Hear My Words: Choral Classics

• Audio Samples
• Album Summary
• Notes & Reviews
• Also Purchased
• Works Details

Audio Samples

Album Summary

Performers

• Tristan Hambleton (Treble)
• Basil McDonald (Cantor)
• Leo Tomita (Treble)
• Tim Ravalde (Organ)
• Graham Walker (Cello)
• Pablo Strong (Treble)
• Francis Williams (Treble)
• Edward De Minckwitz (Treble)

Conductor

• Nethsingha, Andrew

Ensemble

• 

Composers

• Arvo Pärt (1935 - )
• Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525 - 1594)
• César Franck (1822 - 1890)
• John Rutter (1945 - )
• Gregorio Allegri (1582 - 1652)
• Sergey Rachmaninov (1873 - 1943)
• Thomas Tallis (Composer) (circa 1505 - 1585)
• Charles Villiers Stanford (1852 - 1924)
• Gabriel Fauré (1845 - 1924)
• Edvard Grieg (1843 - 1907)
• Robert Parsons (16th cent. Composer) (circa 1535 - 1570)
• James MacMillan (Composer/Conductor) (1959 - )
• Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958)
• Hubert Parry (1848 - 1918)

Notes & Reviews:

This new release of Choral Classics from St John's spans nearly 500 years of choral music. The earliest pieces date from the first half of the sixteenth century and the most recent from 2007. The styles and genres vary but there are clear links between the works throughout. Several are based on texts from the psalms and the works by Rachmaninov, Part and Parsons display radically different interpretations of the Ave Maria. The programme also includes Allegri's Miserere, Greig's Ave Maria Stella, Stanford's Jubilate and Vaughan Williams' O Taste and See. The Choir is conducted by their Music Director Andrew Nethsingha an ex-chorister of St John's himself. The CD was recorded in the College Chapel in full surround-sound and not only sounds spectacular but recreates to any uncanny degree the experience of listening to the Choir perform in the chapel.

"The boy treble voices bring lustre and freshness to the sonority, and the singing throughout is stirring and polished." -The Telegraph ****

"The poised, sentient performance of Allegri's famous Miserere opening the disc bespeaks dedicated preparation, both technical and spiritual. I like the spatial variegations drawn by [Andrew Nethsinga]...and the unobtrusively pregnant phrasing of the tenor plainsong interjections...John's are a choir in fulsome health" -BBC Music Magazine ****

"eclectic repertoire expertly sung" -The Observer

"A word of reassurance to those who fear that this may be a "lovely" programme of hallowed pot-boilers...If these are indeed, as the title proclaims, "choral classics", that term must have been stretched to include all that is old and good...There are also pieces of modernity...The famous choir appear to thrive under Andrew Nethsinga's management." -Gramophone Magazine

"It is with Allegri's impressive Miserere that the disc begins. One must congratulate those boys who rise well above their fellows...an admirable choir and a nicely varied programme." -International Record Review

"St John's has a wonderful acoustic, neither too spacious nor too intimate, and in Andrew Nethsinga it has a director who knows how to fill every corner with grace and clarity...the choir sings suavely and radiantly without resorting to cathedral prissiness; the recorded sound is superb. A joy all round." -Classic FM Magazine ****

Notes & Reviews:

Recording information: St. John's College Chapel, Cambridge, England (04/09/2010-04/11/2010).

Reviews

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Works Details

Allegri, Gregorio : Miserere

• Performers: Tristan Hambleton (Treble); Basil McDonald (Cantor); Leo Tomita (Treble)
• Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
• Notes: St. John's College Chapel, Cambridge, England (04/09/2010-04/11/2010)
• Running Time: 14 min. 6 sec.
• Period Time: Baroque
• Form: Choral
• Written: 16th Century

Grieg, Edvard : Ave maris stella, EG 150

• Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
• Notes: St. John's College Chapel, Cambridge, England (04/09/2010-04/11/2010)
• Running Time: 3 min. 20 sec.
• Period Time: Romantic
• Written: 1893

Arvo Pärt (1935 - ) : Bogoroditse Devo

• Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
• Notes: St. John's College Chapel, Cambridge, England (04/09/2010-04/11/2010)
• Running Time: 1 min. 17 sec.
• Period Time: Contemporary
• Written: 1990

Rachmaninov, Sergei : All-Night Vigil, Op. 37 :: 6. Boigoroditse Djevo (O virgin Mother of God)

• Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
• Notes: St. John's College Chapel, Cambridge, England (04/09/2010-04/11/2010)
• Running Time: 2 min. 51 sec.
• Period Time: Post Romantic
• Written: 1915

Parsons, Robert : Ave Maria

• Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
• Notes: St. John's College Chapel, Cambridge, England (04/09/2010-04/11/2010)
• Running Time: 5 min. 42 sec.
• Period Time: Renaissance
• Written: circa 1570

Palestrina, Giovanni : Exsultate Deo

• Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
• Notes: St. John's College Chapel, Cambridge, England (04/09/2010-04/11/2010)
• Running Time: 2 min. 27 sec.
• Period Time: Renaissance
• Written: 1584

Tallis, Thomas : Missa 'Salve intemerata' :: Agnus Dei

• Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
• Notes: St. John's College Chapel, Cambridge, England (04/09/2010-04/11/2010)
• Running Time: 6 min. 31 sec.
• Period Time: Renaissance
• Form: Choral
• Written: 1530s

MacMillan, James : A New Song, for chorus & organ

• Performer: Tim Ravalde (Organ)
• Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
• Notes: St. John's College Chapel, Cambridge, England (04/09/2010-04/11/2010)
• Running Time: 5 min. 11 sec.
• Period Time: Contemporary
• Written: 1997

César Franck (1822 - 1890) : Panis angelicus

• Performers: Tim Ravalde (Organ); Graham Walker (Cello); Pablo Strong (Treble)
• Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
• Notes: St. John's College Chapel, Cambridge, England (04/09/2010-04/11/2010)
• Running Time: 3 min. 43 sec.
• Period Time: Post Romantic
• Form: Vocal
• Written: 1872

Stanford, Charles Villiers : Morning Service in B flat major, Op. 10 :: Jubilate Deo

• Performer: Tim Ravalde (Organ)
• Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
• Notes: St. John's College Chapel, Cambridge, England (04/09/2010-04/11/2010)
• Running Time: 3 min. 16 sec.
• Period Time: Post Romantic
• Written: 1879

Vaughan Williams, Ralph : O taste and see

• Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
• Notes: St. John's College Chapel, Cambridge, England (04/09/2010-04/11/2010)
• Running Time: 1 min. 36 sec.
• Period Time: Post Romantic
• Written: 1952

Rutter, John : O Lord, Thou Hast Searched Me Out, for English horn, choir & orchestra

• Performer: Tim Ravalde (Organ)
• Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
• Notes: St. John's College Chapel, Cambridge, England (04/09/2010-04/11/2010)
• Running Time: 7 min. 36 sec.
• Period Time: Contemporary

Gabriel Fauré (1845 - 1924) : Cantique de Jean Racine, Op. 11

• Performers: Tim Ravalde (Organ); Graham Walker (Cello)
• Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
• Notes: St. John's College Chapel, Cambridge, England (04/09/2010-04/11/2010)
• Running Time: 5 min. 29 sec.
• Period Time: Post Romantic
• Form: Choral
• Written: 1865

Parry, Charles Hubert : Hear My Words, Ye People for chorus & orchestra

• Performers: Tim Ravalde (Organ); Tristan Hambleton (Treble); Francis Williams (Treble); Leo Tomita (Treble); Edward De Minckwitz (Treble)
• Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
• Notes: St. John's College Chapel, Cambridge, England (04/09/2010-04/11/2010)
• Running Time: 14 min. 11 sec.
• Period Time: Post Romantic