A great evening in King's Chapel on Thursday.
First, Evensong under the direction of Christopher Robinson, (standing in at the moment for Stephen Cleobury who's undergone further medical treatment).
Fascinating to hear a different kind of energy from the choir, somewhat bolder colours, and a more obvious interweaving of musical lines from phrase to phrase. Great set of music to bring out those qualities, too:
Mir hat die Welt trüglich gericht’ (anon. ) Bach
Responses: Leighton
Psalms 133, 134, 138 Turle
Gloucester service Howells
Valiant for Truth (John Bunyan) Vaughan Williams
Let all the World... (George Herbert) Harwood (Luckington)
I shan't soon forget the brassy ring to the choral sound as "all the trumpets sounded" filled the Chapel....
Nor the hymn - there was a dinner for returning choral scholars from the early 80s after the service, and a number of familiar faces were there - and a few seats away from me was Gerald Finley adding not inconsiderable quality to the roof-raising hymn singing!
And then at 9.30pm, something that hasn't happened in the Chapel since the early 1500s - a sung service of Compline by candlelight, with pre-Reformation Sarum Rite plainchant and Robert Wylkynson's nine-part Salve Regina from the Eton Choirbook.
Hypnotic and unforgettable.
.
(Thought it was worth a separate thread for this, as 2019 is obviously going to be an important year for the Choir, with the advent of Daniel Hyde in the autumn...)
First, Evensong under the direction of Christopher Robinson, (standing in at the moment for Stephen Cleobury who's undergone further medical treatment).
Fascinating to hear a different kind of energy from the choir, somewhat bolder colours, and a more obvious interweaving of musical lines from phrase to phrase. Great set of music to bring out those qualities, too:
Mir hat die Welt trüglich gericht’ (anon. ) Bach
Responses: Leighton
Psalms 133, 134, 138 Turle
Gloucester service Howells
Valiant for Truth (John Bunyan) Vaughan Williams
Let all the World... (George Herbert) Harwood (Luckington)
I shan't soon forget the brassy ring to the choral sound as "all the trumpets sounded" filled the Chapel....
Nor the hymn - there was a dinner for returning choral scholars from the early 80s after the service, and a number of familiar faces were there - and a few seats away from me was Gerald Finley adding not inconsiderable quality to the roof-raising hymn singing!
And then at 9.30pm, something that hasn't happened in the Chapel since the early 1500s - a sung service of Compline by candlelight, with pre-Reformation Sarum Rite plainchant and Robert Wylkynson's nine-part Salve Regina from the Eton Choirbook.
Hypnotic and unforgettable.
.
(Thought it was worth a separate thread for this, as 2019 is obviously going to be an important year for the Choir, with the advent of Daniel Hyde in the autumn...)
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