CE King's College Chapel, Cambridge Wed, 8th July

[Simon Biazeck]

I thought this was excellent. The combined trebles made a rich and polished sound, well supported by sensitive AT, and some wonderfully dark basses. The psalm singing was surprisingly unified given the differing house styles of King's and John's. The tenor solo in the nunc was a real treat. For me though, sharp organ noises aside (the weather?) the Parry was an absolute blow out; although this was only apparent when I decided to listen to the version recorded "in house" on the King's microphones. My guess is that the conductor employed senior trebles only for the "oh pray for the peace of Jerusalem" section. The result was as good a treble line as you will hear. The Te Deum felt a stretch too far after the Parry I thought though the ending to be suitably grand. Many congratulations to all, I felt I was listening to A choir not choirS. Perhaps a sign of the convergence of styles of the two institutions that I've noticed over the years.

Very astute and perceptive. More of the same, please!

[Wolsey]

It was billed as having been 'edited'. I wonder what that meant?

The hymn was not heard in the recorded transmission, for starters...

[mopsus]

The hymn was not heard in the recorded transmission, for starters...

The prayers (which were not long in the unedited version) were also abridged. There was another prayer before Westcott's, very skilfully edited out. (The words 'and finally' were cut out of the introduction to Westcott's prayer, yet the background noise remained continuous.) I'm glad they did this rather than cut music, though I suspect that if it had been possible to cut a psalm, one might otherwise have gone instead.

There's been some fancy pointing at King's in recent years, but some of this broadcast's was very mannered!