Richard Davy (c1465 - 1507): St Matthew Passion; Sunday, 4:00pm

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

One of the most substantial works from the Eton Choirbook, Davy's setting of the text is performed in the Trinity Church, Copenhagen by Ars Nova Copenhagen, directed by Paul Hillier. Part of the international Music for Holy Week broadcasts.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09wvff2

... I'm very excited about this - the Eton Choirbook contains some of the very finest Music ever written (and not just from this country) and I've never heard this setting before.


And there's some Charpentier immediately after

[doversoul1]

One of the most substantial works from the Eton Choirbook, Davy's setting of the text is performed in the Trinity Church, Copenhagen by Ars Nova Copenhagen, directed by Paul Hillier. Part of the international Music for Holy Week broadcasts.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09wvff2

... I'm very excited about this - the Eton Choirbook contains some of the very finest Music ever written (and not just from this country) and I've never heard this setting before.


And there's some Charpentier immediately after

Very much looking forward to it, and this in Part One.

2pm - Prinzregenthentheater, Munich
Domenico Scarlatti: Stabat Mater for ten voices

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09wvdnf

[jean]

...the Eton Choirbook contains some of the very finest Music ever written (and not just from this country) and I've never heard this setting before...:

The problem is that at this time, very little of the Passion was set polyphonically. I think this is why we don't hear this work much.

For some reason, one of the first two recordings released in 1968 of music from the Eton Choirbook by the Purcell Consort with the choristers of All Saints Margaret Street under Grayston Burgess consisted of this work. I rushed out to buy them both, because I had already discovered that this was the most wonderful music ever written.

But I was rather disappointed. Their second recording contained a much richer selection!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Very much looking forward to it, and this in Part One.

2pm - Prinzregenthentheater, Munich
Domenico Scarlatti: Stabat Mater for ten voices
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09wvdnf

Oh - I'm not so keen on this modern stuff.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The problem is that at this time, very little of the Passion was set polyphonically. I think this is why we don't hear this work much.

Listening to the QuireCleveland youTube recording, the work emerges much closer to the (wonderful) Schutz settings than to Bach's, with unaccompanied vocal narration, punctuated by short polyphonic choruses. This isn't a problem for me - I find the solos intensely beautiful, and the way the choruses then "bloom" ... completely satisfying.

It might perhaps be the incompleteness of the text (with many sections missing) - requiring "editions" - that is more responsible for the work's neglect?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZhXa_agPlk

[jean]

I felt that if there were only going to be two LPs of this marvellous music (and I don't think the Purcell Consort ever recorded any more), I didn't want one of them to be entirely given over to a work of which so much was plainsong. I felt cheated.

I haven't listened to either of my 1968 recordings for many years (there've been many sets since then, none of them including this work I think) but I know the sleeve notes were written by Frank Lloyd Harrison whose Musica Britannica editions of the Eton Choirbook had just been published (and sung by me and others under the direction of John Poole, whose choice of repertoire was always most adventurous).

I will look out the notes, and see what FLH has to say about his edition. I may even listen to the record. At least it won't be in English!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

At least it won't be in English!

- that is an extraordinary decision by QuireCleveland (the only version easily available at the moment). Presumably, the Ars Nova Copenhagen performance on Sunday will be in Latin.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

By the way, jean - I greatly (and generously, if you see what I mean) envy your having sung Music from this collection; "most wonderful ever written" is spot on.

[jean]

I feel especialy privileged to have sung some of it (the John Browne Stabat Mater and the Fayrfax Magnificat Regale) back in the 1960s, when the Musica Britannica editions were hot off the press. It isn't often that one gets to perform such remarkable music never having had the chance to hear anything like it first!

But I hope I may be excused for mentioning at this point that anyone who happens to be in the vicinity of Liverpool Anglican Cathedral tomorrow evening at 7.30 may hear a concert by the Liverpool Renaissance Singers, which includes John Browne's Salve Regina.

[ardcarp]

the Fayrfax Magnificat Regale

There's another (and IMO equally fine) Fayrfax Magnificat, the O Bone Jesu, my copy edited by Paul Doe.

[teamsaint]

- that is an extraordinary decision by QuireCleveland (the only version easily available at the moment). Presumably, the Ars Nova Copenhagen performance on Sunday will be in Latin.

When you say “ only version easily available”, does the Naxos Tonus Peregrinus disc not count? Am I missing something? It is in latin, at any rate !

[jean]

When you say “ only version easily available”, does the Naxos Tonus Peregrinus disc not count? Am I missing something?

No but I am, because I didn't know of this disc.

The longest work, of course, is the St. Matthew Passion of Richard Davy, its third recording...The only CD version of the Davy passion is by Ralph Allwood on Chatsworth... The Davy passion is sung here as it survives in the source, while Allwood used the reconstruction of the entire passion by Frank Llewellyn [sic] Harrison, just as Grayston Burgess did in the Argo LP (also on MHS), a rendition more than twice as long...

I will look up my Frank Lloyd Harrison sleeve notes, I promise.

[teamsaint]

No but I am, because I didn't know of this disc.

The longest work, of course, is the St. Matthew Passion of Richard Davy, its third recording...The only CD version of the Davy passion is by Ralph Allwood on Chatsworth... The Davy passion is sung here as it survives in the source, while Allwood used the reconstruction of the entire passion by Frank Llewellyn [sic] Harrison, just as Grayston Burgess did in the Argo LP (also on MHS), a rendition more than twice as long...

I will look up my Frank Lloyd Harrison sleeve notes, I promise.

Thanks Ferney. Sorry if my question appeared to be a test, it was really to help me make sure I was getting things right, as well as flagging up the cd.
That disc is available on Spotify.

[jean]

(That was my answer not ferney's, though I realise the question wasn't addressed to me...)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

When you say “ only version easily available”, does the Naxos Tonus Peregrinus disc not count? Am I missing something? It is in latin, at any rate !

No - I thought that I had that CD, so assumed that (as I hadn't heard the work before) it wasn't on it. An Amazon search didn't reveal any recordings of the work other than the QuireCleveland, so I presumed ...

It turns out that (for some extraordinary reason) I don't have the TP Eton disc - something I shall remedy immediately - so thanks for the "nudge".