Robert Quinney, Choir of New College Oxford – New College: Commissions & Premieres (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Robert Quinney, Choir of New College Oxford – New College: Commissions & Premieres (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 57:16 minutes | 2,23 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Linn Records

The New College Oxford Choir is one of the most important choral institutions in the world. The music composed for her during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries is therefore a fascinating historical journey in the evolution of musical styles and liturgical practices. This album, which follows a recording dedicated to the Renaissance composer John Sheppard (Gramophone Editor’s Choice), reviews New College’s commissions from the 1920s to the 2020s. It begins with the timeless Faire is the heaven by Sir William Harris, composed while he was organist at New College, and closes with a trio of recent commissions from contemporary English composers Caitlin Harrison, Deborah Pritchard and Toby Young. For Kenneth Leighton’s poignant cantata Crucifixus pro nobis, written in 1961, the choir is joined by the tenor Nicholas Pritchard, a former academic member of New College.

A “Commissions & Premieres” subtitle from anybody else would mean new music, but only three of the pieces on this release from the Choir of New College, Oxford, are from the 21st century; the rest are all from the 20th century, and all of the music on the album draws in one way or another on even older traditions. It is a story, writes director Robert Quinney, “largely of continuity and conservatism: a performing and composing tradition quietly at work in cathedrals and the collegiate chapels of Oxford and Cambridge….” Quinney’s notes, in fact, are a major attraction here, offering a deep dive into the composers who made this music and into the genius loci, the spirit of the place, that shaped it. Other choirs have begun to experiment with the collegiate repertory, but there is also room for this approach, which reveals some fine little-heard music. Good places to sample include the three Magnficat-Nunc dimittis pairs, of which the one by Herbert Howells is an unusually joyous work by his standards. The pairs by Paul Drayton and contemporary composer Deborah Pritchard evolve somewhat but are still, as Quinney says, conservative works. An important part of the “spirit of the place” is the acoustic of the New College Chapel, which is ideally treated here by Linn’s engineers, bringing the elusive combination of resonance and clarity. This release is a nice find for lovers of the modern English choral tradition. – James Manheim

Tracklist:
1-01. Robert Quinney – Faire Is the Heaven (05:17)
1-02. Robert Quinney – New College Service: I. Magnificat (06:31)
1-03. Robert Quinney – New College Service: II. Nunc dimittis (03:15)
1-04. Nick Pritchard – Crucifixus pro nobis, Op. 38: I. Christ in the Cradle (04:10)
1-05. Robert Quinney – Crucifixus pro nobis, Op. 38: II. Christ in the Garden (04:02)
1-06. Nick Pritchard – Crucifixus pro nobis, Op. 38: III. Christ in his Passion (07:08)
1-07. Robert Quinney – Crucifixus pro nobis, Op. 38: IV. Hymn (03:03)
1-08. Robert Quinney – New College Service: I. Magnificat (05:52)
1-09. Robert Quinney – New College Service: II. Nunc dimittis (05:09)
1-10. Robert Quinney – O pastor animarum (02:22)
1-11. Robert Quinney – New College Service: I. Magnificat (03:49)
1-12. Robert Quinney – New College Service: II. Nunc dimittis (02:27)
1-13. Robert Quinney – O God, Make the Door of This House (04:05)

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