CE Bristol Cathedral Wed, 26th March 2014

[ardcarp]

Just heard CE. Draco and/or I usually pitch in straight after a broadcast, which some may find tiresome. So we thought this week we'd hold back and let others have first go.

The stage is yours, folks.......

[teamsaint]

Never knowingly heard any Casals compositions, and really enjoyed his introit.

Edit: I see this is a popular number . Shows what I know.......

[decantor]

The stage is yours, folks.......

And if one suffers from stage-fright? Ah well..... deep breath, and on we go ----

Despite the brow-beating over Howells in Lent, I felt the music scheme worked well. Casals' choral output seems to me to evince a sort of Brucknerian religiosity, while Sumsion is clearly strong on word-painting: I thought the choir brought out both features rather well. I was less happy with the accompanied canticles - on my system, the sound became rather congested and the choir too distant: I'm inclined to blame itchy fingers on faders, but the upshot was that some of Howells' best moments lost their full impact.

One cannot help but be interested, in these early stages, in how the Academy is serving Bristol's treble line: pretty well, on this showing. I enjoyed the service, and thank all at Bristol.

[Op. XXXIX]

Some wonderful aspects of this service. (A few quibbles with the Howells, but only a humble IMO.)

I must say that I particularly enjoyed the closing voluntary by David Bednall. Due to my schedule I can only listen via iPlayer, and I backed up twice to re-listen to it.

Great stuff.

[DracoM]

Not sure I'd be quite as effervescent as Op. XXXIX, but it was a neatly efficient service, somewhat hastening, I felt, to fit in the long-idsh Bednall piece. Agree there - interesting, and would like to hear it again.

Gentle introit, nicely done. Psalms a bit uneven,, but they tackled the Howells with confidence. I did think it was somewhat hurried, but there again, Bristol ain't St P's with its multi-second reverb, so dwelling on the glory of the sound probably was unnecessary, thus proper pace could be injected?

The Sumsion I'm ashamed to admit was new to me, and so NOT like the Sumsion I do know. So many thanks for that. Touch weird at the start, but developed weight. Interesting grace notes filigree in trebs - MacMillanic/ Jacksonesque but years earlier? Fine gentle lyrical tenor solo too.


In fact, throughout the service, the tenors were the headline act for me.

Thanks to all.

Did my ears deceive, or did the lady minister sing in the hymns to stirring effect? Or were there ladies / girls in the choir passim? Not meant to be mischievous, just curious.

[ardcarp]

I'd like to congratulate Bristol on a very creditable broadcast. The Sumsion was new to me too, and he [Sumsion] was clearly trying to be a bit 'experimental', i.e. getting away from a semi-cowpat idiom. I felt the choir, including the front desks, was really trying to express some of the emotion of the psalm text.

It is the mark of a sophisticated choir not to 'clip off' the ends of phrases, e.g. in the Lord's Prayer the words 'Heav'n', 'name', 'come', or in the responses 'now'. I'll say no more.