Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2023 i Choir & Organ

There is a certain irony in the fact that at the very moment the April issue of Choir & Organ – which included David Hill’s interview with Sofi Jeannin – was in the process of being printed, the BBC announced the disbanding of the BBC Singers. The widespread outrage that greeted this bombshell (see News, p.6) must surely have played a significant part in persuading the national broadcaster to think again and enter discussions with the Musicians’ Union about possible alternative funding models that would avert the necessity of closing the UK’s only full-time professional chamber choir. The danger is not yet past, but at least there may be some signs of hope. In the meantime, I was in Paris for one of two 30th anniversary concerts by the French…

On 25 May, David Hill conducts The Bach Choir and Philharmonia Orchestra in the London premiere of Gabriel Jackson’s major choral work The World Imagined in the Royal Festival Hall. The 43-minute work, commissioned for the Three Choirs Festival 2021, explores the place of man in the universe, and the presence of the divine in everything around us. Texts are drawn from diverse sources ranging from an early Latin hymn to contemporary poems. Tickets from bit.ly/3ZVKWGg; see also Encounters, p. 66, and Readers’ Offers, p.29. Royal College of Organists events in May include a performance class led by James Lloyd Thomas on the 8 Short Preludes and Fugues (attributed to J.S. Bach) (11am-2pm, St Matthew’s, Westminster); a study trip to Lübeck, Hamburg and Stade (22-24 May); and a series of…

VISION.BACH – Understanding life with Bach is the title of the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart’s major cantata project. From 14 May 2023 to 31 May 2024 the Gaechinger Cantorey, conducted by Hans-Christoph Rademann, performs the first Leipzig cycle of cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach, in their entirety and in their original order, exactly 300 years after their composition. The 60 cantatas will be heard in 23 concerts with outstanding soloists, in churches and concert halls in the Stuttgart region and at leading festivals. The music will be framed by talks or lectures in which public figures will reflect on the cantata texts and their relevance today. Recordings of all concerts will be released on the Hänssler Classic label. bachakademie.de Events organised by abcd include a one-day Repertoire Roadshow (20 May, central…

‘St John’s has retained its singular ability to transport the listener… to know the way to heaven’s door’ – John Scott Some people are moved to binge-watch episodes of Friends, Game of Thrones or the latest police drama. I’ve done one of the preceding three things… But my recent visit to St John’s College, Cambridge impelled me to binge-listen to the college choir’s complete set of Argo recordings – 42 CDs in all (the last one is from ASV) [Decca 4831252]. Listening in chronological order, the whole exercise took me a week, and I’ve rarely had such an absorbing and almost entirely exhilarating extended listen. For good measure, I also listened to conductor George Guest’s Desert Island Discs, recorded in 1976 (bit.ly/42onRhk). Although I’d watched George directing the choir on…

This special issue includes: ■ A 24-page feature about the history of Gramophone and classical recording■ A 44-page special archive section reproducing some of the most fascinating articles from our past century■ Other special centenary articles include our reissues expert Rob Cowan on the importance of listening to historic recordings, and a look at young artists shaping music-making today SAVE 30% ON SUBSCRIPTIONS WITH CODE G100P magsubscriptions.com/G100P +44 (0)1722 716997 subscriptions@markallengroup.com…

Philip Moore: Via Crucis Richard Moore, Guildford Cathedral Convivium Records CR079 [59:11] The inspiration behind Philip Moore’s new Via Crucis is the prayers and reflections of Eric Milner-White, best known for his role in adopting the service of Nine Lessons and Carols as Dean of King’s College, Cambridge. Adding to the long tradition of the Via Dolorosa, with Dupré’s Le chemin de la croix being an obvious comparison, Moore weaves evocative musical reflections based on a suitably meandering eight-note theme until the work culminates in a sublime meditation on the hymn tune ‘Rockingham’. Milner-White’s words are read sensitively by Revd Dr Barry Orford, creating an hour-long journey which ought to interest anyone looking for Holy Week inspiration. The recently spruced-up organ (and acoustics) at Guildford (where the composer was formerly…

Rebecca Tavener rounds up the latest releases One of the major attractions of early music is its power to transport us to a wholly other time and place, especially when a historical event is ‘recreated’. Here’s an extraordinary, largely forgotten slice of history evoked with meticulous musical archaeology by Alexander Lingas: A Byzantine King at King Henry’s Court [Cappella Recordings CR427], an SACD from the ever-impressive Cappella Romana. For their 30th recording a selection of English and Byzantine Christmas music documenting the visit of Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos to the court of King Henry IV of England in 1400, appealing for funding against the Ottoman threat, brings two soundworlds together. The Latin items act like draughts of crisp, cool water between courses of deep-fried Greek protein. These male and female…

The Pursuit of Musick: Musical Life in Original Writings & Art c.1200-1770 Andrew Parrott Taverner via Clink Street, h/b 9781915229533, £65+p&p; p/b 9781915229540, £35+p&p, 506 + xxix pp, illus. Across the land, early music enthusiasts will be greeting this magnificent tome with heartfelt cries of ‘Where have you been all my life?’ The book one has longed for without realising it, opening its pages might provoke an attack of passionate bibliophilia. Andrew Parrott contemplated a compendium of early music writings for many years, amassing a mountain of lore, when he had a lightbulb moment, realising that ‘all narrative text might simply be discarded’; so here we have an astonishing library of six centuries of material straight from the pen of practitioners, organised under three main headings: Music & Society, Music…

Phillip Cooke: Christus Resurgens LFCCM Festival Singers/Batchelor 7 May (tbc), St Pancras Church, London, UK Fazil Say: Concerto for trumpet, organ and string orchestra with percussion [RP] Christian Schmitt (org), Matthias Hofs (tpt), Royal Scottish National Orchestra/Sondergard 8 May, Musikverein, Vienna, AT 10 May, Cankarjev Dom, Ljubljana, SI Howard Shore: Fanfare for Brass and Organ [RP] Karol Mossakowski (org), Orch. Phil. de Radio France/Wicki 12 May, Maison de la Radio et de la Musique, Paris, FR Christian Mason: The Singing Tree Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, Finchley Children’s Music Group/Wendeberg 12 May, Birmingham Town Hall, UK James MacMillan: Symphony no.5: ‘Le grand inconnu’ [RP] Netherlands Radio Phil. Orch. & Choir/MacMillan 13 May, Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, NL Eric Whitacre: Deep Field [RP] Chœur de l’Armée française, Orchestre Symphonique de la Garde Républicaine/Leguay 13 May,…

CD PHILIP MOORE: VIA CRUCIS Richard Moore, Guildford Cathedral Convivium Records CR079 Philip Moore’s meditation for organ and narrator, composed during the time of Covid, has already established itself within Holy Week liturgies. The organ writing is ‘elegant and idiomatic, unfailingly pertinent and expressive’ (see review, September 2021 issue), and on this premiere recording it is ‘expertly performed’ by Guildford Cathedral’s outgoing organist Richard Moore (see review, p.59) Courtesy of Convivium Records, we have 3 copies to give away; quote code ‘MOORE’. BOOK THE PURSUIT OF MUSICK Andrew Parrott Taverner via Clink Street h/b 9781915229533, 506 + xxix pp, illus. [RRP £65+p&p] ‘The book one has longed for without realising it’ (see review, p.64) For 50 years, Andrew Parrott and the Taverner Consort and Players have been researching early music…

Michael Haydn: Kaiser Constantin I. Feldzug und Sieg Emöke Baráth (s), Klára Kolonits (s), Theodora Raftis (s), Chantal Santon Jeffery (s), Katalin Szutrély (s), Purcell Choir, Orfeo Orchestra / György Vashegyi (dir) Accent ACC 26504 (2CDs) [50:54; 40:45] Long thought to have been lost, Michael Haydn’s 1769 oratorio Emperor Constantine I: Campaign and Victory was rediscovered only recently in the Esterházy Archives in Budapest. It is here given its world premiere recording from Hungary’s leading period-performance choir and orchestra under their founder, György Vashegyi. This attractive oratorio relates the story of the Roman Emperor Constantine I who, on receiving a heavenly sign at a battle in 312AD, was victorious and subsequently converted to Christianity in gratitude. The oratorio was written for Lent and premiered in 1769 in Salzburg, where there…

With Choir & Organ’s complete digital archive, you can search and explore more than 190 issues dating back to our very first edition in 1993. Upgrade your subscription to access: • Every page of every issue ever published, from beautifully illustrated features on newly built and restored organs to profiles of composers, and pioneering and well established choirs and their conductors• Our powerful search tool, making it easy to delve into features and reviews on your favourite music• New issues available to read on your phone, computer or digital devices Subscribe to our ‘digital’ or ‘print & digital’ packages today magsubscriptions.com/music-choir-organ +44 (0)1722 716997 subscriptions@markallengroup.com…

The US organist and composer Daniel Chorzempa died on 25 Mar at the age of 78. Chorzempa studied music and architecture at the University of Minnesota, then continued his music studies in Cologne. Originally making his name as a pianist, he then turned his focus to the organ. He gave recitals at London’s Royal Festival Hall in 1976 and 2004. Richard Moore moves to be sub-organist at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford after Easter 2023, succeeding Benjamin Sheen, who has moved to be director of music at Jesus College, Cambridge. Moore’s successor at Guildford Cathedral will be Asher Oliver. In its tenth anniversary year, London’s LGBTQ+ chamber choir The Fourth Choir has appointed Jamie Powe as its new music director as from Sep 2023. Paul Cutts has been appointed CEO of…

THE JOHN HILL-CATHERINE ENNIS ORGAN SERIES returns in May to two churches in London’s Mayfair district. On Tuesday lunchtimes throughout May, five talented young organists will give recitals at either St George’s, Hanover Square (SGHS) or Grosvenor Chapel (GC). The performers are: Kyoko Canaway, assistant organist at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, and one of the organists participating in the Orgelbuchlein Project (2 May, SGHS); Laura Schlappa, first prize winner in the London Organ Competition (2019), the Northern Ireland International Organ Competition Senior category (2020), the 8th Concours International d’Orgue Dudelange in Luxemburg (2021), and the 21st International Petr Eben Competition (2022) (9 May, SGHS); Charles Francis, winner of both the IAO/RCO Organ Playing Competition (2022) and the Dame Gillian Weir Messiaen Competition (2019) (16 May, GC); Charles Maxtone-Smith, organ…

It is surely apt in 2023 to speak of Organ Reform no longer as a movement or an event but rather as a process of perpetual evolution. The early reformists railed against anything smelling of indulgence while embracing a set of dogmas which, in truth, were as anti-historical as the excesses they were railing against. The second generation embraced historic, mostly northern European models in parallel with the developing performance practice movement. The third embraced more diverse exemplars both geographically and chronologically, ultimately including the best of those organs the early reformists reviled. Today, the notion of what constitutes a ‘good’ organ is firmly pluralistic; the most important thing about style is surely to have one in the first place. But the fascination with organs built before the industrial revolution…

Belgian Symphonic Organ Peter Van de Velde, Stevens organ (1909), St Michael’s Church, Antwerp Aeolus AE-11351 [71:09] Peter Van de Velde, organist of Antwerp Cathedral, continues his excellent advocacy for the Romantic and symphonic organ music of Belgium on this typically elegantly presented release from Aeolus. I doubt many readers will ever have encountered much of Van de Velde’s programme, which opens with Camille Jacquemin’s Symphonie pour Grand Orgue, dedicated to his teacher Vierne and making obvious reference to the latter’s second symphony at its opening. Perhaps the most interesting work is the tone poem In Memoriam Regis (in memory of King Albert I of Belgium, following his sudden death in 1934) by Joseph Jongen’s younger brother Léon. Brooding, original and more than a little impressionistic, it surely deserves to…

Requiem (Mozart, Salieri) Valentina Nafornita (s), Ambroisine Bré (m-s), Robin Tritschler (t), Andreas Wolf (b-bar), Le Concert Spirituel / Hervé Niquet (dir) Château de Versailles CVS078 [68:53] Hervé Niquet’s aim with his virtuoso ensemble is to take repertoire that has become familiar in the concert hall back to the church, in this case performing these two closely related works, written in 1791 and 1804 respectively, in the Chapel Royal at Versailles and setting them in context with informative essays by Laurent Brunner and Thomas Tacquet. The performances are terrific; the quartet of solo voices is perfectly balanced, handovers between them and the chorus are seamless, and every instrumental solo is delicately crafted. While Niquet’s fresh approach to the Mozart (particularly in the Introitus) results in a recording that would enhance…

The Oxford Book of Choral Music by Black Composers Compiled and edited by Marques L.A. Garrett 35 pieces for SATB acc. (pno or org) and unacc. Oxford University Press ISBN 9780193561007, £20.95 This publication was initiated by the research of conductor, educator and composer Marques L.A. Garrett into the ‘original, non-idiomatic choral music of Black composers’. Garrett says that ‘through publishing this anthology … we are raising the profile of composers who have added great value to the choral repertoire but who have previously been and continue to be underrepresented.’ The introduction explains how, despite trailblazers such as Harry T. Burleigh, William Grant Still and Florence Price, ‘the music of Black composers too often existed in the shadows of that of their non-Black counterparts and of the idiomatic genres –…