King's College Cambridge Lessons and Carols (both L and R) 24/25th xii 22 / Rads 3 /4

[DracoM]

A service of carols, hymns, and readings live from the candlelit Chapel of King's College, Cambridge.

Hymn: Once in royal David's City (Irby, arr. Willcocks)
Bidding Prayer (read by the Dean)
Carol: Up! Good Christen folk, and listen (Piae Cantiones, harm. Woodward)

First lesson: Genesis 3 vv. 8-19 (read by a Chorister)
Carol: The truth from above (Vaughan Williams, arr. Christopher Robinson)
Carol: Adam lay ybounden (Warlock)

Second lesson: Genesis 22 vv. 15-19 (read by a College student)
Carol: Illuminare Jerusalem (Judith Weir)

Third lesson: Isaiah 9 vv. 2, 6-7 (read by a member of College staff)
Carol: O Little town of Bethlehem (Walford Davies)
Hymn: It came upon the midnight clear (Noel, descant Scott)

Fourth lesson: Isaiah 11 vv. 1-9 (read by the Master over the Choristers)
Carol: Peace on Earth (Errollyn Wallen)
Carol: Sans Day Carol (Trad. Cornish, arr. John Rutter)

Fifth lesson: Luke 1 vv. 26-38 (read by a Fellow)
Carol: An old carol (Quilter)
Carol: Angelus ad Virginem (Matthew Martin) – 2022 Commission

Sixth lesson: Luke 2 vv. 1-7 (read by the Mayor of Cambridge)
Hymn: Unto us is born a Son (Puer nobis, arr. Willcocks)
Carol: In the bleak midwinter (Darke)

Seventh lesson: Luke 2 vv. 8-20 (read by the Director of Music)
Carol: The Shepherds’ Cradle Song (Leuner, arr. Macpherson)

Eighth lesson: Matthew 2 vv. 1-12 (read by the Vice-Provost)
Carol: O magnum mysterium (Victoria)
Carol: Tomorrow shall be my dancing day (Gardner)

Ninth lesson: John 1 vv. 1-14 (read by the Provost)
Hymn: O come, all ye faithful (Adeste Fideles, arr. Willcocks)

Collect and Blessing

Hymn: Hark! the herald angels sing (Mendelssohn, arr. Ledger)

Organ voluntaries:
In dulci jubilo, BWV 719 (Bach)
Prelude and Fugue in B major Op. 7 No. 1 (Dupré)

Paul Greally (Organ Scholar)[/B]
[B]Daniel Hyde (Director of Music)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Good to have a Ledger descant again, though would have preferred it to be the one he composed for “Once in Royal…”

[ardcarp]

3 new-ish carols (one of which very new!) the rest familiar...which should please most of the radio audience.
I had the misfortune to sing Gardner's Holly and the Ivy at a carol service yesterday. Hard to believe it's from the same pen as Tomorrow Shall be my Dancing Day, which is IMHO brilliantly original.

[DracoM]

[Magister Chori]

3 new-ish carols (one of which very new!) the rest familiar...which should please most of the radio audience.
I had the misfortune to sing Gardner's Holly and the Ivy at a carol service yesterday. Hard to believe it's from the same pen as Tomorrow Shall be my Dancing Day, which is IMHO brilliantly original.

The Wallen was already recorded by the Choir back in 2019 (the last recording under Stephen Cleobury), while the Quilter was already performed in last year's Carols from King's.

Apart from that: a remarkably conservative music list (I would have truly liked something more adventurous... RWV/Robinson's of "The truth from above" is a marvellous piece, but it has been performed every year under DH tenure, so it's the fourth consecutive year!) but - I agree - this fact will please and reassure most of the listeners.

[smittims]

I wish they would do Vaughan Williams' 'Joseph and Mary' , to which he adds a marvellous counter-melody to the folk tune. I don't think It's been done at this Festival for baout 40 years.

[Magister Chori]

I wish they would do Vaughan Williams' 'Joseph and Mary' , to which he adds a marvellous counter-melody to the folk tune. I don't think It's been done at this Festival for baout 40 years.

A beautiful carol indeed: I think it was last featured in 1997 at Carols from King's (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwvI1UY_Vwo&t=1521s).

[jonfan]

Well I was captivated and involved throughout, a beautiful experience caught in clear acoustic but with plenty of the space of the Chapel for one to feel there. Lovely urgent singing from both men and boys with many beautiful moments where one was left wanting the moment to linger for ever. A vintage year. I’m not singling out anything, I enjoyed the whole 90 minutes.

[Petrushka]

A highly enjoyable service with some intensely beautiful singing from the choir. Not sure we needed every verse of 'O Come All ye Faithful' but it's there for the record as it were.
Matthew Martin's new commission was a winner and deserves to enter the repertory as I hope it will.

Well done to all with a special shout out to the engineers - best sound I've heard over the radio in this service.

[oddoneout]

You'd think I'd have learnt by now, but no, I saw the references above to having heard the service and thought "oh no I've missed it ". That's what comes of only ever listening to R3, and forgetting R4 gets first dibs. Mind you the panic was shortened this year by having already planned to watch the BBC2 broadcast and knowing that there was a convenient gap for tea between the end of Sarah Walker's Christmas Eve programme (which I have greatly enjoyed) and the beginning of the TV programme.

[cat]

I note Carols from King’s has been moved to a later time this year, 6.55pm, presumably to compete with Royal Carols from Westminster Abbey which starts at 7pm on ITV.

[Guest]

May seem a small point, but I regret the change to playing over just the last phrases of "O come" and "Hark the herald"

[Pulcinella]

Not such undiluted pleasure here as for jonfan and Petrushka: some VERY odd vowel sounds in places, I thought.
And I do wish that the readers would practice beforehand too, rather than sounding like it was the first time some of them had seen the words.
But yes: impressive sound overall, and it came over the airwaves very well indeed.

[oddoneout]

Not such undiluted pleasure here as for jonfan and Petrushka: some VERY odd vowel sounds in places, I thought.
And I do wish that the readers would practice beforehand too, rather than sounding like it was the first time some of them had seen the words.
But yes: impressive sound overall, and it came over the airwaves very well indeed.

Interesting, as this year I thought the readers on the TV version were very good. Heads up, minimal reference to the print needed, and intelligent delivery of the words.

[smittims]

I don't mind lesson-readers who are clearly untrained in public speaking, and have blunt or hesitant voices. But I don't care for 'clever ' readers who 'act it' to make us sit up and learn something, as if they'd written it themselves.

Yes, I know I'm a curmudgeonly so-and-so. I'll eat my pudding...