557203bk Britten US 16/09/2003 12:12 pm Page 20 DDD English Choral Music 8.557203 Benjamin BRITTEN St Nicolas (A Cantata) Christ’s Nativity Philip Langridge, Tenor Tallis Chamber Choir English Chamber Orchestra 8.555794 Steuart Bedford 8.557203 20 557203bk Britten US 16/09/2003 12:12 pm Page 2 BENJAMIN BRITTEN (1913 – 1976) St Nicolas, Op. 42 A Cantata 1 Introduction 5:11 2 The Birth of Nicolas 2:21 3 Nicolas devotes himself to God 3:58 4 He journeys to Palestine 7:33 5 He comes to Myra and is chosen Bishop 6:25 6 Nicolas from Prison 2:36 7 Nicolas and the Pickled Boys 6:15 8 His Piety and Marvellous Works 5:05 9 The Death of Nicolas 5:55 Christ’s Nativity Christmas Suite for Chorus (1931) 0 Christ’s Nativity 2:41 ! Sweet was the Song 3:14 Judith Harris, mezzo-soprano @ Preparations 3:31 # New Prince, New Pomp 4:34 Margaret Feaviour, soprano $ Carol of King Cnut 2:19 % Psalm 150, Op. 67 4:21 8.554659 8.557203 2 19 8.557203 557203bk Britten US 16/09/2003 12:12 pm Page 18 St Nicolas, Op. 42 Other releases in this series include: Philip Langridge, Tenor Tallis Chamber Choir English Chamber Orchestra David Owen Norris, Piano Rolf Hind, Piano Joseph Cullen, Organ Nicholas Elstob, young Nicolas Tom Jackman, Sebastian Stent, Henry Manning, Pickled Boys Christ’s Nativity BBC Singers Psalm 150, Op. 67 New London Children’s Choir London Schools Symphony Orchestra Steuart Bedford, conductor BBC Singers Soprano: Jennifer Adams-Barbaro, Joanne Andrews, Margaret Feaviour, Carolyn Foulkes, Amanda Morrison, Pamela Priestley-Smith Alto: Lynette Alcantara, Jaqueline Connell, Jacqueline Fox, Judith Harris, Kim Porter, Kay Smith Tenor: Simon Biazeck, Eugene Ginty, Christopher Hobkirk, Ian Kennedy, Douglas Leigh, Andrew Murgatroyd Bass: Richard Bourne, Geoffrey Davidson, Stuart MacIntyre, Paul Parfitt, Brindley Sherratt, Graham Titus 8.554791 8.557203 18 3 8.557203 557203bk Britten US 16/09/2003 12:12 pm Page 4 Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) $ Carol of King Cnut % Psalm 150, Op. 67 St Nicolas • Christ’s Nativity • Psalm 150 Words by C.W. Stubbs (1845-1912) O praise God in his holiness: praise him In 1947, Benjamin Britten received a commission from congregation long ago’. In the second movement, the O merry rang the hymn in the firmament of his power. Peter Pears’ old school Lancing College for a work to chorus tells of The Birth of Nicolas in a lively Allegretto Across the fenlands dim; Praise him in his noble acts: celebrate its centenary the following year. A cantata accompanied by strings and piano with imaginative O Joy the day! praise him according to his excellent greatness. based on the legend of Saint Nicolas was proposed and contributions from the percussion, including one of When Cnut the king sailed by, Praise him in the sound of the trumpet: Eric Crozier, who had worked with Britten on the opera Britten’s favourite instruments, the whip. At the end of I row my men, more nigh praise him upon the lute and harp. Albert Herring and provided the speaker’s commentary each stanza, the organ, otherwise silent in the movement, And hear that holy cry, Praise him in the cymbals and dances: for The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, was accompanies the simple chant of ‘God be glorified’, at Sing Gloria! praise him upon the strings and pipe. engaged to undertake the libretto. Britten completed the first sung by a treble voice but finally, as Nicolas reaches Praise him upon the well-tuned cymbals: composition sketch of the work in just three weeks, adulthood, by the solo tenor. In the third movement, It was the Christmas morn praise him upon the loud cymbals. perhaps spurred on by the challenge and excitement of accompanied by strings alone, Nicolas relates how, after Whereon the child was born Let everything that hath breath: writing his first large-scale work for amateur performers. the death of his parents, he devoted himself to God by O Joy the day! Praise the Lord. The first performance was given on the opening day of renouncing all material wealth and worldly pleasures. In On lily banks among Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, the first Aldeburgh Festival in June 1948 with the He journeys to Palestine, the ship’s sailors mock Nicolas Where fragrant flowers throng and to the Holy Ghost; ‘official’ première given at Lancing College the for prophesying a storm ahead when the sky is clear; the For maiden posies sprung? As it was in the beginning, is now, following month, with the composer conducting on both ship’s onward voyage, the outbreak of the tempest and Ah nay! ah nay! and ever shall be, world without end. occasions. Nicolas’ prayer for the turbulence to cease are vividly Amen. The vocal and orchestral forces required for Saint portrayed. In the fifth movement, Nicolas is chosen as It was the winter cold Nicolas were conditioned by the occasion for which it Bishop of Myra: he promises to serve his diocese and Whereon the tale was told. was intended: solo tenor, four-part chorus, a separate comfort the widowed and fatherless. A fugal episode, O Joy the day! girls chorus, piano duet, organ, percussion and strings. In ‘Serve the faith’, leads into the celebratory hymn All What hap did then befall addition, the congregation is required to participate in people that on earth do dwell in which everyone joins. In To men and women all two well-known hymn settings, each of which rounds off the following movement, Nicolas describes how he was From that poor cattle stall, the two halves of the cantata. Of these performers, the imprisoned during the persecution of the Christian O Gloria! solo tenor, who takes the part of Nicolas himself, the church by the Romans. He deplores man’s folly at first percussionist and the leaders of each of the five denying God in an agitated contrapuntal texture which is The shepherds in a row string sections need to be professionals. Otherwise, magically exchanged for a radiant D major at the words Knelt by the cradle low, Britten tailors his music to take account of the ‘Yet Christ is yours’. The seventh movement tells how in O Joy the day! limitations of less-experienced performers, but, in time of famine, three young boys have been killed, And told the angel song common with his later works for children such as The pickled and sold to the hungry. Their mothers mourn They heard, their sheep among, Little Sweep and Noye’s Fludde, without any sense of their loss, but Nicolas restores the boys to life. The When all the heavenly throng compromise or writing down. miracle is then celebrated in a general ‘Alleluia’. In His Sang gloria! Very little is known of the personal history of the piety and Marvellous works, the chorus sings of how actual Nicolas, the fourth-century Bishop of Myra. Nicolas served his people for forty years, saved them Sing joy, my masters, sing, Crozier’s text is based on the various legends from sin and brought relief to the poor and needy. In the And let the welkin ring, surrounding him, using a series of episodes from his life final movement, Nicolas sings movingly of his coming O Gloria! to build up a rounded and sympathetic portrait of the death and his impending encounter with God while And Nowell! Nowell! cry saint. In the Introduction,the chorus implores Nicolas to underneath, the choir simultaneously intone the Nunc The Child is King most High ‘Strip off your glory…and speak!’. His spirit appears to dimittis. The work then ends with a fine setting of God O sovran victory! stand in worship with them, as with his ‘faithful moves in a mysterious way in which, as with the earlier Sing Joy the day! 8.557203 4 17 8.557203 557203bk Britten US 16/09/2003 12:12 pm Page 16 ! Sweet was the Song Thus if a King were coming would we do; hymn, the full forces come together. strings, the Spring Symphony and Nocturne. Words from William Ballet’s ‘Lute Book’, 1601 And ’twere good reason too; Christ’s Nativity, originally called Thy King’s Psalm 150 was written in 1962 for another For ’tis a duteous thing Birthday, was written in 1931 during Britten’s second centenary, this time that of the composer’s own Sweet was the song the Virgin sung To show all honour to an earthly king term as a student at the Royal College of Music. The preparatory school, South Lodge, in Lowestoft, re- When she to Bethlem Juda came And after all our travail and our cost, work remained unperformed and unpublished during his named by then Old Buckenham Hall School. Britten had And was deliver’d of a Son So he be pleased, to think no labour lost. lifetime save for two numbers, New Prince, New Pomp, been a day-boy at South Lodge from 1923 until, in That blessed Jesus hath to name. which Britten revived at the 1955 Aldeburgh Festival, September 1928, he entered Gresham’s School, Holt, Lulla, lulla, lullaby, But at the coming of the King of Heaven and Sweet was the Song, which was heard during the where he stayed for two years, before entering the Royal Lulla, lulla, lullaby All’s set at six and seven; 1966 Festival and published as an independent item the College in 1930. The work is written in such a way as to Sweet Babe, sang she We wallow in our sin, same year.