CE Truro Cathedral Wed, 26th Feb 2014

[DracoM]

CE Truro Cathedral



Order of Service:



Introit: Never weather-beaten sail (Parry)
Responses: Leighton
Psalm: 119:145-176 (Howells; Walmisley; Talbot; Havergal)
First Lesson: Isaiah 52:13 – 53: 6
Canticles: The Gloucester Service (Howells)
Second Lesson: Romans 15:14-21
Anthems: At the round earth’s imagined corners & There is an old belief (Parry)
Hymn: Praise, my soul, the King of heaven (Praise my soul)



Organ Voluntary: Chorale Fantasia on ‘The Old Hundredth’ (Parry)



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

[DracoM]

Reminder: today @ 3.30 p.m.

Judging by back lists, Truro are on a bit of a Parry pilgrimage at the moment.

[Gabriel Jackson]

Reminder: today @ 3.30 p.m.

Judging by back lists, Truro are on a bit of a Parry pilgrimage at the moment.

A very interestingly-programmed CD recording is in the offing....

[Lento]

Great service, I thought - hope everyone else found it equally rewarding. Allegri's Misereri next week for all lovers of blood sports.

[DracoM]

Liked the richness of the sound palette here - brave to give so much weight to the huge acoustic at Truro + singers + precentors + organ etc but thoroughly justified IMO. Felt real.

Subtle layers of treble sound from very young to the more mature, over forward but well-disciplined men - altos outstanding - well blended to my ear. I'm not much of a Parry fan generally, but this was a bit of an eye opener in terms of the breadth of his writing, so please excuse my surprised ignorance. Nice confident start with Never weather beaten sail, psalms held together well. And then we launched into the wonderful Howells which is a real tester: all parts have big ranges to sing, from fff to ppp, so nowhere to hide really. Soaring treble lines very occasionally grew a tad strident, but no faulting the willingness and ambition. Some good meaty chest voices here, and the top line really did sound like boys giving it wellie! Liked the pacing too. Pretty good since I imagine the choir has only just re-grouped after half term?

Many thanks for a revealing CE. Will do nothing to dent Truro's reputation as among the best around at the mo.

[edashtav]

A coherent service that was well-prepared and executed with confidence, love and clarity. All the lines in Parry's Songs of Farewell were sung with care that maintained a good legato and avoided the texture congealing into the colour and consistency of silt left after flooding. Howells' Gloucester Service, once again, showed how this composer and English Cathedrals go together like Eggs and Bacon. I love how Howells will extend a theme in a majestic manner and then create an unexpected harmonic shift that is as glorious as a ray of sunshine piercing leaden skies.

A most satisfying afternoon.

[Lento]

Howells' Gloucester Service, once again, showed how this composer and English Cathedrals go together like Eggs and Bacon.

Yum, yum indeed! Also enjoyed the organ in the psalms and the Parry voluntary which, ashamed to say, was new to me.

[Philip]

Regretfully its hard to appreciate this at the moment, as the quality of sound was so variable. I was engrossed by the lovely psalm-singing (and superb organ accompaniment thereof) before it cut out completely around verse 170, and the sound quality never seemed to get back to where it was before. Perhaps Sunday (and the consequent iPlayer upload) will be better?

The Howells is my all-time favourite setting, with so many beautiful moments, and I enjoyed it very much, nicely paced and coloured. Hopefully I'll enjoy it even more in a few days' time!

As said, Truro have built themselves a very strong reputation and nothing yesterday seemed to detract from that at all.

[Magnificat]

Regretfully its hard to appreciate this at the moment, as the quality of sound was so variable. I was engrossed by the lovely psalm-singing (and superb organ accompaniment thereof) before it cut out completely around verse 170, and the sound quality never seemed to get back to where it was before. Perhaps Sunday (and the consequent iPlayer upload) will be better?

The Howells is my all-time favourite setting, with so many beautiful moments, and I enjoyed it very much, nicely paced and coloured. Hopefully I'll enjoy it even more in a few days' time!

As said, Truro have built themselves a very strong reputation and nothing yesterday seemed to detract from that at all.

Philip,

As with you I was just settling in enjoying the service when the BBC lost it completely and then never got the stereo back.

It sounded OK in mono but will obviously be much better on the recording.

VCC

[Finzi4ever]

Philip,

As with you I was just settling in enjoying the service when the BBC lost it completely and then never got the stereo back.

It sounded OK in mono but will obviously be much better on the recording.

VCC

Sadly it's in mono on iPlayer

[DracoM]

And no acknowledgement on air at all - almost as if they didn't know it had happened?

[ardcarp]

Howells' Gloucester Service, once again, showed how this composer and English Cathedrals go together like Eggs and Bacon

They do when accompanied by the Truro Willis...just right for the job.

At some point on R3 today (whilst in chat mode) Truro choir sang Russell Pascoe's Magnificat...a very fine sound.

http://www.regent-records.co.uk/product_details_273.htm

[Finzi4ever]

They do when accompanied by the Truro Willis...just right for the job.

Fantastically well deployed in the overly tricky postlude too. Consummate playing on one of the best by one of the best.

[Magnificat]

And no acknowledgement on air at all - almost as if they didn't know it had happened?

Draco

The announcer at the end did, in fact, mention technical problems during the service. It was probably better that she didn't interrupt with an announcement during the brief loss of sound. At least it kept the service flowing reasonably well even if the sound quality wasn't as good.

VCC.

[DracoM]

Sorry.......... I had to dash and thought I'd heard the end.............apologies.