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

[jonfan]

What a profound CE, everyone including SC, on barnstorming form. Thank you Mr A for alerting us to the Leighton; what a piece and, as you say, leaving one wrung out.

[ardcarp]

Glad you appreciated it! And yes, what a fabulous solo voice that tenor choral scholar had...and suited ideally to the nature of the piece.
The psalm was meticulously prepared. Cleobury had a liking for a natural speech rhythm in psalmody. (cf last week's archive recording from Oxford).

At St Thomas, New York, John Scott would frequently omit the first chord in part of a chant so as not to disrupt the natural emphasis of a word or phrase. Did anyone spot a similar trick SC did in today's psalm? A trick I had not heard done before.

(BTW did anyone notice a slightly weird thing with the recording level? At the start of the Rubbra canticles the choir seemed to be at the far end of a tunnel. This may just have been my set-up...an iphone plugged into my stereo system.)

[Magister Chori]

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.

Totally agreed: great and demanding music (and not so common to hear) very well sung and played. A particular mention for the flowing and immaculate chanting of the psalms.

(BTW did anyone notice a slightly weird thing with the recording level? At the start of the Rubbra canticles the choir seemed to be at the far end of a tunnel. This may just have been my set-up...an iphone plugged into my stereo system.)

Yes, I noticed it also. Later, somewhere in the anthem the organ seemed to be quite roaring.

[DracoM]

<<(BTW did anyone notice a slightly weird thing with the recording level? At the start of the Rubbra canticles the choir seemed to be at the far end of a tunnel. This may just have been my set-up...an iphone plugged into my stereo system.) >>

Dead right! V. weird.

[mw963]

That level change at the start of the Mag sounds to me like a balancer who was caught out by the levels at the start - for whatever reason - and backed the choir mics off in a bit of a hurry.

What I noticed was that - for technical interest reasons - I was listening to the DAB version, whereas I normally use the satellite version, and during the Leighton there was some pretty nasty hard limiting on a particularly loud bit. Up until not so long ago the DAB version was totally uncompressed (speaking of the dynamic range) but I gather changes were made to try and bring the average levels up a bit, but not using an Optimod-type solution as on FM. I only listen to Radio 3 for CE, and this is the first time that I've heard the DAB limiters go into action, and it wasn't a pretty sight (to mix my metaphors). I assume this wouldn't have been present on DSat or on the iplayer, but given my aversion to Leighton I'm not going to waste time doing any detailed checks on it.

[Pulcinella]

Some interesting comments here, as I too (unusually) listened on DAB since my Sonos system has gone berserk, and I found the whole thing organ heavy and very shouty (especially the Precentor and the soloist in the Leighton).
I wonder if anyone remembers the original broadcast.

[Edgy 2]

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.

[ardcarp]

Some interesting comments here, as I too (unusually) listened on DAB since my Sonos system has gone berserk, and I found the whole thing organ heavy and very shouty (especially the Precentor and the soloist in the Leighton).
I wonder if anyone remembers the original broadcast.

I thought the tenor soloist in the Leighton (as I said upthread) was wonderful. The line is charged with emotion, and for a young choral scholar to sing it so well left me gobsmacked. I know this is a discussion about sound-systems (which I know nothing about) but whatever my 'catchh-up' system was, I was left in no doubt about the Leighton solo...upon which the main body of the piece hangs.

[DracoM]

[Simon Biazeck]

I thought the tenor soloist in the Leighton (as I said upthread) was wonderful. The line is charged with emotion, and for a young choral scholar to sing it so well left me gobsmacked. I know this is a discussion about sound-systems (which I know nothing about) but whatever my 'catchh-up' system was, I was left in no doubt about the Leighton solo...upon which the main body of the piece hangs.

The soloist was Matthew Sandy, whom I know as Matt Sandy. I'm not sure if he was still a choral scholar at this stage. He certainly was a little before that. I too thought he was great. It could be called Crucifixus pro Tenore. I have an abiding memory of Gerald English singing it on a vinyl record. (Lumsden?) I wonder if KL had him in mind when he wrote it.

SBz.

[Pulcinella]

The soloist was Matthew Sandy, whom I know as Matt Sandy. I'm not sure if he was still a choral scholar at this stage. He certainly was a little before that. I too thought he was great. It could be called Crucifixus pro Tenore. I have an abiding memory of Gerald English singing it on a vinyl record. (Lumsden?) I wonder if KL had him in mind when he wrote it.

SBz.

This Abbey LP:

https://www.discogs.com/Kenneth-Leighton-The-Choir-Of-New-College-Oxford-David-Lumsden-The-Music-Of-Kenneth-Leighton/release/5646993

I used to have a copy!

The notes for the Hyperion release (St Paul's, with Neil Mackie as soloist) say:
Crucifixus pro nobis, Op 38, dates from 1961 and was written for David Lumsden and the Choir of New College, Oxford. This cantata is scored for tenor or soprano soloist, chorus and organ.

So, no specific soloist mentioned.

It is sung by a soprano on one of the other recordings I have, from The Queen's College, Oxford.
The recording from St John's, Cambridge, under Robinson in his series on Naxos, perhaps not surprisingly, uses a tenor.

[Simon Biazeck]

This Abbey LP:

https://www.discogs.com/Kenneth-Leighton-The-Choir-Of-New-College-Oxford-David-Lumsden-The-Music-Of-Kenneth-Leighton/release/5646993

I used to have a copy!
I see from the liner notes of one of the three recordings I now have, that from The Queen's College, Oxford, that it was written for tenor or soprano soloist (and indeed it is sung by a soprano on that recording).

Ahh, thank you! Yes, that's the one. That would explain the tessitura!

SBz.

[DracoM]

Worth getting the rpt just to hear Matt Sandy's solo.