CE Chapel of King's College, Cambridge [A] Wed, March 10th

[DracoM]

CE Chapel of King's College, Cambridge
First broadcast 10 March 2010


Order of Service:


Introit: A Litany (Walton)
Responses: Rose
Psalm: 55 (Barnby, MacFarren)
First Lesson: Jeremiah 13: 1-11
Canticles: Rubbra in A flat
Second Lesson: John 8:12-30
Anthem: Crucifixus pro nobis (Leighton)

Voluntary: Symphonie-Passion (Crucifixion) (Dupré)


Peter Stevens and Ben-San Lau (Organ Scholars)
Stephen Cleobury (Director of Music)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000sz61

[Finzi4ever]

Pre-H&H rebuild obv. (for us organ nerds), but what wonderful repertoire from start to finish, voluntary included.

[DracoM]

Incidentally, St Thomas, Fifth Ave NYC are back live streaming.

Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue <news@saintthomaschurch.org>

Tues / Wed this week as follows:

Tuesday & Wednesday
5:30pm [NYC time]
Choral Evensong
sung by the Boys of the Saint Thomas Choir
Video livestream and then available on-demand

and

Friday
5:30pm [NYC time]
Compline and Reflective Prayer
sung by the Gentlemen of the Choir
Video livestream and then available on-demand

[Magister Chori]

Pre-H&H rebuild obv. (for us organ nerds), but what wonderful repertoire from start to finish, voluntary included.

Quite interesting and fun the fact that in 2019 - nine years later this one and after the organ restoration - they repeated almost the same repertoire for Stephen Cleobury's penultimate CE broadcasting:

http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?20048-CE-King%E2%80%99s-College-Cambridge-Wed-13th-March-2019-L

[Finzi4ever]

Quite interesting and fun the fact that in 2019 - nine years later this one and after the organ restoration - they repeated almost the same repertoire for Stephen Cleobury's penultimate CE broadcasting:
http://www.for3.org/forums/showthrea...h-March-2019-L

I remember that broadcast well: it was hugely effective and affecting. I wonder if the great Archive of Recorded Church Music (ARCM!) has managed to capture it.

[Pulcinella]

I wonder if there is a special affection for the Rubbra setting at King's.
It features on their EMI CD Choral Evensong for Ascension Day, recorded unseasonally on 12–16 December 1978, with Philip Ledger as DoM and Thomas Trotter as Organ scholar.

(Available at a price here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Choral-Even...s=music&sr=1-1)

[mopsus]

It features on their EMI CD Choral Evensong for Ascension Day, recorded unseasonally on 12–16 December 1978, with Philip Ledger as DoM and Thomas Trotter as Organ scholar.

Ascension Day is not only in Full Term, but tends to be during exam time at Cambridge, so I can see why they'd pick another time to record. The gap between the end of Michaelmas Term in December and the 9 Lessons Service on Christmas Eve presumably offered a more convenient opportunity. In recent years lucrative foreign tours singing carol concerts have reduced that December window.

[DracoM]

Reminder: today @ 3.30 p.m.

[Pulcinella]

Ascension Day is not only in Full Term, but tends to be during exam time at Cambridge, so I can see why they'd pick another time to record. The gap between the end of Michaelmas Term in December and the 9 Lessons Service on Christmas Eve presumably offered a more convenient opportunity. In recent years lucrative foreign tours singing carol concerts have reduced that December window.

Indeed.
I was merely pointing out (albeit a little clumsily) that it was not just a release of a live service/broadcast that they had sung one Ascension Day.

[mopsus]

I think recently late September has been a favoured time to record, at least repertoire with orchestra and adult soloists, but I don't have a collection of recordings of King's to check; probably others here have.

[cat]

I think recently late September has been a favoured time to record, at least repertoire with orchestra and adult soloists, but I don't have a collection of recordings of King's to check; probably others here have.

I would have thought that September would be the least favourite time to record, as all the most experienced singers would have left over the summer and there will be several new members of the choir.

It seems the end of June is in fact the favourite time, followed by January and April just before the start of the Lent and Easter full terms.

[mopsus]

I would have thought that September would be the least favourite time to record, as all the most experienced singers would have left over the summer and there will be several new members of the choir.

It seems the end of June is in fact the favourite time, followed by January and April just before the start of the Lent and Easter full terms.

Yes, I realise that what I was thinking of was a series of extended interviews SC recorded.

Are there many commercial recordings of live services/concerts at King's? I think in general there are few such of cathedral and cathedral-type foundations, apart from special events like the Coronation. Presumably because recording equipment is more intrusive in a church than in a concert hall (and harder to set up?) and the optimal place for the choir to stand to be recorded is often not the choir stalls.

[cat]

Yes, I realise that what I was thinking of was a series of extended interviews SC recorded.

Are there many commercial recordings of live services/concerts at King's? I think in general there are few such of cathedral and cathedral-type foundations, apart from special events like the Coronation. Presumably because recording equipment is more intrusive in a church than in a concert hall (and harder to set up?) and the optimal place for the choir to stand to be recorded is often not the choir stalls.

King's released a St John Passion in 2016, and St Matthew Passion in 2019, both recorded live with an audience in the week before Easter. Both were performed in the Ante-Chapel with the choir having their backs to the screen (which is also how they do their other recordings). They do also release commercial recordings of live performances from the choir stalls, most recently the 9LC centenary service and the "Evensong Live" series. Up the road St John's have released their 2019 Ash Wednesday service on CD, which was sung partly from the choir stalls and partly from in front of the altar. They have also recently released live recordings of their carol services.

Most cathedrals probably don't have the kind of permanent microphone set-up that the colleges can justify installing though.

[ardcarp]

If Leighton's Crucifixus Pro Nobis (a sort of mini cantata) isn't everyone's cup of tea, do stay with it until the final 'Drop, drop, slow tears'. It's beautiful and heart-wrenching.

[DracoM]

What struck me immediately was
[a] what a ferociously taxing service that was to sing LIVE.
[b] in THAT acoustic, what a hair-rasingly daunting service in THAT acoustic, with so highly dramatic and boldly textured music on the sheet it would have been to RECORD / Broadcast / LIVE!.
[c] Tenor lad top drawer.