EMR CD021 | DETAILS
  EMR CD021
   
  Stanford: MASS IN G AND OTHER CHORAL WORKS
  The Choir of Exeter College, Oxford | George de Voil (dir.)
   
  Released 4 April 2014 | EAN 5 060263 500186

EMR CD021 features a choral work by one of the giants of British music, recorded here for the first time over a century after its composition. The Mass in G by Charles Villiers Stanford was completed in 1892 and is notable for its opulence, employing a full orchestra and vocal soloists as well as chorus; and its colourful, characterful setting of the liturgical text shows Stanford at the height of his powers – a master of structure, form and musical architecture.

The Mass in G is complemented on this disc with works by another highly significant musical figure, C. Hubert H. Parry. His ‘Songs of Farewell’ are gems of choral writing, their intricately shaped lines and finely crafted textures pointing with a profound poignancy the meaning of their texts; the hymn ‘Dear Lord and Father of mankind’ and, especially, the unison song ‘Jerusalem’ are familiar and well-loved settings; whilst the processional ‘I was glad’, written for the coronation of Edward VII and performed at every coronation since, has a verve and splendour that epitomise the grandeur of ceremony.

Stanford and Parry may be said to represent the beginning of the English choral tradition and this new disc acknowledges their lasting influence in a work by a contemporary composer, Paul Edwards.

TRACK LISTING AND AUDIO EXTRACTS
       
Paul Edwards (b.1955)  
1. ‘I WILL LIFT UP MINE EYES’ (2013) (World Première recording)  
   
Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (1852–1924)
MASS IN G MAJOR FOR SOLI, CHORUS, ORCHESTRA AND ORGAN, op.46 (1892)
(World Première recording)
 
2. Kyrie  
3. Gloria  
4. Credo  
5. Sanctus  
6. Benedictus  
7. Agnus Dei  
     
Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (1848–1918)
   
8. ‘JERUSALEM’ (1916)  
9. ‘DEAR LORD AND FATHER OF MANKIND’ (1888)  
10. ‘I WAS GLAD’ (1911 version)  
       
‘SONGS OF FAREWELL’ (1913–1916)    
11. ‘My soul, there is a country’  
12. ‘I know my soul hath power to know all things’  
13. ‘Never weather-beaten sail’  
14. ‘There is an old belief’  
15. ‘At the round earth’s imagin’d corners’  
16. ‘Lord, let me know mine end’  
REVIEWS
Beautifully shaped by Benjamin Frith... Beguiling sounds, graced by the tawny richness and unexaggerated line of Richard Jenkinson’s cello playing... The sense of purpose and sureness of line of Ian Venables’ music is pure oxygen.
EMR CD31 | BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Exquisitely rewarding... Ravishing accounts.
EMR CD029 | CHOIR AND ORGAN
This is music of great beauty and integrity and the performances fully do it justice. It would be criminal to let it pass you by.

EMR CD028 | INTERNATIONAL
RECORD REVIEW

The Bridge Quartet approach these pieces with a sympathetic and insightful warmth, and confirm their ambassadorial credentials for British chamber music. A lovely, radiant disc.
EMR CD025 | Gramophone
Duncan Honeybourne’s playing is astonishingly affectionate, yet never saccharine... Honeybourne plays with suave confidence.
EMR CD024 | INTERNATIONAL PIANO
Rupert Marshall-Luck is an ideal interpreter: generously but not effusively lyrical; agile and athletic... The warm, folk-song like slow movement is at times almost painfully beautiful, with a shimmering pastoral central section... Marshall-Luck is, again, indefatigable and keenly picks up on the work’s melancholic strain.  Finely recorded and with comprehensive booklet notes, this is a must for fans of 20th-century English repertoire.
EMR CD023 | THE STRAD