Anyone who has tried to listen to music in St Paul’s Cathedral might be forgiven for hesitating before buying a recording made there: so let me begin by saying that by some magic the Hyperion engineers have succeeded in producing a recording that is a model of clear sound, even in the fullest tuttis, while at the same time capturing something of the cathedral ambience. This CD happily celebrates the tercentenary, which fell last year, of the official opening of the cathedral, offering three of the finest pieces written for performance there. The Blow anthem was written for the opening event and also to give thanks for the Peace of Ryswick. It is an attractive work, including a countertenor duet, exquisitely done here by Robin Blaze and Ashley Stafford, and a tenor solo sung fluently and with much refined detail by Rogers Covey-Crump, supported by a pair of obbligato trumpets. The Boyce anthem was written in 1755 for the Festival for the Sons of the Clergy, still held annually at St Paul’s; again, there is distinguished solo singing from Covey-Crump in the expressive “Yea, like as a father pitieth his own children”, and from Blaze in “The eyes of all wait upon thee”; but perhaps the most appealing number is the trio sung here, in very accomplished style, by three of the boys. And there are rousing choral Hallelujahs to end with.
However, the main item is Handel’s Te Deum and Jubilate for the Peace of Utrecht, given at St Paul’s in 1713 and Handel’s first serious venture into Anglican church music. Although modelled on Purcell and Croft, it has something of the freshness and vitality of the church music Handel had recently composed in Italy, even if the constraints of the English anthem manner caused him to work on a rather smaller canvas – few of the individual movements run much over two minutes or so. It is a colourful piece, full of original ideas, and it is done here under John Scott, the present St Paul’s organist, with great vitality, with breadth, with excellent discipline and with clear verbal articulation. The St Paul’s boys seem to sing in a fresher, less inhibited style than some, with a distinctive edge to their tone. Sopranos are used for the solos here rather than boys, with Julia Gooding and Sophie Daneman singing with much delicacy, and the other soloists I have already mentioned, plus the bass Andrew Dale Forbes, shine again. A disc well worthy of its subject.'