Classical Music: A Year At St Edmundsbury

A Year At St Edmundsbury

Trepte People look east; Beamish In the stillness; Reece-Trapp Epiphany Star; Dubois Fiat Lux; Howells Like as the hart; Parsons Ave Maria; MacDonald Crux Fidelis; Stanford Ye Choirs of new Jerusalem; Wilby If ye love me; Bairstow Let all mortal flesh keep silence; T Parsons The spacious firmament on high; Blatchly For the Fallen; Picton-Tubervill An invocation for worship; MacMillan O sing unto the Lord;

The Choir of St Edmundsbury Cathedral
Directed by Timothy Parsons
Organ: Richard Cook
Organ Scholar: Matthew McVey
Trumpet John Jermy

Regent REGCD591
https://www.regent-records.co.uk/

Over the decades, I have visited every English cathedral, some more often than others, and been fortunate to hear the fine musicians that make up the distinctive English choral tradition.

My visits have been fleeting, but I have been able to capture in a moment the joy and solemnity of a choral service. During those brief moments, I have savoured momentary glimpses of each choir's work and repertoire; sometimes I wished I had visited a week earlier or later to catch Palm Sunday, Easter Day, Whitsun, or Trinity.

That's why this series, 'A Year at', is a wonderful creation and the brainchild of specialist church music label, Regent.

Each featured cathedral choir has chosen its favourite repertoire to showcase its work throughout the liturgical year.

I am grateful for A Year at St Edmundsbury; having lived across the border in Essex for the first 27 years of my life, I’ve only visited it once.

The repertoire chosen spans the centuries, including works by Robert Parsons, Bairstow, MacMillan and Beamish, among others and showcases the choir and organ to great effect.

Timothy Parson, who is moving to Wells Cathedral, has done a marvellous job with the forty choristers aged between 7 and 14, who come from a wide range of schools in and around the town.

Advent opens with Paul Trepte's effective arrangement of People Look East. It begins with a solo treble voice, making it a wonderful opener. It splits into two parts, with a playful organ part that Richard Cook executes well with lovely registrations. In fact, all his registrations are judicious and never encroach, as perfectly demonstrated in Reece-Trapps' delightful Epiphany Star, where the mystery is created in hushed quiet singing and a gradual crescendo, before calm is restored. Cook also gives Dubois' Fiat Lux a fine performance.

Sally Beamish's In the Stillness perfectly captures the peacefulness of Christmas, and I am delighted to learn that it has become a modern classic in the Christmas repertoire.

A beautifully blended ensemble sings a cappella compositions with exquisite beauty. The back row excels in Bairstow’s Let all mortal flesh and Howells’ Like as the hart.

Timothy Parsons’ contribution The spacious firmament on high, with its fanfares, gets to the heart of the words with its splendid climaxes and diminuendo.

For the first time, an updated 2021 arrangement of Blatchley's evocative Remembrance anthem For the fallen for SATB choir, organ, and trumpet is sung and it is a work that always captures the sentiment of the moment.

There is much to enjoy, whether it is Wilby's lovely short anthem If You Love Me, or Edward Picton-Turbervill's An Invocation for Worship. The last anthem on the disc, James MacMillan's A New Song, reflects the general spirit of the music perfectly, with a choir that sings with conviction.