Magnificat Vol. 4 by Choir of St John's College, Cambridge

Choir of St John's College, Cambridge

Magnificat Vol. 4

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Signum Classics
UPC: 0635212077726
Catnr: SIGCD 777
Release date: 12 July 2024
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1 CD	€ 19.95	Preorder

Label
Signum Classics

UPC
0635212077726

Catalogue number
SIGCD 777

Release date
12 July 2024

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

About the album

Continuing their Magnificat series, and the last album of Andrew Nethsingha’s tenure as director, The Choir of St John’s College Cambridge present Magnificat 4 with works from composers including Judith Weir, Jonathan Dove, Joanna Forbes L’Estrange and Charles Villiers Stanford. The album also features ‘Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis’ by Piers Connor Kennedy, commissioned for the choir.

Artist(s)

Choir of St John's College, Cambridge

The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge is one of the finest collegiate choirs in the world, known and loved by millions from its broadcasts, concert tours and recordings. Founded in the 1670s, the Choir is known for its distinctive rich, warm sound, its expressive interpretations and its breadth of repertoire. Alongside these musical characteristics, the Choir is particularly proud of its happy, relaxed and mutually supportive atmosphere. The Choir is directed by Christopher Gray who follows a long line of eminent Directors of Music, recently Dr George Guest, Dr Christopher Robinson, Dr David Hill, and Andrew Nethsingha.
The Choir is made up of around 20 Choristers and Probationers who are educated at St John’s College School and around 16 adult altos, tenors and basses who are members of the University of Cambridge. The Choir’s primary purpose is to enhance the liturgy and worship at daily services in the College Chapel. The Choir has a diverse repertoire spanning over 500 years and is renowned for championing contemporary music by commissioning new works. Recent collaborating artists have included Jonathan Dove, Iain Farrington, David Nunn, Helen Grime, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Judith Bingham, Julian Anderson, Anna Semple, Katrina Toner, Ignacio Mañá Mesas and Cecilia McDowall. The Choir also enjoys joining its period instrument ensemble St John’s Sinfonia to perform Bach cantatas in a liturgical setting.
The Choir brings the ‘St John’s Sound’ to listeners around the world through its webcasts, available at www.sjcchoir.co.uk. It has also live- streamed video broadcasts of Chapel services on Facebook, in association with Classic FM.
In addition to regular radio broadcasts in this country and abroad, the Choir releases recordings each year. In May 2016 the College launched its ‘St John’s Cambridge’ recording label in conjunction with Signum Classics. Since then 17 Choir albums have been released, including single composer albums of music by Jonathan Harvey (BBC Music Magazine Award winner), Ralph Vaughan Williams and Michael Finnissy, two of which were shortlisted for Gramophone Awards. In addition to these albums, there have been a further three Magnificat albums of varied Evensong Canticles, an anthem compilation Locus Iste, masses by Poulenc and Kodály, a live anthology The Tree, a Psalms collection, and seasonal albums for Advent, Christmas, Ash Wednesday and Eastertide.The Choir also performs concerts outside of Cambridge and tours internationally each year.
Recent destinations have included the USA, the Netherlands, France, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Hong Kong and Singapore.
It also performs regularly in the UK, with venues including Symphony Hall, Birmingham, Royal Albert Hall and Royal Festival Hall, London.

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Composer(s)

Charles Villiers Stanford

Charles Villiers Stanford was born in Ireland, but rose to fame as a composer, conductor and music teacher in England. While he was still an undergraduate, he was appointed organist of Trinity College, Cambrigde. In 1882 he was one of the founders of the Royal College of Music, where he taught composition for the rest of his life. Later he also became Professor of Music at Cambridge University. Among his pupils were rising composers who would surpass him later on, such as Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst.
Stanford composed about 200 works in almost every genre, amongst others seven symphonies, nine operas, 11 concertos, 40 choral works and 28 chamber works. Throughout his career he was always admired for his technical mastery. On the day of Stanford's death, Gustav Holst said Herbert Howells, “The one man who could get any one of us out of a technical mess is now gone from us.” After his death most of his music was quickly forgotten, with the exception of his choral works for church performance. His music became eclipsed by that of Edward Elgar and his former pupils.

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Herbert Howells

Herbert Howells studied at the Royal College of Music, London, with Stanford and Wood and taught there himself from 1920 until 1979. He succeeded Holst at the St. Paul’s Girls School and had a professorship at the London University. His music is clearly in the British diatonic tradition, with connections towards Elgar, Walton and Vaughan Williams. Amongst his early works are two piano concertos and chamber music, but his oeuvre mainly consists of choral works, including 15 anthems, a concert requiem (Hymnus paradisi from 1938, first performed in 1950), masses, motets, and several songs. Deeply rooted in the English choral tradition, Howells’ work demonstrates great, precious craftsmanship and a modest, very eloquent personality. (Source:Musicalifeiten.nl)

Herbert Howells studied at the Royal College of Music, London, with Stanford and Wood and taught there himself from 1920 until 1979. He succeeded Holst at the St. Paul’s Girls School and had a professorship at the London University. His music is clearly in the British diatonic tradition, with connections towards Elgar, Walton and Vaughan Williams.
Amongst his early works are two piano concertos and chamber music, but his oeuvre mainly consists of choral works, including 15 anthems, a concert requiem (Hymnus paradisi from 1938, first performed in 1950), masses, motets, and several songs. Deeply rooted in the English choral tradition, Howells’ work demonstrates great, precious craftsmanship and a modest, very eloquent personality.
(Source:Musicalifeiten.nl)

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Judith Weir

Jonathan Dove

Herbert Murrill

Anna Semple

Joanna Forbes L'Estrange

Joanna Forbes L’Estrange is a multifaceted musician who performs, composes, records, directs and produces music in a wide variety of genres. Her career began with seven years as soprano and Musical Director of the five-time Grammy® award-winning vocal group The Swingles, with whom she toured the world and produced six albums. Specialising in contemporary crossover music, Joanna is a regular soloist for Mass in Blue by Will Todd (which she recorded for the Convivium label) and Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concert. With the world’s leading orchestras and contemporary music ensembles she performs works by Steve Reich and Luciano Berio and has sung on over 300 film soundtracks.
One of the Royal School of Church Music’s best- selling composers, Joanna was commissioned to compose an anthem to mark the coronation of King Charles III. The Mountains Shall Bring Peace was sung by over 600 choirs around the world including in the USA, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and throughout Europe and the UK.
Her music has been performed and recorded by Tenebrae, The King’s Singers, The Swingles, The Military Wives Choirs, The National Youth Choir and London Voices. Television credits include Fleabag, which featured her 1940s-style song You Are, and Glee, which featured her Moonlight Sonata arrangement, written for and recorded by The Swingles.
Joanna has written many songs and choral pieces in support of equal opportunities for women: We Will Remember Them (for the Military Wives Choirs of Great Britain), A Woman (Wearing Bloomers) On A Wheel (made into a film by the National Youth Girls’ Choir), Suffragette March (part of a larger work, Freedom! The Power of Song, composed in collaboration with her husband Alexander L’Estrange), A place for us maids (commissioned to mark 40 years of female undergraduates at Trinity College, Cambridge), The Three Wise Women (commissioned to mark the 135th anniversary of St Swithun’s School, Winchester) and Byrd Song (commissioned to mark the 400th anniversary of the death of William Byrd).
In 2018 Joanna founded the all-female vocal group AQUILA and, in the same year, made history by organising the fi rst-ever, all-female recording session at Abbey Road Studios in London, recording her single Twenty-fi rst-century Woman for International Women’s Day.

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