Easter Music on TV this weekend

[ardcarp]

Today, Saturday 5.45pm BBC2
Easter from Kings
The world-famous Choir of King's College, Cambridge, directed by Stephen Cleobury, sing some of the most beautiful music ever written for Good Friday and Easter, including Miserere Mei (Allegri), Panis Angelicus (Franck), Crucifixus (Lotti), Light Out of Darkness (Elgar), and pieces by Bairstow, Duruflé, Bruckner and Ouseley. Hymns include My Song Is Love Unknown, This Joyful Eastertide and Jesus Christ Is Risen Today. The story of Jesus's death and resurrection is told in the well-loved words of the King James Bible, with poetry by George Herbert and Kenneth Stevens, all in the stunning setting of King's College Chapel.


Easter Sunday 10am BBC 1
St Alban's Abbey
A live celebration to mark Easter Sunday from the medieval Abbey and Cathedral Church of St Alban. The service is led by the Rt Rev Dr Alan Smith, Bishop of St Albans and the preacher is the Dean, the Very Rev Dr Jeffrey John. St Albans Cathedral Choir, directed by Andrew Lucas, sing Handel's Hallelujah Chorus with music for the Mass from Thorne and Dove. Easter hymns include Jesus Christ Is Risen Today and Thine Be the Glory.

Easter Sunday 7pm BBC4
The Passion
(see OG's separate thread about this)

[Magnificat]

A live celebration to mark Easter Sunday from the medieval Abbey and Cathedral Church of St Alban. The service is led by the Rt Rev Dr Alan Smith, Bishop of St Albans and the preacher is the Dean, the Very Rev Dr Jeffrey John. St Albans Cathedral Choir, directed by Andrew Lucas, sing Handel's Hallelujah Chorus with music for the Mass from Thorne and Dove. Easter hymns include Jesus Christ Is Risen Today and Thine Be the Glory.

This is a combined Parish and Cathedral Eucharist crammed into one hour containing elements of both services e.g. the modern language liturgy of the parish communion rather than the traditional language of the cathedral service.

It would appear that the Gloria is the usual Thorne setting used at the parish service and sung by all rather than Jonathan Dove's setting for his Missa Brevis sung by the choir alone which is a shame ( no doubt to save time ). Actually I have no idea who Thorne is/was.

The choir is also singing the motet Surgens Jesus by Philips.

Jeffrey John's sermon will be worth a listen.

VCC.

[underthecountertenor]

This is a combined Parish and Cathedral Eucharist crammed into one hour containing elements of both services e.g. the modern language liturgy of the parish communion rather than the traditional language of the cathedral service.

It would appear that the Gloria is the usual Thorne setting used at the parish service and sung by all rather than Jonathan Dove's setting for his Missa Brevis sung by the choir alone which is a shame ( no doubt to save time ). Actually I have no idea who Thorne is/was.

The choir is also singing the motet Surgens Jesus by Philips.

Jeffrey John's sermon will be worth a listen.

VCC.

The answer to the implied question in your second paragraph no doubt lies in your first.

If you think that the choir will be singing Surgens Jesus, you will be in for a surprise.

Jeffrey John is always worth listening to.

[oddoneout]

The Easter from Kings programme was for me a real pleasure, and a reminder that whatever one's views on Christianity it has certainly inspired some wonderful music. I have sung most of the music that was broadcast, but the two highlights for me were the Bairstow Lamentations which I always enjoyed singing but haven't heard for many years, and the Lotti Crucifixus, the opening passage of which I always find heartrending especially as this evening with a male alto line.
A bit puzzled by the shots of activity at the organ - I thought it was currently in hospital - or do they have another?

[Nick Armstrong]

A bit puzzled by the shots of activity at the organ - I thought it was currently in hospital - or do they have another?

I think they must have recorded this before it was dismantled in February - as I understand it, this is how it looks at the moment:




As to the music, at first hearing, some of the pieces sounded to me to be performed just a tad too briskly/metronomically. I don't want any wallowing, but just a bit more... je ne sais quoi



.

A reply by the Choir on their Facebook page said this:

We're using a combination of instruments at the moment (though not necessarily all at once): a Steinway grand, a Klop chamber organ, and a two manual Skrabl that's been kindly lent to us by Richard Wood. We also did the Stravinsky mass with wind instruments a couple of weeks ago.

Another view:

[Magnificat]

The answer to the implied question in your second paragraph no doubt lies in your first.

If you think that the choir will be singing Surgens Jesus, you will be in for a surprise.

Jeffrey John is always worth listening to.

underthe countertenor

As far as the Philips is concerned I was merely quoting the music list. If they are not singing it and you know they' re not why not just say so. If not again presumably there is not enough time.

Frankly, this sort of bastardised service is a waste of time for the choir. The Abbey should just broadcast their normal Parish Eucharist and give the cathedral choir an extra hour in bed.

VCC.

[oddoneout]

I think they must have recorded this before it was dismantled in February - as I understand it, this is how it looks at the moment:




[COLOR="#0000FF"]As to the music, at first hearing, some of the pieces sounded to me to be performed just a tad too briskly/metronomically. I don't want any wallowing, but just a bit more... je ne sais quoi

So 'Easter at Epiphany from Kings'....or nearly! I know that such recordings have to be done ahead of the actual occasion but I find something uncomfortable about being so far adrift from the 'real' occasion, given that Easter et al are the raison d'etre of the institution itself.
I didn't have a problem with the tempi as I tend to prefer that approach , but I can understand the wish for a bit of 'ease' so to speak.

[ardcarp]

some of the pieces sounded to me to be performed just a tad too briskly/metronomically

I agree with you Caliban. It was all a bit mechanical. The Baistow Lamentation (singular!) was the exception. A relatively simple piece, almost an Anglican chant, but very affecting. (It is rumoured that SC does not like Bairstow, BTW!) I think the service was recorded at around the same time as the Christmas Carol Service (TV version) which accounts for the organ still being there.

Was the sound engineering a bit off? Or was it just my telly? A strange phenomenon seemed to happen several times when the organ began quite loudly and then immediately cut back.

[Vox Humana]

The Easter from Kings programme was for me a real pleasure

Hmm. I wish I could agree. What I can say, with absolute respect, is that I don't think I've ever heard the choir sounding better under their current DoM. They were totally awesome. So well drilled. But the interpretations... Oh dear. As usual at King's, the DoM kept the tempi so taut that they completely strangled the music. But he's not alone: that's the modern way, isn't it? Why are all choirmasters today so scared of spaciousness? Why doesn't anyone allow the music time to blossom and meld with the acoustic any more? Why do we all have to be kept on the edge of our pews all the time? I'm afraid I drew very little musical edification from this programme. I was never allowed the time. With the honourable exception of the hugely enjoyable Elgar, it all left me completely cold. I accept that this is purely my problem (and anyone else's who cares to share it), but where are the great Romantic gestures of yesteryear? What, actually, is wrong with sheer, glorious expansiveness - and, if you will, religious sentiment? As for the hymn "My song is love unknown" we had two different speeds in the playover and then the DoM set yet a third speed for the singing. That was just plain sloppy. A wise DoM lets the organist control the hymns (having previously made it clear what he wants). Fortunately that was just a blip - the other hymns were fine. I'm quite sad about this. I really wanted to enjoy this service and felt that I could have done, but I just wasn't allowed. Is depth of interpretation too much to ask for?

[underthecountertenor]

underthe countertenor

As far as the Philips is concerned I was merely quoting the music list. If they are not singing it and you know they' re not why not just say so. If not again presumably there is not enough time.

Frankly, this sort of bastardised service is a waste of time for the choir. The Abbey should just broadcast their normal Parish Eucharist and give the cathedral choir an extra hour in bed.

VCC.

...which rather presumes (like the presumption that there's not enough time) that the Cathedral Choir don't sing at Parish Eucharist on Easter Day as a matter of normal routine.

[ardcarp]

Well the choir of St Alban's had a big part to play in the televised Eucharist....including the motet as on the music list! I thought they sounded terrific. Hope you were either there or watching, VCC.

[Magnificat]

...which rather presumes (like the presumption that there's not enough time) that the Cathedral Choir don't sing at Parish Eucharist on Easter Day as a matter of normal routine.

underthecountertenor

Yes they do; but they usually follow it with a full service of Matins which has been abandoned this year due to the timing of the broadcast. Surely it was possible to follow on after the untelevised part of the Eucharist. To give this superb choir an Easter Day service ( and a televised one at that ) consisting of a second rate liturgy, bits of a Mass setting, one anthem and what sounded to me like a truncated motet is, if not an entire waste of their time, a great shame.

The real losers are the Cathedral congregation who, although not as numerous as the Parish, would usually fill the centre of the Nave, at least, on Easter Day for Matins and would have enjoyed a much more coherent choral service.

I suppose it would have been asking too much for the Dean and Chapter to show a bit of imagination and to broadcast Matins for Easter Day in these days when everything centres around the Eucharist.

I see what you mean about the motet. Dum Transisset is their usual anthem for Easter Day both at Parish Eucharist and Matins. I had rather hoped that Andrew Lucas had changed the record this year.

VCC.

Jeffrey John was his usual brilliant self.

VCC.

[jean]

It would be good to hear Mattins occasionally.

[Magnificat]

Well the choir of St Alban's had a big part to play in the televised Eucharist....including the motet as on the music list! I thought they sounded terrific. Hope you were either there or watching, VCC.

ardcarp

Where else would I be?

See my reply to underthecountertenor.

I'm not criticising the choir they are terrific. I really don't know how they do it year after year.

Boys only Evensong three times a week is an amazing achievement on its own these days.

VCC

[underthecountertenor]

Hmmm yes. Televised Mattins. BBC One are really going to go for that.