Originally posted by Nick Armstrong
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Hyperion released the CD of this recording on 1st March: https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA68436
It includes Poulenc's Quatre motets pour un temps de pénitence, recorded in Trinity College Chapel the previous summer (2021).
Organistas with access to an audio system up to the task should do audio engineer David Hinitt a favour by listening to the 24/96 FLAC Studio Master, which can be downloaded from the Hyperion site (vide supra) at less than the cost of the CD.
The Yorkshire Times was enthusiastic: https://yorkshiretimes.co.uk/article...Durufl-Requiem
To keep it special, I must promise to ration myself to occasional plays of this disc at home... but what occasions they will be!
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Much enjoyed, as mentioned elsewhere, apart from the sepulchral voice of the Pie Jesu soloist, which I'm afraid rules out repeated listening for me.Originally posted by Keraulophone View Post
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Err, K’s daughter, so I hope he doesn’t know where you live!Originally posted by Pulcinella View Post
Much enjoyed, as mentioned elsewhere, apart from the sepulchral voice of the Pie Jesu soloist, which I'm afraid rules out repeated listening for me.
Great to hear this without visual distraction, a stupendous achievement by everyone, conductor, soloists, organist and engineering.
This is THE best recording of the organ version with wonderful sense of the church space. I loved Katherine’s Pie Jesu, you must be extremely proud, no wonder you keep wanting an excuse to play it. A shame not to keep a total Trinity cast; Sarah Henderson, cello, who played on other webcasts, would have performed equally as well, if not better, than the player used.Comment
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Oops!Originally posted by jonfan View Post
Err, K’s daughter, so I hope he doesn’t know where you live!
Great to hear this without visual distraction, a stupendous achievement by everyone, conductor, soloists, organist and engineering.
This is THE best recording of the organ version with wonderful sense of the church space. I loved Katherine’s Pie Jesu, you must be extremely proud, no wonder you keep wanting an excuse to play it. A shame not to keep a total Trinity cast; Sarah Henderson, cello, who played on other webcasts, would have performed equally as well, if not better, than the player used.
Can I blame the acoustics of the venue?
Sorry Keraulophone: I just think that this movement needs a younger/fresher-sounding voice (though I'm prepared to accept that that might not be what Duruflé had in mind, and I know that said daughter is young!).
Blame the St John's recording, the first I got to know.
PS. Listened again to the whole thing, and it's just too 'big'! I must relisten to the composer's own recording (with orchestra, in 1959; the notes don't mention the venue).
And it's certainly true that in the score the solo is assigned to a mezzo-soprano, not a (boy) treble.,Comment
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No harm done, Pulcinella!Originally posted by Pulcinella View Post That George Guest LP was also my introduction to this sublime work. Boy treble Robert King (presumably of present-day fame/infamy) sings the Pie Jesu most beautifully, with an unusual (for a boy at that time) expressive vibrato. I’m not keen on the chopped-up phrasing (Pie Jesu - breath - Domine) but that was down to GG. Liturgically sung in Truro Cathedral, we give the PJ to tutti boys, which affords a marvellous effect in the low passages.
As you implied, the composer asks for a mezzo-soprano: Katherine sang it at the last All Souls’ at Westminster Abbey, with the all-male Abbey choir under Andrew Nethsingha. It’s a completely different effect from a single boy or several trebles. I think the mezzo approach is a better match with Trinity’s dramatic mixed-choir rendition.
K is really a young dramatic soprano, not a mezzo (the Trinity altos did audition for the part!) and will take up a post-graduate scholarship at the RAM in the autumn.
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Originally posted by Keraulophone View Post
No harm done, Pulcinella! That George Guest LP was also my introduction to this sublime work. Boy treble Robert King (presumably of present-day fame/infamy) sings the Pie Jesu most beautifully, with an unusual (for a boy at that time) expressive vibrato. I’m not keen on the chopped-up phrasing (Pie Jesu - breath - Domine) but that was down to GG.
Liturgically sung in Truro Cathedral, we give the PJ to tutti boys, which affords a marvellous effect in the low passages. As you implied, the composer asks for a mezzo-soprano: Katherine sang it at the last All Souls’ at Westminster Abbey, with the all-male Abbey choir under Andrew Nethsingha. It’s a completely different effect from a single boy or several trebles.
K is really a young dramatic soprano, not a mezzo (the Trinity altos did audition for the part!) and will take up a post-graduate scholarship at the RAM in the autumn.
I'm sure she'll do very well.
All best wishes; young singers (and musicians in general) deserve as much help as they can get at present.
I'm sure you will have read elsewhere that my partner commissioned three pieces for the choir I sing in from young students here at York. They've since been published (by University of York Music Press), and we're singing all three in a concert on 23 March 2024 (and again at an event on 8 June 2024). We are thrilled at this opportunity for them all.
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That George Guest/ Stephen Cleobury recording is hard to beat - the treble line included Simon Keenlyside and Lynton Atkinson as well as Robert King.
A sound which will soon become a historic curiosity as girls are admitted. It’s already happened at John’s.
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Yes, of its kind; though Howard Goodall chose the Truro Cathedral Choir recording (also all-male, from Robert Sharpe's era) on Desert Island Discs as his one disc to save from the waves. It's somewhat under-the-radar on the Lammas label with the current SJC director playing the Father Willis: https://www.lammas.co.uk/maurice-dur...d-choral-worksOriginally posted by Kingfisher View Post
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The fullest revew so far of the CD, by John Quinn:
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Thanks for the link K, a very thorough assessment of the recording’s merits. He seems surprised how good the choir is, bring a student ensemble. Does he know it’s the 5th best in the world!? He likes Katherine’s solo and notes her presence in the sopranos 😀. Best wishes to her for her time at RAM.
The Briggs’ cd has an excellent review in the April BBC Music Mag with 5 stars.Comment
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