What’s on Great Sacred Music, Sunday, August 16, 2015

This edition of Great Sacred Music is dedicated to the memory of
Dr. John Gavin Scott, LVO, Organist and Director of Music of Saint
Thomas Church, New York who died on 12 August at age 59.

 

08:01:44
Gregorian chant: Benedicamus trope: Congaudeant catholici
Anonymous 4

 

Gabriel Jackson: To Morning
Polyphony, Stephen Layton
 

Samuel Wesley, Henry Smart: Psalm 22
The Choir of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, Dr. John Scott
Andrew Lucas, organ

 

Congaudeant catholici is taken from Anonymous 4’s CD entitled
Miracles Of Sant’iago – Codex Calixtinus. Bermuda-born English composer
Gabriel Jackson (1962-) was a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral. Dr. John
Scott recorded the entire Saint Paul’s Cathedral Psalter with the Choir of
St. Paul’s Cathedral on various dates. The 12 CD set was released under the
Hyperion label in 2002.

 

08:20:18
Henry Purcell: My beloved spake
Tolzer Knabenchor, Gustav Leonhardt
David Cordier, alto; John Elwes, tenor;
Peter Kooy, bass-baritone; Harry van der Kamp, bass

 

Sir Hubert Parry: I was glad when they said unto me
New Philharmonia, Cambridge Unversity Musical Society
Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, Sir Charles Groves

 

Nicolas Gombert: Tulerunt Dominum meum
The Studio of Ancient Music of Montreal, Christopher Jackson

 

The Tölz Boys Choir was founded in Bad Tolz, Germany in 1956. It has been
resident in Munich since 1970. Sir Hubert Parry’s grand 1902 setting of Psalm 122 
was written for the Coronation of Edward VII. Franco-Flemish composer Nicolas
Gombert (c. 1495 – c. 1560) favor writing motets of which we have 140 extant
in addition to 10 mass settings.

 

08:47:43
Jules Van Nuffel: Laetatus sum
Choir of St. Rombaux Cathedral, Malines, Belgium, Johan van Bouwelen
Peter Pieters, organ

 

Gaston Litaize: Cortège
London Gabrieli Brass Ensemble, Christopher Larkin
Christopher Bowers-Broadbent, organ

 

Jules Van Nuffel (1883-1953) was a Belgian composer. French composer Gaston
Litaize (1901-1999) wrote his Cortège for brass and organ in 1951.

09:01:33
J.S. Bach: Cantata 113, “Herr Jesu Christ, du Hochstes Gut”
Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki Suzuki
Yukari Nonoshita, soprano; Robin Blaze, countertenor;
Gerd Turk, tenor; Peter Kooy, bass-baritone

 

The German translates as “Lord Jesus Christ, Thou highest good”. Of note is the
very difficult flute part accompanying the tenor aria.

 

09:27:42
Max Reger: Phantasie und Fuge uber B-A-C-H, Op. 46, Lionel Rogg, organ
1976 organ by Grönlunds Orgelbyggeri in Church of Hedvig Eleonora, Stockholm
 
Reger’s Fantasy and Fugue on the Name of Bach is a dazzling tour de force for a
virtuoso organist such as Lionel Rogg.

 

09:47:20
Sir John Stainer: The Crucifixion
St. Paul’s Cathedral Choir, London, John Scott
Maldwyn Davies, tenor; David Wilson-Johnson, bass
Andrew Lucas, organ

 

This wonderful recording of Stainer’s Passiontide oratorio was recorded by the late John
Scott from January 29 to February 1, 1990. John’s tempi and the sumptuous acoustics
of the Cathedral show off the Choir and organ to great advantage. John understood that great
building and played it as skillfully and artfully as he did one of the great organ works
he performed so frequently. RIP.