CE Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban Wed,19th Feb 2014

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  • DracoM
    Host
    • Mar 2007
    • 12993

    CE Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban Wed,19th Feb 2014

    CE Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban First tx:1st April 1992



    Order of Service:



    Introit: Oculi omnium (Parnell)
    Responses: (Piccolo)
    Psalms: 6, 7, 8 (Wesley, Day, Burrowes)
    First Lesson: Genesis 47: 1-27
    Office Hymn: All ye who seek a comfort sure (St Berwald)
    Canticles: Rubbra in A flat
    Second Lesson: Hebrews 9: 15 to end
    Anthem: For lo, I raise up (Stanford)
    Hymn: Lord of all hopefulness (Slane arr. Rose)



    Organ Voluntary: Adagio in E (Bridge)



    Organist: Andrew Parnell
    Choir directed by Barry Rose
  • DracoM
    Host
    • Mar 2007
    • 12993

    #2
    Reminder that this archive broadcast is being aired today at 3.30 p.m.
    Incidentally, Barry Rose has just done a week's session for choir leaders in NYC based at St Thomas Fifth Avenue.

    Comment

    • DracoM
      Host
      • Mar 2007
      • 12993

      #3
      Nice round treble sound, touch stretched at the top at the odd moment, and they sounded like well-trained boys with some maturity of sound, and sustained a very warm, decent line.

      Actually, for me, the men were the revelation: good sound, genuinely integrated, no striving soloists shouldering their way past the opposition. Slow psalms, and almost operatic anthem underpinned by some fine organ work. It's a lovely acoustic there, and they deployed it masterfully.

      The Rubbra canticles not truly my cup of meat, but robustly done.

      Comment

      • Magnificat

        #4
        Originally posted by DracoM View Post
        Nice round treble sound, touch stretched at the top at the odd moment, and they sounded like well-trained boys with some maturity of sound, and sustained a very warm, decent line.

        Actually, for me, the men were the revelation: good sound, genuinely integrated, no striving soloists shouldering their way past the opposition. Slow psalms, and almost operatic anthem underpinned by some fine organ work. It's a lovely acoustic there, and they deployed it masterfully.

        The Rubbra canticles not truly my cup of meat, but robustly done.
        Draco,

        Barry was/is an inspired trainer of boys voices but the quality of his men at St Albans was just as great an achievement and is still the choir's great strength to this day.

        The wonderful choir he created there inspired the forming of the Cathedral Music Trust of which he was a founding member and the success of this has given St Albans the financial security to maintain a fine back row along with enabling the Assistant Master of the Music to have a full time position. Andrew Parnell was only part- time in 1992.( What a wonderful introit of his that was both composition and singing )

        Today's choir under Andrew Lucas, and to his great credit, compares very favourably with the 1992 choir. What an act he had to follow.

        VCC.

        Comment

        • Vile Consort
          Full Member
          • Nov 2010
          • 696

          #5
          I always find the home team compare pretty favourably with the visitors in the Three Choirs Concert during the festivals.

          Comment

          • Magnificat

            #6
            Originally posted by Vile Consort View Post
            I always find the home team compare pretty favourably with the visitors in the Three Choirs Concert during the festivals.
            VC

            Absolutely agree with you. St Albans are never out -sung at the Three Choirs Concert by any of choirs that are invited and they are invariably the top cathedral/college choirs in the country ( and from abroad if you include St Thomas's New York who visited a few years back - super choir Draco!! )

            VCC.

            Comment

            • ardcarp
              Late member
              • Nov 2010
              • 11102

              #7
              You're making the Three Choirs Concert sound like some sort of Olympic Event!

              That aside, I thought the archive broadcast was beautiful. I use the word 'beautiful', a strange one perhaps, but there was indeed great beauty of sound (cracking ATBs) and beauty in the shaping of the music. Beautiful engineering too. The organ never drowned the choir, even when growly swell reeds were used for effect. Beautiful diction too. VCC will no doubt be delighted I'm worshipping at the shrine of BR, but he was/is a phenomenon, and I hope he has a great 80th birthday.

              Comment

              • Magnificat

                #8
                Originally posted by ardcarp View Post
                You're making the Three Choirs Concert sound like some sort of Olympic Event!

                That aside, I thought the archive broadcast was beautiful. I use the word 'beautiful', a strange one perhaps, but there was indeed great beauty of sound (cracking ATBs) and beauty in the shaping of the music. Beautiful engineering too. The organ never drowned the choir, even when growly swell reeds were used for effect. Beautiful diction too. VCC will no doubt be delighted I'm worshipping at the shrine of BR, but he was/is a phenomenon, and I hope he has a great 80th birthday.
                ardcarp

                I believe there will be an 80th birthday celebration event in the Abbey later this year.

                VCC

                Comment

                • Vile Consort
                  Full Member
                  • Nov 2010
                  • 696

                  #9
                  Originally posted by ardcarp View Post
                  You're making the Three Choirs Concert sound like some sort of Olympic Event!
                  The centrepiece of the festival is, of course, made up of the two competitions. Whilst the Three Choirs Concert is not intended as a competitive event, inevitably, after listening to sixteen organists performing the same pieces on the same organs over the course of three days immediately before the concert, one tends to have got into "compare and contrast" mode - or even "nit-picking between one excellent performance of a work and another" mode.

                  Comment

                  • positif

                    #10
                    And how beautifully the Bridge segues from the BR arrangement of Slane - inspired planning!

                    Comment

                    • ardcarp
                      Late member
                      • Nov 2010
                      • 11102

                      #11
                      I think BR was rather good at that. Another such was Malcolm Archer. Evensong at Wells was like a polished diamond.

                      Comment

                      • Miles Coverdale
                        Late Member
                        • Dec 2010
                        • 639

                        #12
                        I remember singing that dreadful Stanford anthem when I went to the St Albans festival with Guildford in the 90s. I think BR liked the 'he scoffeth at kings' line for some reason.
                        My boxes are positively disintegrating under the sheer weight of ticks. Ed Reardon

                        Comment

                        • ardcarp
                          Late member
                          • Nov 2010
                          • 11102

                          #13
                          It is a bit overblown..'.sententious' is the word that springs to mind. But it is 'of its time' and it's one that choristers rather enjoy....or used to.

                          Comment

                          • Chris Watson
                            Full Member
                            • Jun 2011
                            • 151

                            #14
                            "Dreadful" "Overblown"? Nonsense! It's wonderful.

                            Comment

                            • edashtav
                              Full Member
                              • Jul 2012
                              • 3672

                              #15
                              Blimey, I've just looked at a score of the Stanford. The text is a true "penny dreadful", isn't it ?

                              Bring back the hell-raising cleric with his sulphurous, blood-curdling rhetoric delivered from on high on top of a 3 storey pulpit.

                              SENTENTIOUS, INDEED!

                              Comment

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