CE Truro Cathedral Wed, 17th April 2013

[DracoM]

CE Truro Cathedral


Order of Service:


Responses: Rose
Office Hymn: Walking in a garden (Dun Aluinn)
Psalm 89 (Bairstow, Hopkins)
First Lesson: Genesis 3: 8-21
Canticles: The Truro Service (First broadcast) (Russell Pascoe)
Second Lesson: 1 Corinthians 15: 12-28
Anthems: Cantate Domino (First broadcast) (Gabriel Jackson); Ave Maris Stella (First broadcast) (Paul Drayton)
Hymn: Come, ye faithful, raise the strain (St John Damascene)


Organ voluntary: "Organ" (Graham Fitkin)


Luke Bond (Assistant Director of Music)
Christopher Gray (Director of Music)

[BBMmk2]

Ah Truro! i do love this cathedral and a top drawer choir and organ too!

[DracoM]

And indigenous Cornish canticles, I believe?

[Gabriel Jackson]

And indigenous Cornish canticles, I believe?

And voluntary.

All the new pieces were written for the choir, for their 125th anniversary this year.

[DracoM]

Reminder: today @ 3.30 p.m.

[Cornet IV]

Ah Truro! i do love this cathedral and a top drawer choir and organ too!

Certainly was this afternoon.

Quite the best psalmody and accompaniment I have heard for a long time. Well done Truro.

Must get down there to try the augmented bells . . . .

[DracoM]

Pretty exhilarating hour all told.

Agree with Cornet above about psalms - some lovely dialogues across the choir - and throughout, the organ playing was fresh and daring. Exemplary stuff.

Same could be said of the Pascoe canticles. I do hope they appear on other foundations' lists because they were big, joyous - dead right for the Easter season, testing, and beautifully sung.

The anthems were both interesting as well. I'm very glad that the Jackson Cantate Domino exploited what is one of the glories of Truro, namely the training and proficiency of the treble line. They sing full-throated, usually produce warm chest register, yet are utterly fearless in scaling heights. The anthem - to my ear a tad less quirky and by a country mile better for it than some recent GJ material we have heard on CE - showed those skills off admirably, including a very quiet, but intense little final solo. A fine marriage between clever composing and a skilled ensemble.

Given its text, the Drayton started quite dark and even with a hint of menace as organ and lower lower voices conspired, but finished with a real flourish. I do feel that both anthems, like the Pascoe, ought find a place on other foundations' lists. They are all eminently singable and should please all manner of congregations, occasions, and choir mixes.

Luke Bond very nearly stole the show of course with that final gladsome, electrifying voluntary.

Christopher Gray and his team are a distinguished unit and their CEs are rapidly becoming one of the starred entries on the CE calendar.

[ardcarp]

A Rolls-Royce choir. Rose responses beautifully phrased (no snatching in the Our Father) and I agree with Cornet IV about the psalms. I was intrigued by the difference in tone between Dec and Can trebles...Dec brighter and more open, Can more rounded and a little softer. At least that's the way it came out of my speakers. This is in no way a criticism; indeed it was a delight. The new music was tackled with great confidence, and the only fly I could pick out of the whole thing was occasional 'thin-ness' on very high treble notes. Fantastically well done, Truro; and as I think I've said before, would that some other places with similar resources were able to make music as you do.

The Mag was interesting...a sort of child of the 70s and 80s with its exhilarating rhythms. I was interesting in Gabriel's somewhat unusual response to the Cantate Domino text...it usually elicits a more gung-ho opening! The organ voluntary sounded somewhat indebted to Kenneth Leighton...but how annoying it must be for composers to have the punters saying 'it reminds me of this or that'. All 'new' works need to be listened to a few times to be appreciated fully.

I seldom get a chance to hear a whole CE live, all though without interruptions. I'm so glad it was this particular CE that fell on my lucky day.

[decantor]

The above posts leave me nothing to say: the praise is rightly unstinting, and the nit-picking is rightly apologetic. I might just add, rather perversely, that the service was worthy of its music: it was an uplifting all-round celebration AMDG.

And add, too, that part of Truro's fascination is its enterprise - a year ago, Truro gave us commissioned canticles from Philip Stopford, a commissioned anthem from James Macmillan, and a new anthem by Julian Philips from Choirbook for the Queen. Previously, we had heard commissioned canticles from Gabriel Jackson. New music is in Truro's blood, and it invigorates their broadcast services, as no doubt it does others for the local congregation. Their treble soloist recently dared to embellish the Allegri, and I hope all have heard the "Identity" (from Macmillan's C.Sagrados) in their webcast soundcloud: I find it hard to imagine a more powerful performance.

And add, too, that Truro cathedral seems to be a congenial gig for sound engineers: we hear what we need to hear.

No, I have no connection with Truro or its choir - alas. I just relish this glorious 'metropolitan' music stuck out in the Western Approaches. Well done, Truro - yet again - and thank you.

[ardcarp]

this glorious 'metropolitan' music stuck out in the Western Approaches

...so well put, Decantor. Does it amount to a paradox?

[Keraulophone]

And add, too, that Truro cathedral seems to be a congenial gig for sound engineers: we hear what we need to hear.

This does not happen by chance or good luck, however. We are indebted once again to Colin Rae, Senior Audio Supervisor based at BBC Bristol for engineering such realistic sound. He may be an unsung hero, but he's the best in the business, and it's no surprise that both the producer and DoM try to make sure well in advance that he's been booked for this broadcast. He told me that although he set up at least a dozen microphones, about 90% of the sound mix for the choir comes from the central pair just west of the choir, approx. 8 ft off the ground. He added that he usually puts up a few more than he needs, otherwise people tend to feel short-changed!

So glad you enjoyed the service as much as we did singing it AMDG (as Decantor rightly points out).

[chitreb]

What a wonderful (in all senses) CE. Singing, organ playing, composition, broadcast quality - all absolutely first class.

[DracoM]

K-phone

Did he set up a solo mike for the treble in the Jackson? Sounded just notably different, and I did just begin to wonder if the lad was not actually standing with the front line to sing it but a distance away?

[Keraulophone]

Did he set up a solo mike for the treble in the Jackson? Sounded just notably different, and I did just begin to wonder if the lad was not actually standing with the front line to sing it but a distance away?

James had a solo mike, standing on the westward end of the front row on dec, i.e. not at a distance. He has a quieter voice than some, which may have given the impression of distance.

[DracoM]

Thanks - quiet, but quite intense and sings right through the range with barely a change of gear!