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Signum Classics

Ash Wednesday / Nethsingha, Choir of St. John's Cambridge

$19.99

Details

Composer
ALLEGRI BACH BYRD WEELKES
Artist
Cambridge, Nethsingha, Anderson-Besan
Format
CD
Discs
1
Label
Signum Classics
Released
Mar 06, 2020
Catalog #
SIGCD605
UPC
635212060520

About

Ash Wednesday marks the start of Lent, the forty-day period of fasting and penitence which precedes Easter. Ashes are placed on worshippers’ foreheads in the shape of a cross, as a sign of repentance. Evensong on this day has been an especially important service in the liturgical year at St John’s; the BBC started transmitting it live in 1972. For several decades the service was broadcast annually; more recently it has been biennial. 2019 was a live broadcast year, however the recording on this release uses our own microphones, permanently installed in St John’s College Chapel for webcasting, rather than those of the BBC. This recording will be released around the same time that the Dean of St John’s, Mark Oakley, releases a book on George Herbert’s poems, called My Sour Sweet Days. The book and the recording go well in tandem, as in the Deans first sermon at St. John’s, he said “I believe that when we walk here (The Chapel), we walk into a poem. The liturgy is poetry in motion, and we sometimes fail to understand its density of suggestion, the eavesdropping on the soul, the sensitive state of consciousness that its poetry can prompt.” Joby’s audio visual collective Powerplant – where the worlds of minimalism and electronica collide – has released albums on Signum and Nonclassical featuring music by Steve Reich, Gabriel Prokofiev, Graham Fitkin and Max de Wardener.

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REVIEW:

The malleable, sensitive trebles have what seems to me an unparalleled ability to invest text and phrase with meaning without focus-pulling, which is a decent description of the choir’s whole approach.

– Gramophone

Tracklist 11 tracks

  1. 1 Preces and Responses: Preces: O Lord, open thou our lips 01:39
    Track
    1
    Title
    Preces and Responses: Preces: O Lord, open thou our lips
    Duration
    01:39
    Composer
    William Byrd
    Performer
    Mark Oakley, Gopal Kambo
    Ensemble
    Cambridge Choir of St. John's College
    Conductor
    Andrew Nethsingha
  2. 2 Il salmo Miserere mei Deus 13:08
    Track
    2
    Title
    Il salmo Miserere mei Deus
    Duration
    13:08
    Composer
    Gregorio Allegri
    Performer
    Lewis Cobb, Alfred Harrison, Harry L'Estrange, Thomas Watkin, Hugh Cutting, Oliver Morris
    Ensemble
    Cambridge Choir of St. John's College
    Conductor
    Andrew Nethsingha
  3. 3 First Lesson: Isaiah 1:10-18 02:03
    Track
    3
    Title
    First Lesson: Isaiah 1:10-18
    Duration
    02:03
    Performer
    Harry Redding
  4. 4 Short Service: Magnificat 03:03
    Track
    4
    Title
    Short Service: Magnificat
    Duration
    03:03
    Composer
    Thomas Weelkes
    Ensemble
    Cambridge Choir of St. John's College
    Conductor
    Andrew Nethsingha
  5. 5 Second Lesson: St. Luke 15:10-32 03:21
    Track
    5
    Title
    Second Lesson: St. Luke 15:10-32
    Duration
    03:21
    Performer
    Sarah Cox
  6. 6 Short Service: Nunc Dimittis 01:38
    Track
    6
    Title
    Short Service: Nunc Dimittis
    Duration
    01:38
    Composer
    Thomas Weelkes
    Ensemble
    Cambridge Choir of St. John's College
    Conductor
    Andrew Nethsingha
  7. 7 The Apostles' Creed 01:05
    Track
    7
    Title
    The Apostles' Creed
    Duration
    01:05
    Performer
    Mark Oakley
    Ensemble
    Audience
  8. 8 Preces and Responses: Responses: The Lord be with you 06:25
    Track
    8
    Title
    Preces and Responses: Responses: The Lord be with you
    Duration
    06:25
    Composer
    William Byrd
    Performer
    Gopal Kambo
    Ensemble
    Cambridge Choir of St. John's College
    Conductor
    Andrew Nethsingha
  9. 9 Ne irascaris Domine 10:54
    Track
    9
    Title
    Ne irascaris Domine
    Duration
    10:54
    Composer
    William Byrd
    Ensemble
    Cambridge Choir of St. John's College
    Conductor
    Andrew Nethsingha
  10. 10 The Prayers 02:29
    Track
    10
    Title
    The Prayers
    Duration
    02:29
    Performer
    Carol Barrett Ford
    Ensemble
    Audience
  11. 11 Prelude and Fugue in E Minor, BWV 548, "Wedge": Prelude 07:40
    Track
    11
    Title
    Prelude and Fugue in E Minor, BWV 548, "Wedge": Prelude
    Duration
    07:40
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    James Anderson-Besant