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Joseph Wicks, John Challenger, Glen Dempsey, Jack Ross – The Tree – Hill, Nethsingha, Robinson (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:05:31 minutes | 596 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Signum Records
Andrew Nethsingha and The Choir of St John’s, Cambridge present a tribute album to two former directors, Christopher Robinson and David Hill, who celebrate their 85th and 65th birthdays respectively. Taking the idea of new growth as a starting point, the album develops from the seed of a single treble line, gradually adding organ, then lower voices, a second choir (Yale Schola Cantorum), 150 additional singers, and eventually combining nearly 500 voices together (former members and friends of the college choir).
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John Challenger – Salisbury Meditation (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:02:46 minutes | 1,10 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ajm
This collection of organ music from Salisbury Cathedral has a unique story, and its commercial, or as it happens noncommercial, success is unsurprising. The great 13th century cathedral, the spire of which has been the tallest in the U.K. since 1561, was pressed into service in early 2021 as a COVID-19 vaccination site, and organist and Salisbury assistant director of music John Challenger decided to perform on the cathedral’s restored Father Willis organ during vaccination sessions. The present recording is drawn from some 270 hours of such performances, and it is one of the few live recordings made in Britain or anywhere else during the first part of 2021. The result is a win-win-win. Proceeds from album sales benefited a variety of U.K. National Health Service charities. Those being vaccinated were likely hearing live music for the first time in a year or more, and the organ renovation, probably not a high-profile event normally, received a publicity boost. The sound engineering is exemplary, catching the live background ambiance but never letting the music become vague. The pieces, nearly all familiar to average British listeners with any affection for organ or church music (MacDowell’s To a Wild Rose is perhaps the wild card here, but one wild card benefits the overall effect), certainly were delivering the Salisbury Meditation promised by the album’s title. For a keepsake of the terrible times of 2020 and 2021, this can be highly recommended.
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David Halls, John Challenger, The Choir of Salisbury Cathedral – Poetry in Music: Musical Settings of Words by George Herbert (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:12:56 minutes | 665 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Priory Records
George Herbert was local to the area of Salisbury and this recital features much of the poetry that inspired many British composers. Although many of the pieces are in the repertoire of cathedral choirs, modern settings from Judith Bingham, Barry Ferguson, Alec Roth, Alexander Brent Smith and David Halls will be a first for the catalogues. This is another recording from the choir of Salisbury Cathedral who have worked exclusively with Priory for the past decade.
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