Joh N
Ru TTER
Tewkesbury Abbey
Schola Cantorum
Carleton Etherington
Benjamin Nicholas
the Tewkesbury collection
Joh N RuTTER (b.
1945)
the Tewkesbury collection
Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum
Carleton Etherington organ
Benjamin Nicholas director
Recorded in Tewkesbury Abbey on 14, 15, 16 March, 20 June 2011 and 18 April 2012 by kind permission of the Vicar and Churchwardens
Producer/Engineer: Paul Baxter
24-bit digital editing: Adam Binks
24-bit digital mastering: Paul Baxter
Design: John Christ
Booklet editor: Henry Howard
Cover photography: Sylvain Guenot
Photography: Thousand Word Media
Delphian Records Ltd – Edinburgh – UK www.delphianrecords.co.uk
1 Lord, thou hast been our refuge [11:30] Gavin Wells trumpet
2 Dormi, Jesu [5:18]
3 This is the day [5:04]
4 Carol of the Magi [5:27] Christopher Borrett baritone Juliet Tomlinson cello
5 As the bridegroom to his chosen [4:11] Christopher Monk baritone
6 The Lord is my shepherd [5:09] Alexandra Lowdon oboe
7 Ave Maria [3:22] Salim Jaffar treble
8 The Lord bless you and keep you [2:52]
9 A Prayer of Saint Patrick [1:48]
10 Hymn to the Creator of Light [7:43]
11 Wells Jubilate [5:18]
12 God be in my head [1:49]
13 The Gift of Charity [4:28] Laurence Kilsby treble
14 There is a flower [4:43] Laurence Kilsby treble
15 A Choral Amen [1:22] Total playing time [70:10]
To write programme notes about the music of John Rutter seems contrary to the essential spirit of the composer’s music. The emotional directness, dramatic immediacy and accessible harmonic language that the composer has championed throughout his career have all been intended to break down what Rutter himself has described as the ‘needless barriers between composer and listener ’. To offer an essay of musicological analysis would seem dangerously close to reinstating those, mediating between music and audience in a way that Rutter has rendered unnecessary. These notes, then, should perhaps be treated rather as a series of contexts and observations, from one listener to others.
Composed in 2008, Lord, thou hast been our refuge marvellously shows off the unexpected variety and stylistic range of John Rutter’s writing. While keeping one foot in the diatonic harmonies and chordal textures we associate with the composer, this setting of Psalm 90 colours its narrative with additional shades of harmonic doubt and complexity, glancing not only to the 20 th -century Englishness of Benjamin Britten but also across the Atlantic to Copland and Bernstein. The opening trumpet solo, with its evocative rising fifth, plunges us into the sound-world of warfare: perhaps the threat from which Rutter’s voices seek refuge. But as the anthem progresses the trumpet becomes the voice not only of violence but of
human endurance (in various bluesy inflections) and eventually celebration, triumphant in the closing fanfare. The episodic structure of the work is also unusual for Rutter, acknowledging the verses of the original psalm but in a developmental, through-composed rather than strophic format.
Carols are the heartland of Rutter’s music, as even the most cursory listen to any classical radio station at Christmas-time will testify.
The three featured here (Dormi, Jesu, Carol of the Magi and There is a flower ) have become contemporary classics, each a perfect miniature genre piece. Dormi, Jesu is a cradle song, the rocking arpeggios of its melody cradling the text with infinite gentleness. The sweetness of the text is mirrored in the setting, and only in the closing moments does a bittersweet hint of the pain to come find its way into the harmony.
A psalm-setting with a difference, Rutter’s This is the day brings together verses from five different psalms, in order, as the composer expresses it, to ‘embrace both rejoicing and blessing’. Written for the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, this heartfelt anthem epitomises the role Rutter’s choral music has long played as the public face of Anglican worship. A simple melody grows outwards organically from the opening treble line: innocence flowering into full four-part
affirmation without ever becoming bombastic or grandiose.
The Carol of the Magi opens in the English folk-inspired sound-world of Vaughan Williams and Finzi. A reflective ’cello solo matches the timbre of the male voices that follow, entering with a melody whose exploratory, upwardtending phrases mirror the kings’ own quest. Characteristically diatonic, the carol does occasionally deploy unexpected colours for emphasis: the shock arrival on ‘stable’, and again for ‘diff’rent’.
Among the complexity of so much contemporary choral music Rutter’s work fulfils an invaluable role for amateur singers, using simple textures and techniques to maximum effect. As the bridegroom to his chosen is an example of Rutter at his most approachable. The naivety of the verse is mirrored in the simplicity of the composer’s setting, driven entirely by its melody. Interest here is found in small variations of harmonisation and vocal texture that characterise each verse, as well as expressive details such as the folk twist offered by the rhythmic Scotch snap (‘soldiers’, ‘winter’).
It’s a rhythm that also pulses through Rutter’s setting of Psalm 23, The Lord is my shepherd. Although not originally composed for the purpose, this stand-alone movement forms the emotional core of Rutter’s Requiem (1985),
a moment of meditative affirmation. A solo oboe sets the scene, placing us firmly in the bucolic landscapes of English pastoral. A plaintive, urgent voice, the oboe both comments on the choral sections and engages in dialogue with them. While much of the choir’s music retains a chanted, quasiplainsong element, using unison and repetition to great effect, the oboe is altogether freer, both rhythmically and in its range, weaving and embellishing in increasingly improvisatory fashion around the glowing choral melody.
The lilting 5/8 time signature of Rutter’s Ave Maria paints the Virgin both as girl (in its dancelike sway) but also as mother (the rocking, as of a cradle), and there is a similar duality to the anthem’s musical character. Despite some Victorian touches within melody and harmony, we quickly find ourselves in an altogether denser, more bluesy sound-world than is characteristic of the composer. The repeating rhythm offers an anchor, above which harmony roams freely and increasingly distantly, culminating in the unexpected closing gesture of a solo treble, reaching just that little bit further heavenward. The gesture is made all the more poignant by the work’s personal associations. Written for longstanding and dedicated Cambridge musician Lydia Smallwood, the anthem was first performed privately in her presence just days before her death.
While the Ave Maria may glance obliquely towards the British choral tradition of Wesley, Stanford, and Bairstow, The Lord bless you and keep you pays rather more direct homage to the late Victorian and early 20 th -century choral anthem. One of Rutter’s most memorable melodies takes its character from the burnished warmth of the G flat major key signature, and eventually returns transfigured and delicately reworked as a beautiful polyphonic Amen.
While Rutter is probably most associated with accompanied choral works, the intimacy of his settings (often matched by that of the texts he chooses) lends itself well to a capella music. A Prayer of Saint Patrick is Rutter at his most direct and unfussy: a straightforward musical rendering of a traditional verse, with a syllabic approach that places the words foremost. The imitative melodic phrases reflect the repetitions of the prayer itself.
A rather different approach to unaccompanied choral writing is showcased in Hymn to the Creator of Light, dedicated to the memory of Herbert Howells. Composed for performance in Howells’ own beloved Gloucester Cathedral, it celebrates not only the musical character of Howells himself, but also the distinctively resonant acoustic of the building. Dividing his forces into two choirs, Rutter initially sets them in opposition, generating tension between the mantra-like chanted octaves of Choir 2,
with their angular little melody, and the more rapt, meditative quality of Choir 1’s triadic harmonies. Lancelot Andrewes’ image of the ‘God of light’ finds echo in Rutter’s modal, uncharacteristically dissonant harmonies. Each occurrence of this ‘light’, however, draws something additional from the composer, colouring the word with care and emphasis.
The anthem does not entirely abandon Rutter’s home territory, though. With the Andante tranquillo arrives a chorale theme, whose bittersweet character and gently polyphonic treatment is vintage Rutter, but transformed by the rather different choral journey the composer has taken to arrive at it.
From its opening quaver fanfare, Rutter’s Wells Jubilate pulses with joy. We feel the psalm’s ‘song’ long before it is mentioned in the syncopated urgency of the voices, declamatory and trumpet-like in their unison gambits. This opening dance gives way to a contrasting, more contemplative middle section, but the stillness cannot endure and before long the organ has burst back in with its quavers, leading the choir into a closing flourish of energetic and infectious celebration.
God be in my head returns us to the simple a cappella world of the Prayer of St Patrick Refusing to overpower his text, Rutter avoids embellishment or repetition. Even in so short a piece as this the musical architecture is
carefully calibrated to mirror the shape of the verse; a key-change signals the sudden conceptual departure of ‘God be at my end’.
Sitting squarely within the composer’s vernacular is 2010 anthem The Gift of Charity, a short, strophic work whose deliberately naïf melody mirrors the text’s own innocence, and its journey towards ‘adult faith’. Interest here lies in the subtle variations each verse sees in both choral and organ textures, achieving gradations of colour and a sense of progression through the verses.
There is a flower sees Rutter working in the tradition of the folk carol. A free, unaccompanied melody for treble evokes the innocence of the Virgin. This simplicity is preserved in the a capella arrangement of the verses that follow, varying the vocal textures surrounding the melody to allow a sense of growth that finally climaxes in the joyous, almost bell-like pealings of ‘alleluia’, alive with syncopated rhythmic energy.
A final example of Rutter’s a cappella writing, A Choral Amen is an extended, standalone cadence composed in the historical tradition of the polyphonic Amen. Creating an unusually dense texture, Rutter extracts the full potential from his eight voices by building up a web of suspensions that sits stylistically somewhere between 16th -century Italy and late
19 th -century England. An imitative sequence of scales passes down through the voices and then returns upwards: the simplest but most effective of cadential devices.
© 2012 Alexandra Coghlan
Alexandra Coghlan is the Classical critic for the New Statesman magazine, and has also written for Gramophone, The Guardian, Opera Now, Prospect, and The Times. She was formerly Performing Arts editor at Time Out magazine, Sydney.
1 Lord, thou hast been our refuge
Lord, thou hast been our refuge: from one generation to another. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever the earth and the world were made: thou art God from everlasting, and world without end. For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday: seeing that is past as a watch in the night. As soon as thou scatterest them they are even as asleep: and fade away suddenly like the grass. In the morning it is green, and groweth up: but in the evening it is cut down, dried up, and withered. The days of our age are threescore years and ten; and though men be so strong that they come to fourscore years: yet is their strength then but labour and sorrow; so soon passeth it away, and we are gone. So teach us to number our days: that we may apply ourselves unto wisdom. Turn thee again, O Lord, at the last: and be gracious unto thy servants. O satisfy us with thy mercy, and that soon: so shall we rejoice and be glad all the days of our life. Comfort us again now after the time that thou hast plagued us: and for the years wherein we have suffered adversity. Shew thy servants thy work: and their children thy glory. And the glorious majesty of the Lord our God be upon us: prosper thou the work of our hands upon us, O prosper thou our handywork. Amen.
Psalm 90:1-2, 4-6, 10, 12-17
2 Dormi, Jesu
Dormi, Jesu, mater ridet
Quae tam dulcem somnum videt, Dormi, Jesu, blandule.
Si non dormis, mater plorat
Inter fila cantans orat, Blande, veni, somnule.
Sleep, sweet baby! my cares beguiling:
Mother sits beside thee, smiling; Sleep, my darling, tenderly.
[If thou sleep not, mother mourneth, Singing as her wheel she turneth: Come, soft slumber, balmily!]
Latin, origin unknown; English words by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
3 This is the day
This is the day which the Lord hath made: we will rejoice and be glad in it. O praise the Lord of Heav’n: praise him in the height. Praise him, all ye angels of his: praise him, all his host. Praise him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars and light, let them praise the name of the Lord; for he shall give his angels charge over thee: to keep thee in all thy ways. The Lord himself is thy keeper: the Lord is thy defence upon thy right hand; so that the sun shall not burn thee by day: neither the moon by night. The Lord shall
preserve thee from all evil: yea, it is even he that shall keep thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in: from this time forth for evermore. He shall defend thee under his wings. Be strong, and he shall comfort thine heart; and put thou thy trust in the Lord.
Psalms 118:24; 148:1-4, 5; 91:11; 121:5-8; 91:4; 27:16
4 Carol of the Magi
We rode all night thro’ fields of darkness, Our guiding light the Eastern star; We came to Bethlehem, we all were weary: We travelled far that night, we’d travelled far.
We heard that here we’d find Messiah, Foretold by seers from days of old; We looked for palaces: and found a stable: Could it be here, so bare and cold?
We entered in and there we saw him; It seemed we’d known him from long before: A child like any child, yet somehow diff’rent: The face of ev’ry child in him we saw.
We’d brought him gifts, and now we offered them:
We knelt down low in silent prayer. With eyes that seemed to know both joy and sadness
The child looked down as we knelt there.
So long ago, yet I remember That child who lay at Mary’s knee: How strange that ev’ry child seems so much like him:
His is the face I seem to see…
John Rutter
5 As the bridegroom to his chosen
As the bridegroom to his chosen, as the king unto his realm,
As the keeper to the castle, as the pilot to the helm,
As the captain to his soldiers, as the shepherd to his lambs, So, Lord, art thou to me.
As the fountain in the garden, as the candle in the dark,
As the treasure in the coffer, as the manna in the ark,
As the firelight in the winter, as the sunlight in the spring, So, Lord, art thou to me.
As the music at the banquet, as the stamp unto the seal,
As refreshment to the fainting, as the winecup at the meal,
As the singing on the feast day, as the amen to the prayer, So, Lord, art thou to me.
As the ruby in the setting, as the honey in the comb
As the light within the lantern, as the father in the home,
As the eagle in the mountains, as the sparrow in the nest, So, Lord, art thou to me.
As the sunshine in the heavens, as the image in the glass,
As the fruit unto the fig-tree, as the dew unto the grass,
As the rainbow on the hilltop, as the river in the plain, So, Lord, art thou to me.
John Tauler (1300-61) tr. E.F. Bevan (1827-1909), slightly altered and with line 3 of each stanza added by John Rutter
6 The Lord is my shepherd
The Lord is my shepherd; therefore can I lack nothing. He shall feed me in a green pasture, and lead me forth beside the waters of comfort. He shall convert my soul and bring me forth in the paths of righteousness, for his Name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me: thy rod and thy staff comfort me. Thou shalt prepare a table before me against them that trouble me:
thou hast anointed my head with oil and my cup shall be full. But thy loving kindness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
23
7 Ave Maria
Ave Maria, gratia plena, benedicta tu in mulieribus, alleluia.
Hail Mary, full of grace, blessed art thou among women, alleluia.
The Angelic Salutation (Luke 1:28, 42)
8 The Lord bless you and keep you
The Lord bless you and keep you: the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you: the Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you, and give you peace. Amen.
Numbers 6:24 (given as a blessing in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer)
9 A Prayer of Saint Patrick
Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me, Christ above me, Christ beneath me, Christ in quiet, Christ in danger, Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.
Old Irish, from St Patrick’s Breastplate, tr. C.F. Alexander (1818-1895)
10 Hymn to the Creator of Light
Glory be to thee, O Lord, glory be to thee, Creator of the visible light, The sun’s ray, the flame of fire. Creator also of the light invisible and intellectual: That which is known of God, the light invisible. Glory be to thee, O Lord, glory be to thee, Creator of the light, for writings of the law, glory be to thee: for oracles of prophets, glory be to thee: for melody of psalms, glory be to thee: for wisdom of proverbs, glory be to thee: experience of histories, glory be to thee: a light which never sets. God is the Lord, who hath shewed us light.
Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626), tr. Alexander Whyte (1836-1921)
Light, who dost my soul enlighten; Sun, who all my life dost brighten; Joy, the sweetest man e’er knoweth; Fount, whence all my being floweth. From thy banquet let me measure, Lord, how vast and deep its treasure;
Through the gifts thou here dost give us, As thy guest in heaven receive us.
Johann Franck (1618-77), tr. Catherine Winkworth (1827-78)
11 Wells Jubilate
O be joyful in the Lord, all ye lands: serve the Lord with gladness and come before his presence with a song. Be ye sure that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. O go your way into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him and speak good of his name. For the Lord is gracious, his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth from generation to generation. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.
Psalm 100 and doxology
12 God be in my head
God be in my head, and in my understanding. God be in mine eyes, and in my looking. God be in my mouth, and in my speaking. God be in mine heart, and in my thinking. God be at my end, and in my departing.
Anon, tr. in the Sarum Primer, 1558
13 The Gift of Charity
Though I might prophesy in tongues Both earthly and divine, If love were not their very root I could not call them Thine.
A sounding gong, a cymbal’s clash Is all that they would be, Though mountains moved through power of faith, Yet would it not be Thee.
Though I might give all I possessed In succour to the poor, Yet without love no change is made To what they lacked before.
True love is patient, selfless, kind, And does all things endure, Its trust in truth can never end, Nor ever be unsure.
When we have come to adult faith, And love like this has grown, So shall we see God face to face And know as we are known.
Then shall the choirs of Faith and Hope Give praise unceasingly, To what is greater than them both, The gift of Charity.
Selwyn Image (1849-1930), based on 1 Corinthians:13
14 There is a flower
There is a flow’r sprung of a tree, The root thereof is callèd Jesse; A flow’r of price, There is none such in Paradise.
This flow’r is fair and fresh of hue, It fadeth never, but ever is new; The blessed branch this flow’r on grew Was Mary mild that bare Jesu; A flower of grace; Against all sorrow it is solace.
The seed hereof was Goddes sand, That God himself sowed with his hand In Nazareth that holy land; Amidst her arbour a maiden found. This blessed flow’r Sprang never but in Mary’s bower.
When Gabriel this maid did meet, With ‘Ave Maria’ he her greet; Between them two this flow’r was set, And safe was kept, no man should wit; Till on a day In Bethlehem it could spread and spray.
When that fair flow’r began to spread, And his sweet blossom began to bed, Then rich and poor of ev’ry land Marvelled how this flow’r might spread, Till kinges three That blessed flow’r came to see.
Angels there came from heaven’s tower To look upon this freshele flow’r, How fair he was in His colour, And how sweet in His savour, And to behold How such a flow’r might spring in gold.
sand: gift bed: bud John Audelay (d. c. 1426)
15 A Choral Amen
Amen
Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum of Dean Close Preparatory School is the choir of men and boys which sings the weekday Evensongs in Tewkesbury Abbey. The choristers are all educated at Dean Close Preparatory School, Cheltenham, which is a member of The Choir Schools’ Association.
Over the last few years, the choir has been involved in a number of collaborations – Bach’s Mass in B minor with the Orchestra of St John’s, Mahler’s Symphony No 3 and Britten’s War Requiem with Cheltenham Symphony Orchestra, Bach’s St Matthew Passion and Britten’s Spring Symphony with Cheltenham Bach Choir and Honegger’s Cantate de Noël with BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales. Since 2000, the choir has undertaken twelve foreign tours, including three lengthy visits to the USA, six visits to France and trips to Italy and Germany. In December of 2008, the choristers represented Great Britain in a concert of music by Berlioz with the Slovak Philharmonic which was the closing event of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The choir has broadcast regularly from the Abbey (four programmes in 2010 alone), and in September 2006 broadcast Choral Evensong from St Michael’s, Tenbury Wells, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the foundation of St Michael’s College. Recent appearances have included three concerts in the Cheltenham Music Festival and January 2012 the choir took
part in a performance of Bach’s Mass in B minor in Cheltenham Town Hall.
The choir enjoys a successful relationship with Delphian Records. The choir’s discography includes discs of music by Weelkes (DCD34070), Stanford (DCD34087) and Mozart (DCD34102); 2011 saw the release of Songbook (DCD34097), featuring the trebles of the choir.
The choir has also been active in commissioning new works including Christmas carols from Bob Chilcott, Grayston Ives, James Lavino, Nico Muhly and Philip Wilby. www.scholacantorum.org.uk
Benjamin Nicholas has been Director of Choral Music at Dean Close since 2005. In this capacity he directs the boys and men of Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum in the weekday services in Tewkesbury Abbey. His work with the Schola (previously The Abbey School Choir) has included twelve foreign tours, broadcasts and recordings on the Delphian, Guild, Priory, Regent and Signum labels. Benjamin Nicholas has commissioned many new choral works by contemporary composers including Chilcott, Dubra, Goodall, Ives, Jackson, McDowall, Muhly, Skempton, and Wilby.
Abbey on Christmas Day 2011, and has given recitals in Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s and Westminster Cathedrals. He has conducted many of the large-scale choral works including Berlioz’s Te Deum, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony and Verdi’s Requiem and has recorded Caldwell’s Good Friday with players from the RPO on the Guild label. His most recent recording, In the Beginning (Delphian DCD34072) was a December 2011 Gramophone ‘Editor’s Choice’ and ‘Critics’ Choice’ selected from all the releases in 2011.
Benjamin Nicholas has been Organ Scholar of St Paul’s Cathedral and Director of Music of St Luke’s Church, Chelsea. In 2011 he became Director of the Schola Cantorum at the Edington Festival of Music within the Liturgy and in September 2012 takes up the full-time post of Reed Rubin Organist and Director of Music of Merton College, Oxford.
A first prize winner in two prestigious organ-playing competitions – Paisley (1992) and the RCO Performer of the Year (1993) –Carleton has performed throughout the UK and in Europe, Australia and the USA. He has broadcast many times on BBC Radio 3 and 4 and has been featured on Radio 2’s The Organist Entertains. His various CD recordings, both as soloist and accompanist, have been warmly received by the critics. A recording made for Delphian on the Grove and Milton organs in Tewkesbury Abbey (DCD34089) was described by The Scotsman as ‘a delightful melange of sugar and spice’.
Amongst his other musical activities he is Musical Director and Conductor of Pershore and Cirencester Choral Societies and organ tutor at Dean Close School, Cheltenham. He is a former Council Member of the Royal College of Organists and a Past Chairman of the Gloucestershire Organists’ Association.
As an organist, Benjamin Nicholas played for the live BBC 1 broadcast from Tewkesbury
Carleton Etherington is Organist and Director of Music at Tewkesbury Abbey, where his duties include directing the Abbey Choir and accompanying the Schola Cantorum. He was educated at Chetham’s School of Music, Manchester and London’s Royal Academy of Music, studying with Dr Peter Hurford and the late David Sanger. He is a graduate of London University and a holder of the Academy’s Recital Diploma.
Songbook
The Trebles of Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum / Benjamin Nicholas
Helen Porter piano, Carleton Etherington organ
DCD34097
This ‘Songbook’ is a unique showcase for the Abbey trebles, their Director of Music Benjamin Nicholas explains. ‘I’ve always been keen to build each boy up so that they can learn to sing in a soloistic way.’ This is most evident in the distinctive singing of 11-year-old Laurence Kilsby, who features as soloist in two Shelley settings by Roger Quilter, the Bach/Gounod Ave Maria and John Ireland’s beautiful, sincerely-felt Passiontide motet Ex Ore Innocentium
‘a mouth-watering programme of sacred and secular music, old and new … excellent performances of impressive consistency … an uninhibited, fresh sound, coupled with the skill to sustain lengthy phrases with even tone’ — Gramophone, Awards Issue 2011, GRAMOPHONE CRITICS’ CHOICE 2011
Stanford Choral Music: Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924)
Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum / Benjamin Nicholas
Carleton Etherington organ
DCD34087
For their fourth recording for Delphian, the boys and men of Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum turn their attentions to that doyen of Anglican church music, Charles Villiers Stanford. Alongside familiar gems from the Evensong repertoire, sung with characteristic vigour and freshness, the programme includes the six little-known Bible Songs, each followed by its associated hymn. Amongst the soloists – all members of the choir – is Laurence Kilsby, 2009 BBC Chorister of the Year, making his solo debut on disc.
‘Under Benjamin Nicholas … the choir has developed a strong style, remarkable for its sense of personal (or corporate) commitment as for the sonority of its tone and the assurance of its delivery. The … total effect is rich and forthright’ — Gramophone, April 2009
Choral Evensong from Tewkesbury Abbey
The Abbey School Choir, Tewkesbury / Benjamin Nicholas DCD34019
For thirty-two years the Abbey School Choir sang daily evensong in Tewkesbury Abbey. In this recording swansong, the choir offers a treasurable memento of a uniquely English Office; complete with lessons and prayers, this sumptuous tapestry of Anglican jewels also includes the first recording of Gabriel Jackson’s refulgent new setting of the Evening Canticles. Reborn as Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum, the choir was immediately signed by Delphian and has embarked on a series of much lauded recordings..
‘… full-blooded singing of Tewkesbury ’s boy choristers and smart engineering. The choir’s men are on top form too … compelling energy. Terrific choral listening’ — Classic FM Magazine, April 2009
Mozart: ‘Coronation’ Mass in C, Vesperae Solennes de Confessore Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum / Charivari Agréable Benjamin Nicholas Laurence Kilsby treble, Jeremy Kenyon alto, Christopher Watson tenor, Christopher Borrett bass
DCD34102
Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum and Charivari Agréable come together for the first time in vividly communicative interpretations of three of Mozart’s sacred masterpieces. The forces are very much as Mozart intended – a period orchestra, an all-male chorus and soloists drawn from the choir. Under Benjamin Nicholas’s spirited direction these performances bristle with energy and the invigorating freshness of youth.
‘the young trebles of Tewkesbury Abbey are a force to be reckoned with. They sing musically and fearlessly with excellent diction and a mature, warm tone’ — Choir and Organ, September 2011
