CE Winchester Cathedral Wed, 16th Jan 2013

[DracoM]

CE Winchester Cathedral


Order of Service:


Introit: Benedicamus Domino (Warlock)
Responses: Philip Moore
Psalms: 82, 83, 84, 85 (Crotch, Clark, Bairstow, Lloyd)
First Lesson: Genesis 2: 4-end
Canticles: Collegium Regale (Wood)
Second Lesson: Matthew 21: 33-end
Anthem: When Jesus our Lord (Mendelssohn)
Hymn: Songs of thankfulness and praise (St Edmund)



Organ Voluntary: Flourish for an Occasion (Harris)



George Castle (Assistant Director of Music)
Andrew Lumsden (Director of Music)

[DracoM]

Reminder - today @ 3.30 p.m.

[BasilHarwood]

Lovely stuff, but was thinking... Did Mendelssohn have a particular magus in mind for each voice?

[Layclerk assistance]

Possibly, his talents were better used with the orchestra though. Lovely singing from the south's premier cathedral. As the boys broadcast last year I was hoping to hear the superb girls this time round.

[DracoM]

Well, I'm glad we heard good boys, right on top of their brief and able to deliver and in sonorous form.

[Y Mab Afradlon]

Remember the girls broadcast from the Southern Cathedral Festival in the summer.

[Layclerk assistance]

Yes but they were joined by the Salisbury girls

[teamsaint]

Possibly, his talents were better used with the orchestra though. Lovely singing from the south's premier cathedral. As the boys broadcast last year I was hoping to hear the superb girls this time round.

I am assuming that you are counting Salisbury as West then, LA ?!

[Tenebrae]

Is there so little to say about the broadcast that we have plunged into a Winchester vs Salisbury battle?

[Beef Oven]

I am assuming that you are counting Salisbury as West then, LA ?!

I was reading the other day that the reason why Led Zeppelin's 1975 album 'Physical Grafitti' was delayed several months was because bassist John Paul Jones was going to leave the band and become choirmaster at Winchester Cathedral. Fascinating, I thought.

[teamsaint]

I was reading the other day that the reason why Led Zeppelin's 1975 album 'Physical Grafitti' was delayed several months was because bassist John Paul Jones was going to leave the band and become choirmaster at Winchester Cathedral. Fascinating, I thought.

well that is interesting. what has it got to do with my comment , though?!

[teamsaint]

Is there so little to say about the broadcast that we have plunged into a Winchester vs Salisbury battle?

i imagine there is more to say about the broadcast,but that just needed clearing up ! in a nice, polite way. I'll leave the technical stuff to others.

(obviously if Salisbury is west, everybody is happy, which is great).

[Beef Oven]

well that is interesting. what has it got to do with my comment , though?!

It doesn't appear to have anything to do with your comment. Was that your point?

[chitreb]

On 6 Feb Salisbury is doing CE and on 13 March it's Chichester's turn. So we can compare and contrast all 3 Southern Cathedrals.

As for Winchester, some beautiful sounds, glorious glorias (Coll Reg) and a delightful voluntary.

And my picky comment today - as a bit of a psalm fanatic I thought that the third psalm lost a little tightness but this was back by the fourth.

[ardcarp]

I am guessing that not much has been said about the content of the service itself because for most people it ticked all the boxes, chitreb's third psalm excepted!

The recording was interesting. To me it sounded as if the introit was more 'distant' than the rest, and there was a sudden 'cut-back' not far from the start when the choir gave it some wellie. The Psalms OTOH sounded more closely miked. There continued to be several more 'compressions' during the service.

The men's sound was IMO all that it should be; beautifully blended and balancing the top line as needed, but showing a bit of character here and there as appropriate. The treble sound was of fine, straight head voices, not lacking in oomph in any way. I did get the impression of one or two stronger voices (one especially on Dec ...if my speakers are wired the right way round) shouldering quite a lot of responsibility especially in the Psalms.

Apart from the Moore responses (one of his better oeuvre IMO) the fare was traditional. Wood's Coll Reg is not one of my favourites, but it was very effectively done.

Who could wish for a better performance of the Mendelssohn? The men's trio was just wonderful, and the treble line had such maturity of sound. Someone mentioned that Mendelssonh 'wrote better for orchestras'. Ah, but one has to remember he was writing for the vocal tastes of Victorian England, so let's not be too hard on him. This is a little gem anyway, with a suitably Lutheran chorale at the end.

A final picky comment: the 'cantor' had a straight and well tuned voice, and sang with great dignity, but his delivery was too slow to match the choir in this particular set of responses.