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Home , Andrew Nethsingha, Herbert Brewer, Herbert Howells, Magnificat (Rutter)

includes premiere recordings

St John’s Choral Works by

Choir of St John’s College,Cambridge Andrew Nethsingha

CHAN 10587 Herbert Howells (1892 –1983) St John’s Magnificat © Clive Barda / ArenaPAL 1 A Sequence for St Michael 10:02 Pablo Strong tenor

2 By the Waters of Babylon* 10:11

3 A Spotless Rose 3:24 Gareth John baritone

Magnificat and (Gloucester Service) 11:26 4 Magnificat 6:50 5 Nunc Dimittis 4:31

premiere recording 6 Psalm 142 4:14

premiere recording 7 A Grace for 10 Downing Street 2:29 Dominic Kraemer baritone Francis Williams tenor Herbert Howells

3 8 One Thing Have I Desired 5:38

9 Like as the Hart 5:50 The of St John’s College, Cambridge Thomas Mullock treble Director of Music Andrew Nethsingha Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis Senior Timothy Ravalde (Collegium Sancti Johannis Cantabrigiense) 7:33 10 Magnificat 4:26 treble counter-tenor tenor bass 11 Nunc Dimittis 3:03 Patrick Baldwin Dominic Collingwood Samuel Furness George Dye Robert Baldwin Oliver Hunt Nicholas Morell Gareth John Ethan Bamber Leo Tomita Bradley Smith Tristan Hambleton 12 Salve Regina 4:44 Alexander Bower-Brown Tom Verney Pablo Strong Dominic Kraemer Thomas Last treble Edward Campbell Francis Williams Basil McDonald Harry Cheatle Henry Neill 13 (Collegium Regale) 9:01 Theodore Day Julius Foo TT 75:33 Benjamin Glass * Peter Hicks Paul Whelan baritone William Jackson David Adams * Thomas Last Alice Neary * Thomas Mullock George Smith Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge Justin Stollery Andrew Nethsingha Thomas Williams

4 5 years was funded by the Carnegie UK Trust ‘48’ in concerts at St John’s. The other, Martin Howells: to help Richard Terry edit Tudor Charlesworth, was President of the College; St John’s Magnificat at . This experience he was a classicist, and also a fine pianist also had a profound influence on his future with whom Howells often played duets. The name of Herbert Howells may be more remember that in 1943 Howells was fifty-one work. Third, and perhaps most important of Howells, therefore, had the best of all immediately associated with King’s College, years old and his taking this new direction all, was the fact that these brief years spent worlds during this extraordinary four-year Cambridge because of his Collegium Regale at the height of his maturity has all the in the academic hothouse of Cambridge were interlude. Well aware that his organ playing settings, and with hallmarks of a ‘road to Damascus’ conversion. perhaps the happiest of Howells’s life. was extremely rusty, he spent a good deal because of his personal associations from In reality, he had simply found his medium. Howells spent four days a week in of time practising, usually early on Sunday childhood. But it was his time as acting After the debacle surrounding the first Cambridge, leaving London on a Thursday and mornings. His first day at the college, organist at St John’s College, Cambridge performance of his Second Piano Concerto returning on Monday. His suite of rooms was 3 October 1941, was spent almost entirely in (1941–45), whilst was away on in 1925 he had lost all his confidence. The H1 on the first floor of H staircase in Second the organ loft. On 9 December that same year active service in the RAF during the second enthusiastic reception of this new phase Court, which had the rare privilege at the he wrote to Julius Harrison, saying: World War, that led Dean Milner-White, of composition gave him a renewed self- time of a private bathroom. He was given a …you’re not the only musical Methuselah recently translated to the Deanery at York, to confidence which in turn fed his creativity. Fellowship in addition to his remuneration, crawling up organ loft steps these days, describe Howells as having opened ‘a wholly There are, however, various important and free meals in Hall. He loved this aspect or persuading leg-muscles to recall their new chapter in Service, perhaps in Church, points to consider here. First, as this of college life in particular, seeking to learn pedalling acts of 20 or 30 years ago, music’. Milner-White was Dean of King’s recording amply demonstrates, Howells had from whichever Don was sitting next to or making the seat of his trousers 50% College when in 1943 he invited Howells and been writing church music all his life, so it him about the latest academic research in more shiny than they were before the to tea with Boris Ord. Their was really the concentration on this genre whichever field he happened to work. Howells war interfered with the decencies of our discussion turned to settings of the Te Deum which was new. Second, he had not been would then use this knowledge as the basis careers. and Milner-White laid a guinea on the table actively involved in church music since 1917 of his Monday morning lecture at the Royal Of course, standards were not then as as a kind of ‘bet’ – perhaps more accurately a when he spent the period from mid-February College of Music, which Parry had instituted they are now, and the choir at St John’s was challenge – to the two composers to produce to mid-May as assistant organist to Walter to broaden the minds of the students, the a fairly run-of-the-mill affair which sang only a new setting. Hadley, later to become Alcock at . Serious lecture being on any subject other than at weekends. There were ‘professional’ lay Professor of Music at Cambridge, did not take illness forced his resignation and a complete music. Howells made close friendships with clerks who sang with such stentorian tone the bait, but Howells did, and the rest, as the withdrawal from the musical scene for two distinguished Fellows of St John’s. The that the choral scholars who sang alongside phrase goes, is history. It is a remarkable some months (he had initially been given six first was Max Newman, a mathematician them (known as ‘choral students’ at St John’s) story given Howells’s concentration on music months to live). A guinea pig for ground- working on code-breaking at Bletchley often felt completely superfluous. Howells’s for church services after this. It is as if he breaking radium treatment, he was soon able Park; he was also a remarkable amateur organ voluntaries are also a matter of some had suddenly found his vocation. One must to take up light work, and for the next three musician who played the whole of Bach’s debate, but the story goes that Howells never

6 7 played a piece of printed music in his Te Deum (Collegium Regale) Te Deum: my favourite moments being ‘We ‘Anthems in Time of War’, a series title which entire time at Cambridge, improvising The only work recorded here which was therefore pray thee’, ‘Vouchsafe O Lord’, was eventually dropped in favour of the more at every service. What a crying shame actually written during the time Howells & the cadence at ‘Also the Holy Ghost prosaic Four Anthems, which we know today that there is no recording of any of these spent at St John’s was the Collegium the comforter’ – it is always so effective as ‘O Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem’, ‘We performances! How interesting it would be Regale Te Deum referred to earlier. The nice when you allow yourself the rare luxury of have heard with our ears’, ‘Let God Arise’ and to know to what extent the style of his coincidence was that his close friend Harold a dominant seventh or ninth. I gather the ‘Like as the Hart’. Psalm Preludes and Rhapsodies grew out Darke was just down the road at King’s, choir like it: in fact I heard the youngest of his ability to improvise in this vein. standing in for Boris Ord who, like Robin Orr, choral scholar describe it as ‘wizard’, than Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis According to the late John Williams, a was also away on active service. There was which what higher praise could you desire? (Gloucester Service) choral student during Howells’s time, thus a well-worn path trodden between the The first setting of the evening to Howells’s keyboard technique was ‘rather two colleges situated only a few hundred Like as the Hart follow the Collegium Regale settings of 1945 like the technique you use for playing yards apart, and the feelings Howells held The anthem in this programme written was, perhaps unsurprisingly, that dedicated Couperin, without thumbs, in a way – for King’s – its extraordinary beauty, its closest to Howells’s Cambridge period is ‘Like to Howells’s ‘own’ Cathedral at Gloucester, lumpy’. Williams also noted that Howells’s acoustic and fine choir directed by his old as the Hart desireth the waterbrooks’. This where he had had so many of his formative conducting style was ‘meticulous, precise friend – were burned into his consciousness must be Howells’s best-loved piece of church musical experiences and had been an and too fussy. He tried to beat every note’. and were probably the mental trigger for his music. There are various reasons for this. ‘articled’ pupil to along with So we build up a picture of Howells at subsequent focus on dedications to people Much of Howells’s choral music is difficult and . Howells picks up this time, dressed, according to Sir John and places. Howells wrote of it: to perform but this is quite straightforward. again ‘new’ elements which he had used for Margetson, another ex-choral student, in In all my music for the Church, people It has beautiful, languid melodic lines which the first time in the King’s settings, especially his ‘uniform’, ‘always turning up in a dark and places have been a dual influence… turn the young deer’s desire for water into an the recitative-like opening for boys’ voices, suit, a blue shirt and a red tie’ and, according Men, , ecclesiastical buildings have erotic experience, an organ part which is not reflecting the fact that this is Mary’s song. to , become inseparably a part of that force. quite certain if it is in church or a jazz club, The thin dividing line between spirituality and always doing things quickly… I think to a So too have exemplars and – acoustics. so bluesy is its language, and an ending in sensuality, referred to in connection with certain extent he was a bit highly strung… (Sleeve note for Argo RG507) which an angelic treble voice descants over ‘Like as the Hart’, is now emblazoned like As a teacher I should have thought very On the day of the first performance of both perfectly spaced choral chords, leading to personal colours. The simple repetition of the good if the person concerned was any the Te Deum and Jubilate (20 May 1945) Philip one of Howells’s signature ‘cluster’ cadences. ‘’ in Coll. Reg. is abandoned in favour of a good. I don’t know whether he had the Radcliffe wrote to Howells to say: The work was written in one sitting on technique which we also see in the St John’s patience to deal with people who possibly I thought you might like to know that 8 January 1941 while the Howells family were Service, where the ‘Gloria’ of the Nunc Dimittis hadn’t got much ability. In that case I think Howells in E flat Coll. Regale had its snowed up in a rented house in Cheltenham. begins in much the same way as that of the he would probably talk to them about premiere in Chapel this morning. I Howells wrote a whole series of anthems Magnificat, but grows wings at key moments cricket. enjoyed it very much, especially the during these days, which he initially called so that, following the ‘Nunc Dimittis’ there is

8 9 an incredible ratcheting up of the tension and current settings, including one for St John’s in 1935. This was a loss from which Howells The idea of the totality of that silence, and the emotional excitement. In the Gloucester which did not actually exist, Howells decided never recovered. In his diaries he noted gradual murmur of those countless souls, is setting, the key moment occurs when the he had better offer (then organist Michael’s anniversary year after year. Howells quite overwhelming. trebles soar up a at ‘As it was in of the College) a newly written setting and offer took any opportunity he could to write about the beginning’. Howells knew all about pulling to write one for Salisbury later – for which the Michael in music. , the slow One Thing Have I Desired rabbits out of hats and understood instinctively Cathedral had to wait until 1966. In fact, the movement of his Concerto for Strings Seven years after composing the Sequence, the power of such music in a reverberant setting for St John’s, rather like that for New (a joint memorial to Michael and Elgar), his Howells was commissioned to write a motet acoustic and in unmatchable architectural College, Oxford, is ideally suited to the smaller Psalm Prelude De profundis, the Stabat Mater – for the Patronal Festival in 1968 of the Church surroundings. This was Milner-White’s ‘new spaces of the Cambridge chapel, and its less which he was in the process of writing when of St Matthew, Northampton by that great chapter in Church music’. It was a remarkably complex approach to part-writing gives the he broke off to write this Sequence – and patron of the arts, Walter Hussey, its vicar. A prescient observation. work a clarity which is not often a hallmark of various other works were all part of his effort to passionate believer in the creation of a new Howells’s style. lay the ghost of his dead son. But nowhere is legacy of great works of art for the church, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis the music more reflective of raw grief than in Hussey commissioned widely, from John Piper, (Collegium Sancti Johannis Cantabrigiense) A Sequence for St Michael the opening cries of the boy’s name with which Graham Sutherland, Henry Moore, Marc Chagall Two other works here have their origins in The other St John’s work is A Sequence for the Sequence begins. There is no English (at Chichester where he went on to become Howells’s St John’s association. The first is the St Michael which Howells wrote for the 450th obfuscation here; the tears are real, and painful Dean), Britten, Finzi, Dyson, Bernstein, Lennox settings for the College, just referred anniversary in 1961 of the foundation of the to witness. But Howells works through his grief; Berkeley, Walton and, of course, Howells, to. But this is where we come across the first College. This is an extended motet in Howells’s the mystical text provides him with the kind of amongst many others. Unsurprisingly, Howells of many problems associated with the various most complex style – almost in the manner of a imagery which feeds his musical imagination, chose a text of passionate longing in the form pronouncements Howells made about his mini-cantata. The text is a translation made by and he responds to it instinctively. The central of four verses from Psalm 27. The words are all music. He often either did not remember the Helen Waddell of a mediaeval Latin lyric by section is given to a tenor soloist who sings of perfectly relevant to the occasion as they refer facts or purposefully ‘obscured’ the truth about Alcuin. Howells was very familiar with Waddell’s ‘A censer of gold in thy hands’, the smoke from to ‘the house of the Lord’, and to it as a place their origins or circumstances. For many years work and it was to Waddell that he turned for which rises until it comes before God. But it is of safety ‘in the time of trouble’. The setting is we have been led to believe that all Howells’s the words of his motet for the memorial service what follows which proves descriptively full of that languorous sensuality so typical of canticle settings were written specifically for for President Kennedy, Take him, earth, for powerful to a particular degree: Howells when in this mode. The final section individuals and for the acoustical properties cherishing. But this Sequence is personal to Thou with strong hand didst smite the sees an increase of energy and speed as of particular buildings. However, the story Howells on at least two levels: first, and most cruel dragon, the text turns to offering praise to God in his becomes blurred in the case of this setting obviously, because of his association with And many souls didst rescue from his jaws. house ‘with great gladness’, and leads to an which was originally intended for Salisbury St John’s; second, however, and much more Then was there a great silence in heaven, exultant climax in C major. A dangerous pause Cathedral. Following a mistake in an article by deeply, this is a ‘Michael’ piece. As is well And a thousand thousand saying ‘Glory to follows (during which, in the first performance, Frank Howes who in 1956 listed all Howells’s known, Howells lost his son Michael, aged nine, the Lord King’. the priest uttered the immortal words ‘Let us

10 11 pray’), after which the choir quietly reflects on enjoyed brief moments of such recreation. which Howells had been assimilating since being slaughtered, and that he might die in the opening idea. A coda of sensual beauty There were four, for instance, written as his first exposure to it in 1912. His personality his own bed, will not have eluded him. The ends with a ‘clustered’ plagal cadence. ‘Ante-breakfast chants written for Lionel’ emerges strongly, however; the enjoyment of similarities between the string writing in (that is, Lionel Dakers) in 1974. Breakfast time rich vocal sonorities – gained by the use of this work and that in his recently composed A Grace for 10 Downing Street was obviously a good moment for him, and multiple vocal parts, in this case two soprano Phantasy string quartet are clear to hear. It is The other work on this recording from the the hymn tune ‘Michael’ (‘All my hope on God and two bass parts – is especially obvious. perhaps instructive to turn to what Howells post-Johnian period of Howells’s life is the is founded’) was also written over rapidly Howells here also experiments with the use wrote about that work in his diary of 1919: unusual A Grace for 10 Downing Street. This cooling bacon and eggs. The chant for of a soprano (or treble) solo over quietly static influence of Folk-music is paramount in was commissioned by the then Prime Minister, Psalm 142 recorded here is vintage Howells; chords, as in ‘Like as the Hart’ and to similar this. But here again is a compromise. I am a Edward Heath, for a dinner to be given at the text has all the reflective elements which effect. ‘modern’ in this, but a Britisher too! One of Downing Street on 29 March 1972 in honour of he so enjoyed setting to music, and the piece my best works, I think. the seventieth birthday of Sir William Walton. culminates in a direct false relation at the By the Waters of Babylon The ‘compromise’ has something to do with The words were written by Robert Armstrong, final cadence. The undoubted ‘novelty’ on this disc is By the adopting the mood of the folk idiom, and not son of Sir Thomas Armstrong, a close friend Waters of Babylon for baritone solo, violin, cello with the reproduction of the mannerisms of of Howells’s who had been organist of Salve Regina and organ, dating from 1917. Howells called it folksong, which Howells never used. It has to St George’s, Windsor and Christ Church, The other works recorded here come from a ‘rhapsody’, a description well supported by do with evoking the atmosphere engendered Oxford before becoming Principal of the Royal the earliest period of Howells’s life as a his approach to the writing. The music is full by the beauty of natural things – hence the Academy of Music, from which he had retired professional composer. Dating from 1915, the of regret and the text, from Psalm 137, offers ‘echo’ in this work of the soaring violin line in in 1968. His son Robert went into politics, Salve Regina was written for Richard Terry a variety of stimuli. The piece was written in Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending, a work becoming Cabinet Secretary and eventually and Westminster Cathedral. Howells had July, shortly after his enforced resignation which Howells had almost certainly not heard: receiving a life peerage as Lord Armstrong of been sent by Stanford to hear Terry’s choir for from Salisbury Cathedral and at a time when although written in 1914, it was not performed Ilminster. During Heath’s time as Prime Minister what the irascible old Irishman described as he was still under a death sentence, before publicly until 1920, after the war. By this token this Grace was sung at many formal dinners, ‘polyphony for a penny, my boy’. This was the the ‘miracle’ of the radium treatment turned there is a shared empathy between these two the text adjusted for general use. The music is price of the bus fare from the Royal College everything around for him. So it is likely that composers. The economy of By the Waters of typical of late Howells, with a preponderance of Music to Westminster Cathedral. Howells this intensely personal and passionate work Babylon is one of its great strengths, as is its of melismas and an almost gratuitous display was completely struck by everything he is an outpouring of regret over his apparently message from the heart. Scored for unusual of his stylistic fingerprints. heard and saw there, and as an immediate foreshortened life and the sacrifice he had forces, the piece provides a powerful and response wrote his first ‘professional’ work, recently had to make in his own career. The memorable experience. Psalm 142 the Missa Sine Nomine, later re-named Mass irony of the fact that he was not fit enough Howells wrote a number of chants during in the Dorian Mode. The Salve Regina shows to be sent to fight on the front line where A Spotless Rose his life. One always gets the feeling that he the influence of the Renaissance polyphony numbers of his friends and colleagues were Howells is said to have written twelve-part

12 13 counterpoint in a crowded hotel lobby, a The bass-baritone Paul Whelan has performed Formerly Leader of the Ulster Orchestra, David Philharmonic Orchestra, Israel Symphony story that probably is apocryphal. But the with many leading opera companies, Adams is now Leader of the Orchestra of Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, and history behind A Spotless Rose, one of three including The Royal Opera, Covent Garden, Welsh National Opera and tutor in violin at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, among others. carol-anthems which Howells wrote between De Nederlandse Opera, The Metropolitan Opera, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. He She has given recitals at the Wigmore Hall 1918 and 1920, adds weight to it, for the piece New York, Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich, has been Co-Artistic Director of the Goldberg and Purcell Room, London and Bridgewater is another example of Howells producing Grand théâtre de Genève, Opéra national de Ensemble since 2003, and was tutor in violin Hall, Manchester and made appearances at something quite unexpected in a situation far Paris–Bastille, Teatro Municipal de Santiago, at the Royal Northern College of Music from the Manchester International Cello Festival, removed from the sublime sound world of the Chile, Scottish Opera, Opera Australia, Welsh 2000 until 2006. He began his studies at the the Santa Fe and Bath festivals, and the music: National Opera, Opéra de Montpellier, and age of five with his father, Principal in International Musicians Seminar at Prussia This I sat down and wrote after idly Opéra de Nîmes. In concert he has performed the Hallé Orchestra, and continued his training Cove. A passionate chamber musician, she is watching some shunting from the with the leading orchestras in the UK, as well with Malcolm Layfield and, in the United States, a member of the Gould Piano Trio with whom window of a cottage… in Gloucester, as with the RIAS-Kammerchor, Berlin and the with Zvi Zeitlin and Daniel Phillips. Equally at she has recorded extensively, including which overlooked the Midland Railway. In Budapest Symphony Orchestra, among others, home on violin and viola, he makes frequent the complete trios by Brahms. She has also an upstairs room I looked out on railings under conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, guest appearances with the Nash Ensemble, appeared as guest cellist with the Nash and the main Bristol-Gloucester railway Kent Nagano, Sir Charles Mackerras, Richard Endellion String Quartet, Gould Piano Trio and Ensemble and the Endellion, Sorrel, and Elias line, with shunting trucks bumping and Hickox, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Valery Gergiev, Hebrides Ensemble. He regularly attends the quartets. She has broadcast on BBC Radio 3 banging. I wrote it for and dedicated it to my Gary Bertini, and Vassily Sinaisky. He has International Musicians Seminar at Prussia and in the USA on National Public Radio. Alice mother – it always moves me when I hear it, given recitals at the Wigmore Hall and Purcell Cove. In 2009 he recorded Beethoven’s String Neary plays a cello made by Alessandro just as if it were written by someone else. Room in London, St David’s Hall in Cardiff, Quintets with the Endellion Quartet and Gagliano in 1710. She is married to the violinist (Conversation with ) the Cheltenham Festival, the BBC Studios at appeared at the Wigmore Hall as part of the David Adams. The final magical cadence moved Patrick Pebble Mill, Birmingham, the Perth Festival of Quartet’s thirtieth anniversary celebrations. Hadley to write to Howells in 1955: the Arts and the Châtelet Théâtre musical in David Adams plays a viola made by John Betts Timothy Ravalde was educated at the O Herbert, that cadence to A Spotless Paris. Paul Whelan appears in recordings of c. 1840, previously played by his father. Nelson Thomlinson School, Wigton. While in Rose is not merely ‘one of those things’. A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the London sixth form he was Organ Scholar at Carlisle Brainwave it certainly is, but it is much more Symphony Orchestra under Sir Colin Davis, Alice Neary was the winner of the 1998 Pierre Cathedral and became a Fellow of the Royal than that. It is a stroke of genius. I should Kurt Weill’s Silbersee under Markus Stenz, Fournier Award, and won major prizes in the College of Organists. From 2006 he spent a like, when my time comes, to pass away and Fra Giacomo by Cecil Coles under 1997 Adam International Cello Competition year as Organ Scholar at Salisbury Cathedral with that magical cadence. I expect you’ll Martyn Brabbins, and for Chandos has in New Zealand and the 2001 Leonard Rose where his duties included accompanying say you hadn’t to think, it was already there. recorded An English Idyll by Edgar Bainton Competition in the USA. She has performed and directing both the boys’ and girls’ choirs. with the BBC Philharmonic, also under concertos with the Ulster Orchestra, During his time at St John’s College he has © 2010 Martyn Brabbins. Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Liverpool acted as Musical Director of the

14 15 St John’s Singers, the College’s mixed-voice to the University) as Choral Students. Two College, Cambridge where his innovations have Society. He has worked regularly with some choir. He has recently given organ recitals in Organ Scholars assist the Director of Music in included the weekly webcasts and the Bach of the UK’s leading orchestras. Concerts such venues as King’s College, Cambridge the running of the Choir, attending the daily cantata series. He received his early musical with the and the and Newcastle, Blackburn, and Hereford rehearsals, and accompanying the services training as a chorister at Exeter Cathedral, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra have included Cathedrals. He is now in his final year studying in Chapel. where his father was organist for over a performances of Britten’s War , Music at St John’s College. He learns the organ The Choir possesses a distinctive, rich, quarter of a century. He later studied at the Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, Elgar’s The with David Sanger and in March 2009 won expressive sound which sets it apart from , where he won seven Kingdom, symphonies by Beethoven, and the Brian Runnett Prize for organ playing at most other English cathedral choirs. For prizes, and at St John’s College, Cambridge. Gershwin’s An American in Paris. He has also Cambridge. Timothy Ravalde has recently been several decades it has performed around the He held Organ Scholarships under Christopher worked with the City of Birmingham Symphony appointed to the position of Assistant Organist world, including the USA, Canada, Brazil, South Robinson and George Guest, and worked at Orchestra, the London Mozart Players, and the at Chichester Cathedral, a post he will take up Africa, Japan, and Australia. Recent European Wells, Truro, and Gloucester Cathedrals. Other BBC Concert Orchestra. Most recently Andrew in September 2010. concert venues have included the Amsterdam recent positions have included Artistic Director Nethsingha made his debuts at the BBC Proms, Concertgebouw, Budapest Palace of Arts, the of the Gloucester and in Birmingham Symphony Hall, and at the The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge Bregenz Festival and the BBC Proms. Under its Musical Director of the Gloucester Choral Amsterdam Concertgebouw. is one of the finest collegiate choirs in the legendary former conductors George Guest, world, known and loved by millions from its Christopher Robinson and David Hill, the Choir recordings, broadcasts and concert tours. The of St John’s College, Cambridge has over the services follow the Cathedral tradition of the last forty years produced an extraordinary and , and the Choir has fulfilled extensive discography. Each term it sings this role in the life of the College since the Bach cantatas liturgically with members of 1670s. The Choir consists of sixteen Choristers the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. and four Probationers, all educated at St John’s St John’s is the only British choir to webcast College School. There they receive a unique services weekly throughout the year. musical education in the hands of the Director www.sjcchoir.co.uk/webcast of Music, Andrew Nethsingha, and Choristers receive bursaries of between 66% and 100% Performing as an organist and a conductor of fees at St John’s College School. The alto, in North America, South Africa, China, and tenor and bass parts are taken by young men throughout Europe, Andrew Nethsingha who are usually undergraduate members is President of the Cathedral Organists’ of the College and who are selected to their Association and in September 2007 was places in the College Choir (and therefore appointed Director of Music at St John’s

16 17 Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge, with Andrew Nethsingha Ben Wright Ben Sophie Baker Anthony Hurren

Paul Whelan David Adams Alice Neary

19 1 A Sequence for St Michael Hear us, Michael, For they that led us away captive required The Rose which I am singing, Michael, Archangel, Greatest angel, of us then a song and melody in our Whereof Isaiah said, Of the King of Kings, Come down a little heaviness: Sing us one of the songs Is from its sweet root springing Give ear to our voices. From thy high seat, of Sion. In Mary, purest Maid; To bring us the strength of God, How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a For through our God’s great love and We acknowledge thee to be the Prince of And the lightening of His mercy. strange land? might, the citizens of heaven­ If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right The Blessed Babe she bare us And at thy prayer God sends And do thou, Gabriel, hand forget her cunning. In a cold winter’s night. Lay low our foes, If I do not remember thee, let my tongue His angels unto men, Anonymous fourteenth-century carol And thou, Raphael, cleave to the roof of my mouth, yea, if That the enemy with cunning craft shall Heal our sick, I prefer not Jerusalem in my mirth. not prevail Purge our disease, ease thou our pain, Remember the children of Edom, O Lord, To do the hurt he craves And give us to share in the day of Jerusalem: how they 4 Magnificat To weary men. In the joys of the blessed. said, ‘Down with it, even to the & My soul doth magnify the Lord and my ground!’ 10 spirit hath rejoiced in God my Yea, thou hast the dominion of perpetual Alcuin (735 – 804) O daughter of Babylon, wasted with Saviour. Paradise, Translated by Helen Waddell (1889 – 1965) misery: yea, happy shall he be who For He hath regarded the lowliness of His And ever do the holy angels honour thee. from Mediaeval Latin Lyrics rewardest thee, as thou hast handmaiden. (Constable, London, 1929) served us. For behold, from henceforth, all Thou wast seen in the Temple of God, © All rights reserved generations shall call me blessed. A censer of gold in thy hands, Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Psalm 137: 1 – 8 For He that is mighty hath magnified me And the smoke of it fragrant with spices Helen Waddell and Constable & Robinson Ltd Rose up till it came before God. and holy is His name. And His mercy is on them that fear Him Thou with strong hand didst smite the 3 A Spotless Rose throughout all generations. cruel dragon, 2 By the Waters of Babylon A Spotless Rose is blowing, He hath shewed strength with His arm; And many souls didst rescue from his jaws. By the waters of Babylon we sat down Sprung from a tender root, He hath scattered the proud in the Then was there a great silence in heaven, and wept, when we remembered Of ancient seers’ foreshowing, imagination of their hearts. And a thousand thousand saying, ‘Glory to thee, O Sion. Of Jesse promised fruit; He hath put down the mighty from their the Lord King’. As for our harps, we hanged them up Its fairest bud unfolds to light seat and hath exalted the humble and upon the trees that are therein. Amid the cold, cold winter, meek. And in the dark midnight.

20 21 He hath filled the hungry with good things 6 Psalm 142 7 A Grace for 10 Downing Street For in the time of trouble he shall hide me and the rich He hath sent empty I cried unto the Lord with my voice: Bless this house, O Lord, we pray, in His tabernacle, yea, in the secret away. yea, even unto the Lord did I make my Bless the food we eat this day. place of His dwelling shall He hide He remembering His mercy hath holpen supplication. me, and set me up upon a rock his servant Israel, a­­s He promised I poured out my complaints before Him: God save The Queen, preserve our host, of stone. to our forefathers, Abraham and his and shewed Him of my trouble. And hearken to our festal toast. And now shall He lift up mine head above seed for ever. When my spirit was in heaviness Thou May those we welcome happy be mine enemies round about me. Therefore will I offer in His dwelling an Luke 1: 46 – 55 knewest my path: in the way wherein In pastime with good company I walked have they privily laid a snare oblation with great gladness, I will for me. Benedictus benedicat; sing, and speak praises unto the Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and I looked also upon my right hand: and saw per Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum. Lord with great gladness. to the Holy Ghost. there was no man that would know me. (May the Blessed one bless [this food] Psalm 27: 4 – 7 As it was in the beginning, is now, and I had no place to flee unto: and no man Through Jesus Christ our Lord.) ever shall be, world without end. Amen. cared for my soul. I cried unto Thee, O Lord, and said: Thou Amen. art my hope, and my portion in the 9 Like as the Hart Rob­­ert Armstrong (b. 1927) 5 Nunc Dimittis land of the living. Like as the hart desireth the waterbrooks: (Lord Armstrong of Ilminster) & Lord, now lettest thou Thy servant depart Consider my complaint: for I am brought so longeth my soul after Thee, O God. © 1992 Novello & Co., Ltd 11 in peace: according to Thy word. very low. My soul is athirst for God, yea, even for All Rights Reserved For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, O deliver me from my persecutors: for the living God; when shall I come International Copyright Secured Which Thou hast prepared before the they are too strong for me. to appear before the presence of God? Reprinted by Permission face of all people; Bring my soul out of prison, that I may My tears have been my meat day and To be a light to lighten the Gentiles and to give thanks unto Thy Name: which night, while they daily say unto me, be the glory of Thy people Israel. thing if Thou wilt grant me, then ‘Where is now thy God?’ 8 Luke 2: 29 – 32 shall the righteous resort unto my One Thing Have I Desired Psalm 42: 1 – 3 company. One thing have I desired of the Lord, which I will require: even that I may Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and dwell in the house of the Lord all the to the Holy Ghost. to the Holy Ghost. days of my life, 12 Salve Regina As it was in the beginning, is now, and As it was in the beginning, is now, and To behold the fair beauty of the Lord, and Salve, Regina, mater misericordiae: ever shall be, world without end. ever shall be, world without end. to visit His temple. Vita, dulcedo et spes nostra, salve. Amen. Amen.

22 23 Ad te clamamus, exsules filii Hevae; All the earth doth worship Thee, the We therefore pray Thee, help Thy Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day Ad te suspiramus, Father everlasting. servants, whom Thou hast redeemed without sin. Gementes et flentes in hac lacrimarum To Thee all angels cry aloud, the Heavens, with Thy precious blood. O Lord, have mercy upon us, have mercy valle. and all the powers therein. Make them to be numbered with Thy upon us. Eia ergo, Advocata nostra , To Thee Cherubin and Seraphin Saints in glory everlasting. O Lord, let Thy mercy lighten upon us as Illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos continually do cry, O Lord, save Thy people and bless Thine our trust is in Thee. converte. Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth, heritage. O Lord, in Thee have I trusted, let me Et Jesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui, Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty Govern them and lift them up for ever. never be confounded. Nobis post hoc exsilium ostende. of Thy glory. Day by day we magnify Thee; Early Christian hymn O clemens, O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria. The glorious company of the Apostles And we worship Thy Name ever world praise Thee. without end. (Hail, Queen, mother of mercy: The goodly fellowship of the Prophets Our life, our sweetness and our hope, hail. praise Thee. To thee do we cry, poor banished children The noble army of Martyrs praise Thee. of Eve. The Holy Church throughout all the world To thee do we send up our sighs, doth acknowledge Thee; Mourning and weeping in this valley of The Father of an infinite Majesty, tears. Thine honourable, true, and only Son, Turn then, our advocate, Also the Holy Ghost, the Comforter. Thine eyes of mercy towards us. Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ, After this, our exile, show unto us the Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father. blessed fruit When Thou took’st upon Thee to deliver Of your womb, Jesus. man, Thou didst not abhor the Virgin’s O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.) womb. When Thou hadst overcome the Marian hymn sharpness of death, Thou didst open the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers. Thou sittest at the right hand of God in 13 Te Deum the Glory of the Father. We praise Thee, O God, we acknowledge We believe that Thou shalt come to be Thee to be the Lord. our Judge.

24 25 Ben Wright Ben

Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge, with Andrew Nethsingha 26 27 Also available Also available

Howells Howells Orchestral Works Missa Sabrinensis • Stabat Mater CHAN 241-20 CHAN 241-27

28 29 This recording was made with generous support from the Herbert Howells Trust. www.howellstrust.org.uk

The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge is the first choir of its kind in Europe to broadcast weekly webcasts of its services. Webcasts can be heard at www.sjcchoir.co.uk/webcast.

Recording producer You can now purchase Chandos CDs online at our website: www.chandos.net Sound engineer John Rutter To order CDs by mail or telephone please contact Liz: 0845 370 4994 Editor John Rutter Mastering Jonathan Cooper For requests to license tracks from this CD or any other Chandos discs please find application forms on A & R administrator Mary McCarthy the Chandos website or contact the Finance Director, Chandos Records Ltd, direct at the address below Recording venue St John’s College Chapel, Cambridge; 9 and 10 January & 13 and 14 July 2009 or via e-mail at [email protected]. Front cover ‘St John’s College, New Court’, photograph © John Eaton Chandos Records Ltd, Chandos House, 1 Commerce Park, Commerce Way, Colchester, Back cover Photograph of Andrew Nethsingha by Ronald Knapp Essex CO2 8HX, UK. E-mail: [email protected] Design and typesetting Cassidy Rayne Creative (www.cassidyrayne.co.uk) Telephone: + 44 (0)1206 225 200 Fax: + 44 (0)1206 225 201 Booklet editor Finn S. Gundersen Copyright Stainer & Bell Ltd (A Spotless Rose), (‘Like as the Hart’), Copyright Control Chandos 24-bit recording (Psalm 142), Novello & Co. (other works) The Chandos policy of being at the forefront of technology is now further advanced by the use of 24-bit p 2010 Chandos Records Ltd recording. 24-bit has a dynamic range that is up to 48 dB greater and up to 256 times the resolution of c 2010 Chandos Records Ltd standard 16-bit recordings. These improvements now let you the listener enjoy more of the natural clarity and Chandos Records Ltd, Colchester, Essex CO2 8HX, England ambience of the ‘Chandos sound’. Country of origin UK

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