Chapel of Clare College, Cambridge [R] Wed, Feb 10th 2021

[Pulcinella]

The complete settings of Howells (and other bits of his choral music) have been recorded by the Collegiate Singers under Andrew Millinger.

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/search?search_query=priory%20howells%20collegiate

The St Augustine Service is included in volume 3.
Volume 5 is a 2CD set.

[DracoM]

There was an apology on air afterwards.

[Simon Biazeck]

Selwyn College Choir:

https://www.sel.cam.ac.uk/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=47

Includes the St. Augustine set and the very beautiful set for Worcester.

SBz.

[AuntDaisy]

Patricia Hughes would have done a mellifluous reading off the top of her head. You just can't get the staff these days.
Sadly, the iPlayer / Sounds version is missing the apology & introduction.

[Nick Armstrong]

It caught BBC Sounds out too, only recording once into the psalms.

I suspect this will be rectified in the next day or so. It’s happened before.

VERY much looking forward to listening to this one (rather glad I waited )

[AuntDaisy]

I think the current iPlayer version is complete - it's just missing the announcer's introduction, which you can hear at the end of Afternoon Concert. The long pause while Janacek potters off is ~1:22:22 in; the Introit intro is ~1:23:00.

[jonfan]

Agree with everything Simon B said at #13 above. The other stand out pieces of music for me were the Coleridge-Taylor and the setting of Abide with me. A pity C-T didn't live longer to write more for the church on hearing this offering. Graham Ross tinkered just enough with Eventide; very lovingly and movingly sung. I enjoyed the whole as an act of worship with special note of the Dean's well chosen words. Hopefully we'll get to hear the opening piece at some stage.

[Magister Chori]

Shame for the early start of the service (but I was actually able to listen to it in full, being already on IPlayer some minutes earlier)...

Great to have some lesser known music, yet truly very valuable (the anthem was a nice discovery).
Not that sure about the singing (especially psalms) and - most of all - the organ playing: the final Howells was really sloppy and unarticulated (btw that organ doesn't help...).

[Simon Biazeck]

Agree with everything Simon B said at #13 above. The other stand out pieces of music for me were the Coleridge-Taylor and the setting of Abide with me. A pity C-T didn't live longer to write more for the church on hearing this offering. Graham Ross tinkered just enough with Eventide; very lovingly and movingly sung. I enjoyed the whole as an act of worship with special note of the Dean's well chosen words. Hopefully we'll get to hear the opening piece at some stage.

Agreed!

SBz

[oddoneout]

I get stick on here from certain contributors when I say the modern BBC has poor standards, but NOT starting a programme early was - in the old days - one of the FIRST rules that used to be taught to any operational staff trainee. Didn't matter why, it was FORBIDDEN, for all the reasons that have now reared their ugly heads. Play something, talk, whatever, but don't go over early.

In the old days on Radio 3 they'd have had a bit of poetry to hand and it would have been read beautifully by someone with a mellifluous voice who had probably - heavens above - rehearsed it just in case it was needed.

As always, a hasty retreat for me back to German classical radio via satellite.

Oh, that brought back memories.
I reckon Polly Phillah was on her teabreak this afternoon when the gap happened so there wasn't anyone with a handful of CDs to plug the gap.

[ardcarp]

Nowhere to hide in that small chapel and they know how to work it. The sinewy lines in the accompaniment worked well on the Neo-classical organ, although I could have done with more 8’ foundation stops in the fuller sections. It is what it is.

I agree about how well the singers 'supported' their voices in a somewhat unhelpful acoustic. Full marks to all. I realised I had heard the Howells St Augustine canticles before. To an innocent ear, they are unmistakably Howells, but he pushes dissonance and unrelated chord juxtapositions just a bit further than usual. I would like to hear them done sometime in a big acoustic and with a Willis/Harrson-type organ...which is what Howells was probably used to....so maybe the St Augustine set might be adopted by more choirs?

Making purely personal comments on the service, the 'cantor' was excellent (everything you could want) but the psalms, although beautifully sustained, were just too slow for my taste.

[Simon Biazeck]

I agree about how well the singers 'supported' their voices in a somewhat unhelpful acoustic. Full marks to all. I realised I had heard the Howells St Augustine canticles before. To an innocent ear, they are unmistakably Howells, but he pushes dissonance and unrelated chord juxtapositions just a bit further than usual. I would like to hear them done sometime in a big acoustic and with a Willis/Harrson-type organ...which is what Howells was probably used to....so maybe the St Augustine set might be adopted by more choirs?

Making purely personal comments on the service, the 'cantor' was excellent (everything you could want) but the psalms, although beautifully sustained, were just too slow for my taste.

You may find this interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67z4mjo3xLE

RSCM Lunchtime Lecture: Sir Richard Terry and new music at Westminster Cathedral 1912-1922

SBz.

[Finzi4ever]

Shame for the early start of the service (but I was actually able to listen to it in full, being already on IPlayer some minutes earlier)...

Great to have some lesser known music, yet truly very valuable (the anthem was a nice discovery).
Not that sure about the singing (especially psalms) and - most of all - the organ playing: the final Howells was really sloppy and unarticulated (btw that organ doesn't help...).

Agreed: terrible instrument for that repertoire, esp the voluntary was ill-suited and didn't work well yesterday. Also the psalms unfathomably slow given the acoustic.

[Finzi4ever]

Patricia Hughes would have done a mellifluous reading off the top of her head. You just can't get the staff these days.
Sadly, the iPlayer / Sounds version is missing the apology & introduction.

aaah yes: the days of Tom Crowe and (Fr) Cormac Rigby...

[ardcarp]

Sadly, the iPlayer / Sounds version is missing the apology & introduction.

But they say that the Sunday repeat will include the service as intended.

the final Howells was really sloppy and unarticulated (btw that organ doesn't help...).

Poor organ scholar. Sloppy? I didn't find it so at all, but as you say the organ (along with most other neo-classical college chapel organs) didn't help. The Klais organ at Gonville and Caius almost 'next door' is arguably much better at coping with typical Anglican repertoire, even if the chapel acoustic itself is not especially helpful.