Herald AV Publications

HAVPCD362 – Personent Hodie
(Due for Release in November 2010)

Forward by – The Abbot of Ealing
There are few professional Catholic Church Choirs in London; even fewer have boy choristers, but only one serves a monastic community: in this case, the monastery of St Benedict at Ealing in West London. For a century the Abbey Choir has been deepening and enhancing the worship and prayer of those who come to St Benedict’s. I am very proud of our musical tradition here at Ealing, and I warmly support and encourage the valuable work that has been done by the Abbey Choir in this recording to support Aid to the Church in Need. The Christmas message, which is so beautifully sung in this CD, reminds us of the call to peace and reconciliation in our world. This is the mission of the Church and the special work of Aid to the Church in Need in its support for persecuted and oppressed Christians around the world. All involved in this valuable work have my appreciation, encouragement and prayers.
Rt. Revd. Martin Shipperlee, OSB

Christopher Eastwood began his musical studies as a chorister at Westminster Cathedral, under the direction of James O’Donnell. In addition to the Cathedral’s daily services, Christopher also sang for concerts and television and radio broadcasts as well as numerous recordings.

Christopher read music at Lincoln College, Oxford, where he was the Senior Organ Scholar with responsibility for the choir and the music in the college chapel. In 2001 Christopher toured with the college choir to the North of England and then to Venice in 2003. During this period he also directed the choir in a recording of music by the Wesley family, which was released in 2003 to favourable reviews. During his time at Oxford, Christopher maintained an active interest in singing, especially with the early music group, Magdala, directed by David Skinner, and on recordings of the music of Orlando Gibbons, and the soundtrack for the BBC’s Blue Planet series with Magdalen College Choir.

HAVPCD361 – L’Orgue Mystique – Charles Tournemire (1870-1939)

When Tournemire began work on l’Orgue Mystique in 1927 he was 57 years old. As organist of the Basilica of Sainte-Clotilde for almost thirty years, and successor of the legendary César Franck, he was universally recognised as a towering presence in the Parisian organ world, and the greatest living master of the art of improvisation. But as an organ composer, at this date he was no more than a minor figure. Tournemire’s contemporary and fellow Franck-pupil, Louis Vierne, had already written nearly all his organ music (the two sets of 24 pieces, and five of the six Symphonies); the early works of Marcel Dupré were attracting widespread attention, and even younger composers like Duruflé were starting to appear.

Tournemire had written almost nothing – a few early harmonium and organ pieces (which he dismissed as “sins of my youth”), and just one big work, the Triple Choral of 1910. He had been far from idle during the past thirty years, but his ambitions as a composer extended far beyond the organ-loft, and he had devoted most of his time to the composition of major works for orchestra, many of them with voices, including eight symphonies and three operas. The ‘musical legend’ Le Sang de la Sirène won the prestigious Prix de la Ville de Paris in 1904, and the ‘lyric drama’ Les Dieux sont morts (1912) was staged at the Paris Opera in 1924. But none of these works achieved more than a handful of performances at best, and most of the music that Tournemire wrote after the First World War was neither published nor performed.

In the liberated, pleasure-seeking Paris of the 1920s, Tournemire had become an increasingly isolated figure. A visionary idealist inspired by a profound catholic faith, he believed that the only true purpose of music was the expression of spiritual truth: music that was not written for the glory of God was inutile – a waste of time.

HAVPCD354 – The Bliss of Solitude

This beautiful album, recorded in the delightful surroundings of Brentwood Cathedral, features the magnificent tenor voice of Richard Dowling in partnership with the pianist Joanna Smith, who also contributes several enchanting pieces for solo piano. The recordings include Vaughan Williams’ On Wenlock Edge in the version for piano and voice, as well as the first recording of Andrew Wright’s exquisite The Bliss of Solitude – settings of verses by William Wordsworth – and music by Roger Quilter.

‘The Bliss of Solitude’, Andrew Wright. For someone who devotes the majority of their compositional endeavours to the liturgy of the Church, the shift to writing for the voice (in the form of the Song Cycle) is easy to comprehend. In the liturgy, the spoken word is, shall we say, lifted when sung; a simple chant can make the everyday of one’s vernacular language become the sacredness of the numinous – we are transported to somewhere outside of ourselves. And isn’t this what music is about? When Andrew Wright completed his Requiem in 2005 it was the culmination of some twenty years or more of composing; being his largest-scaled work thus far, as well as his most ambitious compositional project.

Richard Dowling (tenor) and Joanna Smith (piano)

After many years experience as an active musician, his tastes and interests are broadening: with his knowledge of the voice (he was a member of The Tallis Scholars) and his inherent love of nature (particularly the Lake District) he was increasingly becoming inspired towards a new area for compositional exploration. Then came the gift of a copy of the poetical works of William Wordsworth. This spurred Wright on to set the texts to music. The initial suggestion for these songs came from singer and oboist friend, Julia Bentham. Bentham and Wright had worked on the staff at the choristers’ school at Westminster Cathedral and so their musical acquaintance had been a long one when Bentham suggested Wright might set one or two of Wordsworth’s texts to music. After favourable reception of the earlier songs, the project was worked into a song cycle proper by Wright, with performances given in London and Grassmere.

HAVPCD351 – COEPERUNT LOQUI Cheltenham College Chamber Choir

One of the finest and most prolific composers of the period, Orlando di Lassus, was born at Mons, Hainaut in 1532. Following a series of prestigious posts in Italy and Antwerp, in 1556 he entered the service of Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria in Munich.

The initial appointment was as a tenor in the chapel choir but he was soon promoted to maestro di capella, a post he retained for over thirty years until his death, being succeeded in turn by his two sons. Here he produced an enormous quantity of church music, including many motets, four passions and some sixty mass settings. Many of these are ‘parody’ masses, based on secular material such as chansons or madrigals or on motets written by himself or others, frequently including florid and intricate counterpoint handled with great skill. In contrast, the masses founded on plainsong are more typically concise, syllabic and straightforward and although not characteristic of the composer at his most sublime, they possess a coolly austere beauty….

By any other yardsticks these are very impressive performances, evoking the spirit and idiom of the music superbly, and much helped by Herald’s atmospheric recording from the lovely chapel at Cheltenham College. Ffinch shapes the music and controls the singers with unerring sensitivity, producing some matchless cadences (I particularly admire the closing of Tallis’s O sacrum convivium), while the singers themselves are capable of producing a sound of great depth and substance (as with the magnificent full-toned choral passages in Sheppard’s Reges Tharsis et insulae).
- Marc Rochester. International Record Review, March 2010.

Alexander Ffinch, the College Organist, founded the Cheltenham College Chamber Choir in 2007. Established with the clear purpose of performing demanding unaccompanied music, the Chamber Choir has rapidly gained a reputation as an excellent choir, with a distinctive repertoire. Having performed at Winchester Cathedral, and various Oxbridge Colleges, this CD, the Choir’s first release, comes on the back of a very successful tour to New York. Since its foundation, the choir has rehearsed and sung a variety of choral pieces, ranging from the 16th Century up to the modern works of John Tavener and Arvo Pärt. Whilst enjoying the range of pieces, the choir has felt an especial affinity with the music of the Renaissance. This is dynamic and powerful, reflecting the enormous creative energy across Europe that was present at the time.

Alexander Ffinch studied at the Royal College of Music and was later organ scholar of Keble College, Oxford where he subsequently became a pupil of Thomas Trotter. He was resident organist at Lancaster Town Hall where he gave over 100 recitals in the 1990’s also winning recognition in the St Albans Interpretation Competition in 1999. He performed regularly in the UK, Europe and the USA and is a wellknown international recitalist. Notable recent appearances have been in USA at Christ Church Greenville and St Mark’s Berkeley, CA and also in the Far East where he gave a recital to celebrate the Messiaen Centenary at The Academy for Performing Arts in Hong Kong. In 2009 he was organist on the newly released disc, ‘Salve Puerule’ (HAVPCD349) a collection of Christmas choral music. Recent recital engagements have included: The Cathedral of St John The Divine, New York; Westminster Abbey; and in 2010, Hong Kong Cultural Centre. He was appointed College Organist of Cheltenham College in 2004, after a three-year tenure as Director of Music at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge and established the College Chamber Choir in 2007.

This is a very creditable achievement indeed, and one which can hold its own against all but the most powerful competition.
- Marc Rochester. International Record Review, March 2010.

HAVPCD346 – AVE VIRGO SANCTISSIMA
A Garland for Our Lady

The most familiar texts recorded here – the Ave Maria, Ave Regina caelorum, Regina caeli, Salve Regina and Mary’s own canticle, the Magnificat – have for centuries played a central part in traditional Catholic devotional life. Through them countless faithful have embraced Mary, not just as the mother of their Redeemer, but also as their own mother, and through her have sought to draw closer to her Son.

Many of the other texts here are entirely different in mood. They seek to express feelings not so much of filial devotion but of ecstatic rapture addressed to that most extraordinary product of God’s creation – the human mother of God-made-Man – by drawing on poetic images of creation, terrestrial and extraterrestrial: of birds, trees, rivers, flowers and perfume, of the heavens, light, stars, sun and moon.

The highly imaginative, sensual language of these texts, many of them embedded in the liturgy, is mainly drawn directly, or adapted, from the highly-charged Song of Songs and similar Old Testament sources. Offering wonderful possibilities for rich colour and passionate expression, they were understandably popular with composers from the medieval period onwards, and most especially in the 16th and 17th centuries.

The Choir of the London Oratory is England’s senior professional Catholic choir, serving the liturgical celebrations of the Roman Rite for which the London Oratory has been famous ever since it moved to its present Brompton Road site in 1854. Previous distinguished directors have included Henry Washington, John Hoban and Andrew Carwood.

Singing at Solemn Mass and Vespers on all the Sundays and great feasts of the year, as well as on many other important occasions, chief amongst them the solemn liturgies of Holy Week and Easter, the Choir is noted for its communicative power and stylish deployment of a wide range of vocal colour in a huge working repertoire, including more than 100 settings of the Mass and 500 motets. Broadcasts and CD recordings, especially in recent years for Aid to the Church in Need on the Herald label, have led it to be acclaimed as ‘among the finest mixed voice choirs in the country’ (Choir and Organ) and ‘a Rolls-Royce of its type’ (Church Music Quarterly).

HAVPCD345 – Catholic Collection II

I am delighted to support this wonderful recording of music by the Choirs of Leeds Cathedral, under the Director of Music, Benjamin Saunders. Below the altar in our Cathedral, we have the relics of two of the English Martyrs, who gave their lives for the Faith during the 16th Century. We are closely linked to the suffering Church through these two witnesses to the Truth, Blessed Peter Snow and Blessed Ralph Grimston, who were martyred in Yorkshire during penal times. Therefore it is a great joy that this recording will help the Catholic Charity, Aid to the Church in Need, in their work for those who are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. For in so many parts of the world today people are in need of the consoling love of Christ and the Resurrection hope that He offers us. I pray that this recording – which is a celebration of God’s love – will inspire all listeners in faith, hope and charity. May Our Lady, St Anne and all the martyrs encourage and strengthen us all.

HAVPCD344 – British Fantasies & Fanfares

This programme is happily not just another ‘English cathedral organ music’ compilation although elements within it may be familiar in that context. The key to the chemistry of the mix is the word ‘fantasy’. This term is one much used by composers of the early 20th century. It referred to compositions in one movement which drew their inspiration from the form of the same name of the first Elizabethan period and was much encouraged by Walter Cobbett (1847-1937) who founded an annual composition competition to encourage composers to write in the form. None of the works on this disc relate to that competition.

HAVPCD342 – Evensong for St Peter’s Day

Exeter became a cathedral city in 1050 when King Edward the Confessor came in person to install Leofric as the first Bishop of Exeter. We share with Westminster Abbey, both our founder, and our patron saint, St Peter. By tradition the festival of St Peter is held each year on June 29th. In medieval times the festival was marked by the lighting of a bonfire on the cathedral green and the making of shields. It has been suggested this may have been for Decani v. Cantoris horseback battles! Today the festival (without bonfires and battles) is attended by the Friends of Exeter Cathedral. Since 1929 the Friends have assisted the Dean and Chapter in preserving and improving the fabric and furnishings of this wonderful building together with its music and its archives, thereby helping to maintain the long tradition of worship and praise for years to come. This recording follows the traditional order of Evensong according to the Book of Common Prayer but with an added celebratory ‘Te Deum’.

HAVPCD341 – Pray the Rosary with Cardinal Newman

According to tradition, the Rosary devotion in its entirety was revealed to St Dominic by Our Lady herself. Sceptics have other theories, but it is certain that the cycle of 150 prayers, corresponding to the 150 Psalms, was promoted for the use of the laity by the late Middle Ages. The pattern of three sets of five meditations, reflecting the birth, death and resurrection of Christ as seen through the eyes of His Mother, is certainly very old, although it took time for the exact choice of meditations to become fixed, as it has remained for the last five hundred years. The essential facts of our Redemption were summarised in just those three moments, birth, death and resurrection (as they are in the writings of St Paul). The moods of joy,sorrow and glory are also the classic moods through which a life of prayer develops, as described in many spiritual writers. After the joy of first conversion comes the sorrow of the struggle with the various forms of difficulty in prayer, until the break-through into glory. Yet all three moods can co-exist in one person, as seen so dramatically in the life of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. Radiating joy to those around her,she experienced deep sorrow in her solidarity with suffering humanity, at times unconscious of the heart of glory within her.

HAVPCD340 – Commotio – Night

Commotio is one of Oxford’s foremost chamber choirs, formed in August 1999 to provide a refreshing alternative to the more readily available repertoire offered by most other choral groups, primarily performing lesser-known material of the 20th and 21st centuries. Matthew Berry, the founder and conductor of the choir, enthusiastically promotes the work of a younger generation of composers, as well as bringing to the fore little-known works of more established writers. In December 2002 Commotio performed the world première of Pierre Villette’s Inviolata, and in June 2007 Night for Choir and Cello by Richard Allain. They have also performed UK premières of works by Jon Mostad, Peter Klatzow, and Frank Ferko. In June 2005, the choir recorded a CD of works by Peter Klatzow entitled Towards the Light (Herald HAVP316), receiving extremely positive reviews from Musical Opinion, International Record Review and Gramophone among many others. The choir has also contributed to a portfolio CD of works by the young British composer Thomas Hyde, to be released on Toccata Classics in 2008.