CE York Minster June 13th 2012

[DracoM]

CE York Minster


Order of Service:


Introit: O Lord, make thy servant Elizabeth (Byrd)
Responses: Smith
Psalms: 69, 70 (Noble, Naylor, Talbot)
First Lesson: Genesis 42: 17-38
Canticles: The Great Service (Byrd)
Second Lesson: Matthew 18: 1-14
Anthem: Wonder (David Sawer) (Choirbook for the Queen) first broadcast
Final Hymn: Take up the song, and sing the praise of God (Radcliffe Square)


Organ Voluntary: Praeludium in E minor (Bruhns)



Ben Horden (Organ Scholar)
David Pipe (Assistant Director of Music)
Robert Sharpe (Director of Music)

[DracoM]

Reminder: today @ 3.30 p.m.

[mw963]

Nice to be back in a cathedral setting (although I haven't listened to last week's yet).

Spell binding psalms, and a sound balance which is much more to my personal taste, ie not in-yer-face as some have been in the last few years. Yes there's a minor cost in terms of how the clarity of diction is conveyed but at least one knows one's in a cavernous building (but not with ALL the attendant problems!).

So often (a bit like the Proms, it no longer sounds like the RAH to me) one could be anywhere....

Well done all round.

Shame though that Pres have to jump in so quickly. I can remember a relay (c 1981) where it was obvious that the birds round the cathedral were audible, and someone (probably Tony Scotland) left the faders open for 30 secs after the reverb had died away, painting this wonderful soundscape of the gathering dusk round the building.

Can't imagine the current regime even thinking about that sort of thing nowadays.....

[ardcarp]

Probably the best treble line we've heard from York for a long time. It may have been a mike-problem or my radio, but I found the alto line a bit prominent throughout the Introit, Psalm and Responses, which were otherwise enjoyable. I did not however relax into the Byrd canticles. They sounded very 'big', as if the word 'Great' had been taken a bit literally. It struck me that the men were all singing their whatsits off and the organ (again, maybe the mikes) sounded 'boomy' and clogged up the texture rather than supporting it. Rather than having an intimate 'chamber' feel, it was a bit like being dragged at high speed by a team of horses through thick undergrowth. Sorry, York, that's just my gut response. The anthem, though....AH!! Very well prepared and sung. Quite a difficult piece; and here the men sounded a lot more measured and blended. And well done divisi trebles.

[DracoM]

Terrific treble line and I'd say it sounded like all boys with that REAL indefinable, take it to the wire boy sound, slightly arrogant, enjoying their undoubted skills, evidently been told to lead and did exactly that, taking on all comers. Loved it. Altos sounded a tad over-anxious to me.

Byrd canticles taken at a decent pace, some good solo work. Once or twice I felt the ensemble in small solo groups was a bit muddy, but that York acoustic is immense, and a nightmare for engineers, who by and large did pretty well.

Liked the sense of the Minster too. Organ a bit loud in the canticles for my taste, but this was a non-nonsense cathedral service, beautifully articulated, sense of occasion, but the sense too that this is what York Minster is everyday.

Sawer anthem eminently repeatable and singable to my ears, and sung with fantastic assurance. Cracking voluntary, just right for that mighty space.

Robert Sharpe is doing one heck of a job in York.

Why so few people listened to it / have commented on it, i do not know! For me, one of the best CEs we've had in months. No tricks, no precious special sounds, just top class, get-on-with-it praise and music making.

[ardcarp]

No tricks, no precious special sounds

....and no cock-ups in transmission!

[DracoM]

AND an on-air job ad for the new Dean! What else can you want?

[Magnificat]

Terrific treble line and I'd say it sounded like all boys

Can you be sure Draco? You thought once before that the York choir we heard was boys and men but it turned out to be mixed boys and girls!

Once again the Minster music list is silent on this point. Why do we have to guess all the time?

I haven't listened to the broadcast yet but it would be nice to know, for sure, what forces I will be hearing. Any comments I may have will then be much more meaningful.

VCC

[nytseiyork]

I hate to break your bubble, but it was actually the girl choristers broadcasting this year!

[Double Diapason]

I hate to break your bubble, but it was actually the girl choristers broadcasting this year!

Poor Draco gets it wrong again! Yet to listen but looking forward to it now with these glowing reports.....

[nytseiyork]

I might disagree with the above assessments about the canticles - Byrd's Great Service isn't meant to a be dignified chamber ensemble piece, it's meant to be an explosion of sound breaking the bounds of Tudor precedent, and York's sound definitely did justice to this. The building carried the acoustic fantastically, but the choir's 'big' sound is EXACTLY what's required for this piece, and very few choir's are allowed off their leash enough to perform it authentically this way any more. Robert Sharpe's doing fantastic things at York and the sound the choir's making is entirely demonstrating his work.

[decantor]

There's never a hurry to post comments on CE, Draco: you - with a little help from ardcarp - can be relied on to say it all. As you have. I add just a few personal comments.

A fine introit - an amuse-bouche carrying promise. I adored York's psalmody - sensitivity and polish without melodrama: I did wonder if some of the antiphony was between semi-chorus and tutti. I find something almost symphonic in the Great Service - its shifting textures, its wondrous polyphony, its cohesiveness - and so took no exception to this grandiose working of it, though I thought the tempo near the upper limit; the verse singing had some of NCO's aplomb. The new Sawer anthem is surely a triumph - I took the trouble to seek out the text in advance, but there was no need, as the choral effects spoke in their own right. The Choirbook continues to gain in credibility.

And the choir! What an eloquent outfit they are now - York must bless the day they hooked Robert Sharpe. I too thought that boys gave us the treble line (evidence: timbre and exuberance), but St David's last week taught me that girls can do the business too. But the tautness of tone, assurance of technique, and overall musicality were a delight to hear. My thanks and congratulations to the York musicians.

[DracoM]

Can I say - in response to jeers from posters - that I was convinced at first hearing, but conscious of faults Forum members have loved to point to in the past - and now - I first listened again last night before writing just to check, then went back to LA again this a.m. - and unrepentantly I have to admit that the surer I became, having sung with boy-led choirs all my life. So if indeed girls, then they are the most boy-sounding girls I think I have ever heard in a UK cathedral choir. How Robert Sharpe gets them to sound like that, I have no idea, but he is certainly doing a ,very fine job whatever the gender of the choir top line. Would be fascinating to hear the York boys in the same repertoire to see how similar they sound?

As VCC rightly says, York, in common with some other foundations, does not indicate which top line is singing on the website, and disappointingly did not respond to my request for information.

[BBMmk2]

Ah York Minster. This place holds rather specia;lmemories for me. I will look forward to this, unfortunately on iplayuer.

[nytseiyork]

The Minster used to say which set of trebles did each service, but attendance at the girls' services was less than the boys because people assumed they'd be getting a different and inferior sound. As you have all observed this is not the case and so, to remove any inherent bias, the Minster doesn't release which set of choristers will be on, including for broadcasts and recordings, in order to give the girls at least a fighting chance of being considered on the same plane.