Rejoice in the Lamb

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Orlando Gibbons, Michael Wise, Sir Edward C(uthbert) Bairstow, George Frideric Handel, Benjamin Britten, Maurice Duruflé, William Byrd

Label: Proud Sound

Magazine Review Date: 3/1990

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 71

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: PROUCD125

Tracks:

Composition	Artist Credit
Blessed City, heavenly Salem	Sir Edward C(uthbert) Bairstow, Composer Edward Higginbottom, Conductor New College Choir, Oxford Sir Edward C(uthbert) Bairstow, Composer
(4) Motets sur des thèmes grégoriens	Maurice Duruflé, Composer Edward Higginbottom, Conductor Maurice Duruflé, Composer New College Choir, Oxford
Rejoice in the Lamb	Benjamin Britten, Composer Benjamin Britten, Composer Edward Higginbottom, Conductor Fiori Musicali John Bernays, Bass New College Choir, Oxford Oliver Johnston, Treble/boy soprano Philip Cave, Tenor William Missin, Alto
(The) Ways of Zion do mourn	Michael Wise, Composer Edward Higginbottom, Conductor Michael Wise, Composer New College Choir, Oxford
Ave verum corpus	William Byrd, Composer Edward Higginbottom, Conductor New College Choir, Oxford William Byrd, Composer
O clap your hands	Orlando Gibbons, Composer Edward Higginbottom, Conductor New College Choir, Oxford Orlando Gibbons, Composer
Chandos Anthem No. 6, 'As pants the hart'	George Frideric Handel, Composer Edward Higginbottom, Conductor Fiori Musicali George Frideric Handel, Composer New College Choir, Oxford Philip Cave, Tenor William Missin, Alto

Composer or Director: Orlando Gibbons, Michael Wise, Sir Edward C(uthbert) Bairstow, George Frideric Handel, Benjamin Britten, Maurice Duruflé, William Byrd

Label: Proud Sound

Magazine Review Date: 3/1990

Media Format: Cassette

Media Runtime: 0

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: PROU125

Tracks:

Composition	Artist Credit
Blessed City, heavenly Salem	Sir Edward C(uthbert) Bairstow, Composer Edward Higginbottom, Conductor New College Choir, Oxford Sir Edward C(uthbert) Bairstow, Composer
(4) Motets sur des thèmes grégoriens	Maurice Duruflé, Composer Edward Higginbottom, Conductor Maurice Duruflé, Composer New College Choir, Oxford
Rejoice in the Lamb	Benjamin Britten, Composer Benjamin Britten, Composer Edward Higginbottom, Conductor Fiori Musicali John Bernays, Bass New College Choir, Oxford Oliver Johnston, Treble/boy soprano Philip Cave, Tenor William Missin, Alto
(The) Ways of Zion do mourn	Michael Wise, Composer Edward Higginbottom, Conductor Michael Wise, Composer New College Choir, Oxford
Ave verum corpus	William Byrd, Composer Edward Higginbottom, Conductor New College Choir, Oxford William Byrd, Composer
O clap your hands	Orlando Gibbons, Composer Edward Higginbottom, Conductor New College Choir, Oxford Orlando Gibbons, Composer
Chandos Anthem No. 6, 'As pants the hart'	George Frideric Handel, Composer Edward Higginbottom, Conductor Fiori Musicali George Frideric Handel, Composer New College Choir, Oxford Philip Cave, Tenor William Missin, Alto

Author:

This may look like a random compilation, but it works well and there are more connections than meet the eye. For instance, the first two works, Bairstow's expansive anthem with its rich organ accompaniment and Durufle's relatively spare a cappella motets, both have their roots in plainchant. But the best—intentional or fortuitous?—is the link between Christopher Smart (poet of Rejoice in the Lamb) and Samuel Wise, composer of The ways of Zion do mourn. ''The watchman smites me with his staff'' says the poet, and to be ''knocked on the head and killed by the night-watch at Salisbury for giving stubborn and refractory language to them'' was the untoward fate of the composer. The scholarly notes keep us informed of this and other relevant matters, and the printed texts are well set out so that, if unfamiliar with Smart's extraordinary poem, we can verify that we have actually heard what our disbelieving ears conveyed to us.
Not that there is undue difficulty in hearing, for the acoustics of New College Chapel are at least helpful in that there is minimal blurring of words. In some other respects they are not kind. Orlando Gibbons's O clap your hands suffers most: it is music meant to rise and ring up aloft in the high roof. Here it stays earthbound, and an eagerness which King's Chapel or the average cathedral would indulgently muffle is exposed here as roughness. Possibly a slightly quicker tempo would have helped, hard to say. I thought it the least successful performance, among others that are almost uniformly good. The soloists are all admirable, and the alto/tenor duet in the Handel has a fine matching of voices. The Fiori Musicali players contribute splendidly to this, and the work of the organist, particularly in Rejoice in the Lamb, is first rate. And what a marvellous piece it is. If poor cracked Christopher could have heard it what, I wonder, would he have made of it? The sympathy and imagination at work in the music are so profound that I think he would have rejoiced and wept.'