IN MUSIC On 25 June, seven organists come together at the north London church of St John the Evangelist, Duncan Terrace, in a recital to celebrate the life and work of the vibrant and distinctly individual concert organist Jane Parker-Smith, who died suddenly on 24 June 2020. Contributing organist David Gammie writes, ‘The programme of “Romantic and Virtuoso Music” from France and Germany has been specially selected to reflect Jane’s diverse and individual musicality, with showpieces from her recent concert and recorded repertoire (Willscher, Demessieux and Cochereau), popular works by Vierne and Duruflé, and a piece by her teacher Jean Langlais. The centrepiece will be Jean Guillou’s spectacular transcription of the great symphonic poem Prometheus, celebrating her lifelong devotion to the music of Franz Liszt.’ A wine reception…

©THOMAS ZIEGLER Fathers can be so misguided. Dr Georg Händel was 63 years old when his son George Frideric was born in the German city of Halle in February 1685. As the boy grew, his father told him he was destined for a career in the law, so he should forget all about his early interest in music. Instruments were banned from the house. And yet – the story goes – the enterprising young Handel (to use the spelling he adopted later in England) smuggled a clavichord into the attic, where his talent could flourish in secret. Strong-willed young George was told to stay at home when his father went to visit a local duke, to whom he was court surgeon, but the boy – eager to see his halfbrother…

ROB SHIRET You’re never really done with an organ project. The only hangover from the otherwise hugely successful translation of the 1977 Peter Collins organ from the Turner Sims Concert Hall in Southampton to Orford Church was that the three tremulants could not be persuaded to work properly. Our builders, Cousans Organs, suggested that as the original manufacturers, Laukhuff, had gone out of business, it might be wise to invest in new units of a reliable design. So the fundraising began again, fortunately for a sum within considerably easier reach than the overall restoration cost. A welcome grant from the Golsoncott Trust and contributions from four private donors brought us to the target, and the organ now has three excellent tremulants, made by POM in Hungary. We have also taken…

MLGO / PIERRE DUBOIS EDINBURGH FESTIVAL CHORUS / © GAELLE BERI HARRY CHRISTOPHERS / © MARCO BORGGREVE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL CHORUS For more than 50 years, singers from across Scotland have come together to perform at the capital’s international event. NOTRE-DAME DE PARIS Manufacture Languedocienne de Grandes Orgues is one of three builders restoring the organ damaged by the 2019 fire. HARRY CHRISTOPHERS The Sixteen’s founder-director shares his experiences and reflections with David Hill. FATHERS OF THE VICTORIANS Nicholas Thistlethwaite concludes his historical survey with Dr Edward J. Hopkins, one-time organist at Temple Church. THOMAS TOMKINS AT 450 The life and work of the prolific composer who wrote coronation music for King Charles I and a Sad Pavan after his execution. Plus… News and previews, reviews, readers’ offers, new releases, and…

Rating: Highly recommended Very good Good Average Poor MASAAKI SUZUKI / © MARCO BORGREVE CHAPEL AT VERSAILLES / © KRISTOF DEGREEF GAECHINGER CANTOREY / ROBERTO BULGRIN ANDREAS GILGER / BEN GLAUSS KAREN MARROLLI / COURTESY KAREN MARROLLI THIS ISSUE’S REVIEWERS Early Music Editor Rebecca Tavener Organ Music Editor Stephen Farr Choral Music Editors Joy Hill Jeremy Jackman Jeremy Summerly Chris Bragg Rupert Gough Brian Morton Anne Page David Ponsford Michael Quinn Philip Reed Clare Stevens…

Rebecca Tavener rounds up the latest releases If the past couple of years have made you yearn even more than usual for sunny southern Europe and blue Mediterranean seas, here are five recordings of music, mostly little known and in world premiere recordings, to feed that longing, beginning with an Italian composer who worked in Teramo and Rome (for Pope John XXIII), whose complete works can now be found on four CDs from the highly accomplished vocal and instrumental ensemble La Fonte Musica. Enigma Fortuna – Zacara da Teramo [Alpha 640] consists of sacred music, sacred parodies and their secular models, including two discs of purely secular music, and these vocal and instrumental performers are equally at home with all styles. Born in the early 1360s, Zacara became a master…

Gail Randall: Paean Encore Publications, £6.95 Richard Elfyn Jones: Toccata Festiva on ‘Hark, the herald-angels sing’ Encore Publications, £6.95 Margaretha Christina de Jong: Fantasia on ‘All people that on earth do dwell’ Bärenreiter BA11264, £17.00 Andreas Rockstroh (ed.): Festive Romantic Organ Music Bärenreiter BA11260, £21.00 Two festively inclined pieces open proceedings. Gail Randall’s Paean is cast initially in an energetic 5/8 metre, and at its opening is mainly occupied with the possibilities afforded by the Mixolydian scale based on C. Things take a different turn both metrically and harmonically as the work progresses, with a quiet central section providing an effective foil to the exuberance of the rest. As the publisher’s note suggests, it will make an effective festive voluntary. Much of it is not too tricky, but there are…