Chapel of King's College, Cambridge [R] tx Dec 25th 2019

[DracoM]

Chapel of King's College, Cambridge [R] tx Dec 25th 2019
Recorded on Christmas Eve 2019

Order of Service:


Once in royal David's city (descant Cleobury)
Bidding Prayer read by the Dean
Sussex Carol (arr. Vaughan Williams)

First lesson: Genesis 3: 8-15, 17-19 read by a Chorister
The Truth from Above (Vaughan Williams (arr. Robinson)

Second lesson: Genesis 22:15-19 read by a Choral Scholar
Angels from the realms of glory (arr. Jaques)
Ding dong! merrily on high ( arr. Willcocks )

Third lesson: Isaiah 9: 2, 6-7 read by a representative of the Cambridge churches
It came upon the midnight clear (descant Scott)
O little town of Bethlehem (Sir Henry Walford Davies)

Fourth lesson: Isaiah 11: 1-4a, 6-9 read by the Chaplain
There is no rose (Dame Elizabeth Maconchy)
The Lamb (John Tavener)

Fifth lesson: Luke 1: 26-35, 38 read by a member of College staff
The Angel Gabriel (2019 commission - Philip Moore)
Joys Seven (arr. Cleobury)

Sixth lesson: Luke 2:1-7 read by a representative of the City of Cambridge
Silent night (arr. Cleobury)
Candlelight Carol (John Rutter)

Seventh lesson: Luke 2: 8-17 read by the Director of Music
While shepherds watched their flocks by night
Away in a manger (arr. Cleobury)

Eighth lesson: Matthew 2: 1-12 read by the Vice-Provost
Coventry Carol (Kenneth Leighton)
Sir Christèmas (William Mathias)

Ninth lesson: John 1: 1-14 read by the Provost
O come, all ye faithful (descant Willcocks)
Collect and Blessing

Hark! The herald angels sing (descant Ledger)

Organ voluntaries:
In dulci jubilo (BWV 729) (Bach)
Final from Symphonie VI (Louis Vierne)

Director of Music - Daniel Hyde
Organ Scholar - Dónal McCann
Chaplain – The Revd Andrew Hammond
Dean – The Revd Stephen Cherry

[CallMePaul]

This will be broadcast live on R4 on Christmas Eve at 15:00

[DracoM]

Bump

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Good to have a Philip Ledger descant once again, but I wish it had been the one he wrote for Once in Royal... It’s everything a descant should be - lifting the music without causing bewilderment, For all the good work Stephen Cleobury did, I was hoping we’d heard the last of his descents. Maybe next year?

[jonfan]

Wow, edge of the seat singing! Risk taking in the attack, Mathias and Leighton as examples. Thoroughly enjoyed every moment. Congratulations DH and everyone.

[edashtav]

Wow, edge of the seat singing! Risk taking in the attack, Mathias and Leighton as examples. Thoroughly enjoyed every moment. Congratulations DH and everyone.

The new regime reached for, and achieved, new standards of excellence. A splendid service. I'm with Alpie re Cleobury's descants.

[ardcarp]

I really enjoyed that. I felt the choir was less 'buttoned-up', and some real musicality came across. A tenor line to die for! I enjoyed the Moore commission too.

[Petrushka]

Greatly enjoyed here. Fine sound coming through on Radio 4 and a great start to the Christmas festivities.

[Alison]

Very enjoyable, freshly minted. More trenchant singing where required.

And the suspicion that the best is yet to come.

[DracoM]

Yes.
Open chests, full-throated with plenty of confidence. Decent solos - one or two even better than that. Disciplined and keen to impress that the future's OK.

[Vox Humana]

I thoroughly enjoyed that - and the TV broadcast was, if anything, even better. All very impressive indeed. Wonderful blend and balance throughout, not least because of the evident attention paid to getting unanimous vowels sounds. All the speeds were perfectly chosen too - nothing hard-pressed and no hint of fighting against the acoustic. In fact, Mr Hyde was clearly embracing it and treating it as an element of the overall sound. It was like returning to the old sound of the Willcocks/Ledger days - Hurrah! And, presumably, this is just for starters.

[Alison]

Good to give In the Bleak a rest.

[Vox Humana]

And Edgar Pettman

[Alison]

And Edgar Pettman

Yes.

[mw963]

Shame the congregation see fit to make quite so much noise during that oh-so-incidental bit of Vierne on that oh-so-noisy organ. I suppose even the BBC are cowed by the grandeur of Cambridge that they can't impose their normal embargo on people leaving before the voluntary comes to an end.

A lovely broadcast, although I didn't feel that the technical balance gave quite the immediacy to the choir bits as might have been desirable, although that's better than being too close of course.