Simon Preston, 1938-2022

[Y Mab Afradlon]

There are only nine Choral Evensong broadcasts from his time at Christ Church the earliest in 1971 and the last two in 1981. The penultimate broadcast was probably the finest broadcast ever in my opinion and featured the commissioned Aedis Christi Service by Sebastian Forbes receiving it's first broadcast performance. The last an all Purcell affair which closely followed on the box set of Purcell works.

The Archive of Recorded Music has dedicated a tribute page to him with some of those recordings. https://www.recordedchurchmusic.org/simon-preston His recording legacy collaborating with the Academy of Ancient Music and later the English Concert are among the finest but he showed his versatility with those sensational recordings of Poulenc, Stravinksy and Walton are yet to be matched.

[ardcarp]

the Glagolitic Mass with the LSO at the RFH. I was in a good position to watch his footwork and was absolutely blown away!

As I'm sure most people know, the organ 'movement' in that is an absolute pig to play. I often wonder if Janacek just wrote what he wanted without considering the technique involved. He did however write some solo organ pieces....

Organ JW 8/3 Lyre
Organ JW 8/4 Choralfantasie
Organ JW 8/7 2 Pieces for Organ
Organ JW 2/11 Saint Wenceslas

I've not come across any so I've no idea what style or difficulty they encompass.

He learned the organ along with piano according to Wiki.

[mopsus]

As I'm sure most people know, the organ 'movement' in that is an absolute pig to play. I often wonder if Janacek just wrote what he wanted without considering the technique involved.

When I sang the Mass we were told that he had taken that approach to some of the string writing.

[gurnemanz]

I didn't really know Handel's Organ Concertos and have only recently enjoyed discovering them played by Simon Preston with Trevor Pinnock and The English Concert.

In this I am grateful to a very well-priced Handel Orchestral download of Pinnock recordings from Presto.

[Vox Humana]

As I'm sure most people know, the organ 'movement' in that is an absolute pig to play. I often wonder if Janacek just wrote what he wanted without considering the technique involved. He did however write some solo organ pieces....

Organ JW 8/3 Lyre
Organ JW 8/4 Choralfantasie
Organ JW 8/7 2 Pieces for Organ
Organ JW 2/11 Saint Wenceslas

I've not come across any so I've no idea what style or difficulty they encompass.

I have a volume of Janacek's organ works which I bought many years ago when I was feeling curious and dutiful rather than enthusiastic. I have never been able to click with Janacek's music and this volume didn't do anything to convert me. I don't remember the titles Lyre and Saint Wenceslas, but there are two Adagios (which have been recorded a few times - these must be the Two Pieces above) and I think an Overture, as well as the Choralfantasie. All the pieces seemed to me more trouble than they are worth and I never bothered to learn any of them. I'm sure the fault is mine.

[Keraulophone]

There's a touching tribute to SP by Stephen Farr in the July/August Choir & Organ. Further tributes will appear in the next edition of the magazine. An indication of SP's fastidious preparation, along with his sharp wit, is given in the article:

[MickyD]

Those are the sort of put-downs I love to hear, not rude but highly effective.

[Bryn]

There's a touching tribute to SP by Stephen Farr in the July/August Choir & Organ. Further tributes will appear in the next edition of the magazine. An indication of SP's fastidious preparation, along with his sharp wit, is given in the article:



Further tributes will follow in the next edition of the magazine.

Brilliant!

[Keraulophone]

.
Coming in the new year to delight admirers of Simon Preston’s choir at Christ Church, Oxford:

The Complete Argo & L’Oiseau-Lyre Recordings: 19CD Box - Simon Preston and Christ Church Cathedral Choir
Release date: 13 January 2023

https://shop.decca.com/*/Classics/Complete-Argo-L-Oiseau-Lyre-Recordings-19CD-Box/7NSQ16XW000

(Pre-order is a little cheaper at the River people.)

Trailer on YouTube: https://youtu.be/cjLM9-s9Kl

In the opinion of many who were in and around Oxford at the time, SP’s years at Christ Church were his very best.

Indispensable LPs such as ‘Romantic Choral Classics’ (recorded in spacious acoustic of Keble College chapel with organ scholar Colin Walsh playing the old organ) have never been reissued before. The Poulenc/Stravinsky recording is a gem, as is the Walton and virtually all the others. The first modern recording of Handel’s Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne includes ‘Eternal source of light divine’ sung to perfection by James Bowman, avoiding the lugubriousness it has acquired since (including at the Sussexes wedding, when it was poorly sung by a soprano BaL connntributor).

CONTENTS

CD 1 BYRD Mass for 4 Voices*• Mass for 5 Voices*
CD 2–3 LASSUS Alma Redemptoris Mater • Missa “Bell Amfitrit’ Altera” • Omnes de Saba venient• Psalmi Poenitentiales V* & VII• Salve Regina• Tui sunt coeli
CD 4–5 HANDEL Israel in Egypt
Gale · Watson · Bowman · Partridge · McDonnell · Watt · English Chamber Orchestra · organ Preston
CD 6 DVOŘÁK Mass
Ritchie · Giles · Byers · Morton · organ Cleobury
CD 7 STRAVINSKY Canticum Sacrum • Symphony of Psalms Morton• Creed
Philip Jones Ensemble
CD 8 POULENC 4 Motets pour le temps de Noël • 4 Motets pour un temps de penitence
STRAVINSKY Mass
London Sinfonietta
CD 9 WALTON A Litany • Jubilate Deo • Missa Brevis (1966) • The Twelve • Set Me As a Seal upon Thine Heart • Where Does the Uttered Music Go? • Make We Joy Now in This Fest • All This Time • What Cheer?
Giles · Hayward · Jones · Roy · Morton · Rowlinson · organ Darlington
CD 10 BRAHMS Geistliches Lied* • BRUCKNER Ave Maria* • Locus iste* • Virga Jesse* • ELGAR Give unto the Lord*
FAURÉ Ave verum* • KALINNIKOV I Will Love Thee* • RACHMANINOFF Hymn of the Cherubim*
VERDI Ave Maria* • Pater Noster*
organ Walsh
CD 11 J.S. BACH Der Gerechte kömmt um BWV 1149• Magnificat in E flat BWV 243a
Kirkby · Nelson · Watkinson · Elliott · Thomas · Academy of Ancient Music
CD 12–15 HANDEL Anthem for the Foundling Hospital • Messiah
AAM/Hogwood
Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne • “Utrecht” Te Deum & Jubilate
Nelson · Kirkby · Minty · Watkinson · Bowman · Brett · Covey-Crump · Elliott · Hill · Thomas · AAM
CD 16 VIVALDI Gloria in D RV589 • Nulla in mundo pax sincera RV630
Nelson · Kirkby · Watkinson · AAM
CD 17–19 HAYDN Masses Hob. XXII:1, 3, 4, 5 & 6
Nelson · Kirkby · Cable · Minty · Watkinson · Covey-Crump · Hill · Thomas · AAM · ˇorgan Hogwood

* First International CD release

[Pulcinella]

.
Coming in the new year to delight admirers of Simon Preston’s choir at Christ Church, Oxford:

The Complete Argo & L’Oiseau-Lyre Recordings: 19CD Box - Simon Preston and Christ Church Cathedral Choir
Release date: 13 January 2023

https://shop.decca.com/*/Classics/Complete-Argo-L-Oiseau-Lyre-Recordings-19CD-Box/7NSQ16XW00

(Pre-order is a little cheaper at the River people.)

Trailer on YouTube: https://youtu.be/cjLM9-s9Kl

In the opinion of many who were in and around Oxford at the time, SP’s years at Christ Church were his very best.

Indispensable LPs such as ‘Romantic Choral Classics’ (recorded in spacious acoustic of Keble College chapel with organ scholar Colin Walsh playing the old organ) have never been reissued before. The Poulenc/Stravinsky recording is a gem, as is the Walton and virtually all the others. The first modern recording of Handel’s Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne includes ‘Eternal source of light divine’ sung to perfection by James Bowman, avoiding the lugubriousness it has acquired since (including at the Sussexes wedding, when it was poorly sung).

One month tomorrow… can hardly wait.

Very poor listing on the Decca site; I'll check Presto later, but at first glance I've got nearly all of them so won't be splashing out.
Lots of happy memories of my own time at Oxford while he was there: being in Christ Church (not my college) for liturgical performances of the Stravinsky and Dvorak, for example.

PS: Full details not yet on Presto site.

[Keraulophone]

.
The SP/Christ Church, Oxford 19-CD box duly arrived and I've been enjoying distortion-free Elgar and Bruckner, having vitually worn out the LP from 1977. There's one printing error on the (original) jacket listing and in the booklet for that CD (10). Christus factus est is the second Bruckner motet, not Locus iste listed as track 4. Ronald Corp, who went up to CC at the same time as SP, provides a fitting appreciation.
.

[ardcarp]

In the opinion of many who were in and around Oxford at the time, SP’s years at Christ Church were his very best.

Agreed, a friend of mine was a lay clerk at CCO (do they still have them?) and when I heard the choir under SP they were very good. My friend went on to Westminster Abbey and stayed there much longer than SP. He never thought SP produced such good results there.

[subcontrabass]

Agreed, a friend of mine was a lay clerk at CCO (do they still have them?)

According to their website they have six lay clerks and six choral scholars.

[Keraulophone]

My friend went on to Westminster Abbey and stayed there much longer than SP. He never thought SP produced such good results there.

That may well be the case but SP's Abbey years were musically a good deal more rewarding that what was initially to follow. Their music department may now be embarking on another precious musical era, although of a different sort to SP's vibrant perfectionism.
.

[ardcarp]

I do sincerely hope that Andrew Nethsingha will cope well with the very different demands of the Abbey job cf the hallowed court of a Cambridge College! I wish him all the best, and look forward to being delighted by the results,