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Howells - Collegium Regale & other choral works

£13.60

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Label: Hyperion

Cat No: CDA68105

Barcode: 0034571281056

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Vocal/Choral

Release Date: 1st April 2016

Works

Howells, Herbert

Behold, O God our Defender
Collegium Regale
I love all beauteous things
Office of Holy Communion (Collegium Regale)
Psalm 121
Psalm 122
Rhapsodies (3), op.17

» no.1 in D flat major

Artists

Trinity College Choir Cambridge
Eleanor Kornas (organ)
Owain Park (organ solo)

Conductor

Stephen Layton

Works

Howells, Herbert

Behold, O God our Defender
Collegium Regale
I love all beauteous things
Office of Holy Communion (Collegium Regale)
Psalm 121
Psalm 122
Rhapsodies (3), op.17

» no.1 in D flat major

Artists

Trinity College Choir Cambridge
Eleanor Kornas (organ)
Owain Park (organ solo)

Conductor

Stephen Layton

About

Howells’s ‘Coll Reg’ is one of the glories of the Anglican repertoire — a relative outsider to the church providing one of its greatest adornments of the twentieth century. Stephen Layton and his award-winning choir took the trip to Coventry Cathedral for this very special recording.

Track listing:
1. Jubilate (Collegium Regale)
2. Magnificat (Collegium Regale)
3. Nunc dimittis (Collegium Regale)
4. Psalm 122
5. I love all beauteous things
6. Kyrie (Collegium Regale)
7. Credo (Collegium Regale)
8. Sanctus (Collegium Regale)
9. Benedictus (Collegium Regale)
10. Agnus (Collegium Regale)
11. Gloria (Collegium Regale)
12. Psalm 121
13. Behold, O God our defender
14. Rhapsody in D flat major, op.17 no.1
15. Te Deum (Collegium Regale)

Sound/Video

Paused

1

Morning Canticle #2 Jubilate
2

Evening Canticle #1 Magnificat
3

Evening Canticle #2 Nunc Dimittis
4

Psalm 122, 'I Was Glad When They Said Unto Me'
5

I Love All Beauteous Things
6

Communion Setting #1 Kyrie
7

Communion Setting #2 Credo
8

Communion Setting #3 Sanctus
9

Communion Setting #4 Benedictus
10

Communion Setting #5 Agnus Dei
11

Communion Setting #6 Gloria
12

Psalm 121, 'I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes Unto The Hills'
13

Behold, O God Our Defender
14

3 Rhapsodies, Op. 17 - #1 In D Flat
15

Morning Canticle #1 Te Deum

Europadisc Review

Herbert Howells may have been an Oxford man by education, but he came to forge his closest links with the ‘other place’: Cambridge. From 1941 to 1945 he was organist of St John’s College while Robin Orr was on active service in the RAF, and his involvement in Cambridge’s musical life continued when towards the end of the war he was asked by a select group led by Eric Milner-White to provide liturgy music for King’s College (or Collegium Regale, to give its Latin appellation). He set the Matins canticles first (Te Deum and Jubilate), in 1944, and a year later those for Evening Prayer (Magnificat and Nunc dimittis). Ever since, the nickname for these setting, ‘Coll Reg’, has been enough to lift the hearts of choral music lovers everywhere. But his involvement did not end there: in the 1950s he expanded the Collegium Regale collection to include the music for the order of Holy Communion – Kyrie, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei, with a concluding Gloria reflecting its placement in the Book of Common Prayer.

In this marvellous new disc from Hyperion, it is the Choir of Trinity College Cambridge that gathers together the complete Collegium Regale music, and they do it truly handsome service. Under their Director of Music, Stephen Layton, they recorded the disc in Coventry Cathedral – an appropriate choice, as the building, like Howells’ music, reflects the post-war Anglican renewal. Underpinned by the cathedral’s splendid Harrison & Harrison organ, the Trinity choir’s singing from the very opening Jubilate is robust yet beautifully shaped, with an underlying purity of tone that reflects the very finest of the English choral tradition. The composer’s essentially introspective style is heard at its best in the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis (the latter with a moving solo from tenor Jamie Roberts), but the Magnificat’s doxology is gloriously full-throated and soaring (see the YouTube video!). The Communion movements combine brevity with expressivity, and even the Te Deum – a text used over the years in many a musical monstrosity – is as notable for its conciseness as for its power.

In addition to the Collegium Regale settings, the disc includes a well-chosen and wide-ranging selection of Howells’ other sacred music. Earliest are two accomplished psalm chants from his student days – Psalms 121 and 122 – and a solo organ Rhapsody from 1915 majestically unfolded by Owain Park. The Coronation Introit ‘Behold, O God our defender’ (1952) is given a wonderfully sensitive performance, but the real icing on the cake is the 1977 Robert Bridges setting, ‘I love all beauteous things’. Commissioned by St Albans Cathedral, it represents Howells’ late style in all its exquisite glory, and the Trinity choir excels itself, unerringly scaling the musical heights and plumbing the emotional depths as they do throughout this programme.

The exceptionally warm recording is first-rate, as is the presentation, and – with extensive notes from Howells expert Paul Andrews – for lovers of top-quality choral singing this disc is simply unmissable.

Reviews

Much as John Piper, Graham Sutherland and Geoffrey Clarke created a new aesthetic in 20th-century visual art, so Herbert Howells did in liturgical music, particularly in his complete canticle settings for King’s College, Cambridge. So it is fitting that the fine choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, chose Coventry Cathedral for this recording, a building graced with windows, tapestry and sculpture by those artists that perfectly reflects both the beauty and the darkness of these settings. The excellent singing is full-bodied and lustrous throughout, with just the right sense of momentum. Stephen Pritchard

The Observer 3 April 2016

This is a stunning recording in so many respects. Attention to dynamic detail, especially the hushed quality of the Magnificat, brings out the ethereal, not to say numinous character of this highly original miniature, imbued as it is with a whiff of French Impressionism. The splendid recorded sound also allows us to hear the fuller role of the tenor soloist in the Nunc dimittis, close surely to what Howells intended as Simeon’s song of joy, yet shot through with a typically English introspective melancholy. The darker, modal hues of the Te Deum and Jubilate benefit from the lavish role of the Coventry Cathedral organ, especially at points of climax (with which both movements abound), while moments of more characteristic Anglican prayerfulness are shaped by Layton and the Trinity choir with true, intimate poetry. Jeremy Dibble

Gramophone April 2016