CE Manchester Cathedral Easter Day, March 31st 2013

[DracoM]

CE Manchester Cathedral Easter Day



Order of Service:



Introit: Haec dies (Byrd)
Responses: Leighton
Psalm 66: 1-11 (Ashfield)
First Lesson: Isaiah 43: 1-21
Office Hymn: The Lamb's high banquet we await (Ad cenam Agni)
Canticles: Bairstow in D
Second Lesson: 1 Corinthians 15: 1-11
Anthem: Fürchte dich nicht, BWV 228 (JS Bach)
Final Hymn: At the Lamb's high feast we sing (Salzburg)


Organ Voluntary: Choral-Improvisation sur le Victimae Paschali Laudes (Tournemire)




Michael Escreet (Double Bass)
Jeffrey Makinson (Sub-Organist)
Christopher Stokes (Organist & Master of the Choristers)



Please note service begins at 4 p.m.

[terratogen]

It will be nice to hear such a festive service broadcast from Manchester for what must be (one of) the choir's last Evensong(s) sung in the cathedral for several months. I hope that the choir will flourish no less for the renovation that will temporarily evict them from their usual space, and I'm eager to hear, in this broadcast, what they make of the Bach anthem. I've a recording of the choir (under Christopher Stokes) making an absolutely effervescent job of Andreas Hammerschmidt's Alleluia! Freuet Euch, which to this complete laymen feels much in the spirit of this Sunday's Fürchte Dich Nicht.

Best of luck, Manchester.

[Bullock in D]

What's going on @ Manchester then? And why are they being evicted? I always thought they were a pretty good bunch of singers....

[terratogen]

What's going on @ Manchester then? And why are they being evicted? I always thought they were a pretty good bunch of singers....

A grand little bunch of singers, but apparently a bit cold and wet thanks to a faulty under-the-floor heating system. As I understand it, the cathedral is having contractors in to tear up the floor of the nave and install a new type of green heating mechanism. A wooden 'Cathedral on the Street' has gone up outside, and services will largely be split between that structure and nearby St Ann's Church.

While the contractors are in the cathedral (from April through November, by the Cathedral's estimates), the choir are out. It seems Evensong will be sung at St Ann's on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays and in the pop-up 'Cathedral on the Street' some Sundays.

[terratogen]

Started the slightest bit rough around the musical edges, perhaps, but built and built as the service progressed, culminating in what I thought was a delightful showing of the Bach anthem. What a keen, robust sound from Manchester's rather small (just five or six men, isn't it, and ten or so choristers in a recent recruitment video; could that be?) choral forces, and what confidence from a group of trebles sounding suddenly so alive in the music, urged along, it seemed, by one or two fearless leaders. (Isn't it fun, singing in German!) It suited Manchester, in any case, and I was so glad to hear them on such form after what must be one of the most exhausting weeks in the cathedral year.

Thank you, Manchester, and best of luck for the roving services on the other side of the holiday.

[DracoM]

Crystal clear ensemble - so good to hear fresh voices unswamped, energetic and 'big' when needed, but with warmth and generosity of tone. As good a mix of boy/girl voices as we have heard in many a long day. Nice discreet organ support for solos, and in those solo passages abundant no-nonsense musicianly work all round. Men worked unobtrusively but with lots of presence when it mattered. Just a cracking little ensemble. Bravery of entrusting a Bach double-choir anthem to this group amply justified. A certain understated virtuosity and confidence in all parts.

A quiet joy in the midst of over-egged Easter puddings.

[ardcarp]

Only just heard Manchester. What a great broadcast. I agree with everything Draco says. I'd just like to add a big pat on the back for both Messrs Stokes and Makinson. Every item was most musically directed. That lovely touch of singing et laetemur quietly in the Byrd was most effective, the phrasing in the Bach motet had been given scrupulous attention and the Bairstow had a great sense of shape....especially the measured climax in the final fugato of the Gloria. Everything too was most sensitively accompanied...and what lovely organ (and double bass) articulation in the Bach. Perhaps the recording engineers deserve a pat too. I'm no expert on these matters, but I felt everything was clear and balanced.

If anyone didn't get round to hearing this because of its being Easter, there's still a couple of days to go on i-player.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01rl2jf

[AjAjAjH]

If there is a new Bishop of Manchester before the cathedral is re-opened where will he be installed?erm:
Its 42 years in June since I was ordained there.
It is the cathedral with the widest nave in the country so there is a lot of floor to take up.

[Simon]

Pleased to agree with all the positive comments. For us the highlight was that amazing Ashfield chant, but the whole service was a real pleasure. Good luck during your time out, people!

[gainasbass]

I have just had the opportunity to listen to a recording of this service, wonderfully and sincerely produced particularly in terms of striking the right balance for a Festal Evensong on Easter Sunday. Like Simon, I agree with all the positive comments that have been made, and particularly with regard to "that amazing Ashfield (triple) chant". This important regional City can be justifiably proud of the Cathedral, its fine choir and traditions, and I am pleased that I reside well within 10 miles of the building. I will certainly make every effort to attend a sung service at St Ann's PC in the time that they are in residence there during the coming months. As an aside my late Uncle was a lay clerk at the Cathedral in the 1940's/50's during Norman Cocker's reign (and as a small boy I can remember being taken into the Cathedral to meet my Uncle after a service, and being amazed by the pipes running across the floor following an air raid in which the building (and organ?) were extensively damaged). I often wonder what my Uncle and NC would make of the undoubted progress which has been made in the standard of Church music since those days.

[bach736]

For us the highlight was that amazing Ashfield chant

Robert Ashfield's wonderful triple chant can be found in Cantica Nova - a brilliant collection of chants published by Kirklees Music.

http://www.kirkleesmusic.co.uk/