CE Chapel of St John's College, Cambridge May 8th 2013

[DracoM]

CE Chapel of St John's College, Cambridge
The Eve of Ascension


Order of Service:



Responses: Clucas
Psalm 15 (C. Gibbons)
First Lesson: 2 Samuel 23: 1 -5
Canticles: Primi Toni (Durante)
Second Lesson: Colossians 2: 20 – 3: 4
Anthem: Lobet Gott In seinen Reichen, BWV 11 (Ascension Oratorio) (JS Bach)



Organ Voluntary: Heut triumphieret Gottes Sohn, BWV 630 (JS Bach)



St John's Sinfonia
Freddie James and Edward Picton-Turbervill (Organ Students)
Andrew Nethsingha (Director of Music)

[DracoM]

" The final Bach Cantata Evensong of the academic year will take place on Wednesday 8 May at 3.30pm, the Choir are performing Bach's Cantata no. 11 'Lobet Gott in seinen Reichen' with St John's Sinfonia.

St John's Sinfonia is a period instrument ensemble led by the College's Musician in Residence, Margaret Faultless. "

- from the St John's website.

[Keraulophone]

This could be SJC's most spectacular Cantata Evensong so far. JEG/Monteverdi Choir's final volume of their cantata pilgrimage, specially recorded at a subscription concert in May 2012 and recently released, inculdes the Ascension Oratorio, but I found the joyous outer movements over-driven (though there are many felicities within), and I'm eagerly looking forward to hearing AMN's wonderful choir give them the necessary lift but within the national speed limit. The Teldec/Harnoncourt recording came out while the BWV 11 was a set work on my A-level syllabus and has remained a touchstone for me ever since.

Followers of SJC/George Guest (under whom the current DoM was an Organ Student) may like to view this gem of a documentary from 1978, A Guest at Cambridge, recently posted on YT... quite a bit of singing in Welsh ostensibly in honour of the college founder marrying into the Tudor family of Anglesey landowners, though there could be another reason:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8udJ5MjjLcY [part 1]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXvv8xsb3Ps [part2]

[DracoM]

Thanks VERY much for these references. Fascinating footage.

[chrisjstanley]

Yes, thanks very much for the youtube links.

Here is a link to the Harnoncourt BWV11. [BWV 11 starts at 21mins .55secs]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiLMm6wUYyI

Insomniacs can catch JEG/Monteverdi choir singing Easter and Ascension Oratorios at the proms [10pm Prom 36 Friday 9th August]

bws
Chris S

[ardcarp]

Is there a game of orchestral catch-up going on at Cambridge?

Maggie Faultless is a fine player and a Baroque specialist. (She ran Devon Baroque until recently.) She tends to wear the trousers a bit so maybe AN will need to assert himself a bit to 'keep within the speed limits'.

[Keraulophone]

... maybe AN will need to assert himself a bit to 'keep within the speed limits'.

No problem there.

[chrisjstanley]

Just listened on the iplayer.

A truly heavenly and uplifting experience on Ascension Day. Excellent.

bws
Chris S

[ardcarp]

There are probably some who will think 'this isn't CE as we know it'. OK, it's not, but I thought the playing was excellent (can anyone let us know what percentage of the band was students?) and that it was a most enterprising thing for the choir to do live on air. A good idea to do the soprano aria with full (or at least a group of) trebles...and wasn't the flute/oboe accompaniment delightful? And hadn't I heard that alto aria somewhere before?

[Roger Judd]

That was a very special offering. The Bach cantata, IMO, was perfectly glorious, both singing and playing of the highest quality. As it was performed in the context of a service I suppose it was right that the soloists were anonymous, but those were voices to listen out for in the future, and it would be nice to have names to put to them. Durante's Magnificat was new to me, and I was pleased to make it's acquaintance - well worth getting to know.

The baroque repertoire of this service made an interesting foil to the 'modern' music from down the road last week - both sets of musicians on top form.
RJ

[mopsus]

I often listen to the webcasts from St. John's and I noticed differences from their practice in the spoken parts of the service. For example, usually at St. John's the Creed is introduced with the words 'Let us profess together the faith of the Church'.

[Keraulophone]

Durante's Magnificat was new to me, and I was pleased to make it's acquaintance

In 1910 musicologist Giuseppe Radicciolli misattributed it to Francesco Durante's pupil Giovanni Battista Pergolesi. Durante composed 4-part and 5-part versions in Naples during the 1740s. The music gained a wider audience on the release of the classic 1966 Kings/Willcocks LP coupling of Vivaldi's Gloria and 'Pergolesi's Magnificat.

Total magnificence from all involved. Perfect tempi in the Bach (AMN not MF i/c!).

To those (particularly in the facebook Choral Evensong Appreciation Society) who thought it was a late concert from R3's Baroque Season, if the Bach can't be performed in a liturgical context at Ascension-tide, then when would be more appropriate? And, ardcarp, this isn't 'a game of orchestral catch-up' as we are eavesdropping on one of SJC's regular termly Cantata-Evensongs with orchestra.

Thank you for a real treat, SJC.

[chitreb]

I'm sure someone will shoot me down for this but did anyone else find the treble line a bit soprano at times? I've also noticed this in some SJC recordings and wonder whether the choir was augmented by sops or whether it is a result of AN developing a particular singing style on the top line. None of this is to criticise a splendid CE.

[mopsus]

I'm sure someone will shoot me down for this but did anyone else find the treble line a bit soprano at times? I've also noticed this in some SJC recordings and wonder whether the choir was augmented by sops or whether it is a result of AN developing a particular singing style on the top line.

I think the St. John's treble line has sung with a bit more vibrato than King's for a long time - people were making this sort of generalised comparison of the two choirs back in the 1980's.

[Keraulophone]

and wonder whether the choir was augmented by sops

Hahahahaha! Or even ROTFL...

(Not sure whether Dr Guest is chuckling from Welsh Heaven.)