Purcell: Christ is made the sure foundation (Westminster Abbey)

Westminster Abbey is a royal church, founded in 1065 by King Edward the Confessor, who was buried in the original Norman building only a few days after its consecration. Almost exactly two centuries later, in 1269, his body was ‘translated’ or removed to its present resting-place in the shrine east of the High Altar. It is this ceremony which is commemorated every year on the anniversary, 13 October. The Translation of St. Edward is, in fact, one of the high festivals in the Abbey domestic calendar.

Evensong is the service sung in nearly every Anglican church on Sundays and in cathedrals and collegiate churches several times a week. It is modeled on the pre-Reformation ‘lesser hours’, and in fact a skilful conflation of two of them, Vespers and Compline, made by Archbishop Cranmer for the First English Prayer Book of 1549. The service as here recorded is sung in cathedral as distinct from the parish church style. This in effect means the two Canticles, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, are treated as extended choral pieces, while the Versicles and Responses have music more elaborate than is usually heard in parish churches. The music on this recording is by Gibbons, Byrnd, Parry and Purcell, and concludes with Simon Preston’s celebrated recording of the Toccata from Widor’s Symphony No. 5, a regular inclusion at British royal weddings.

Released in its entirety for the first time on CD, this Argo recording is perfectly timed with the forthcoming Royal Wedding to take place in Westminster Abbey.

A new release in the Naxos wedding music series, ‘A Choral Wedding’ is a 2 CD collection of popular choral anthems and favourite hymns which have been chosen specifically as suggestions for brides and grooms planning church weddings with a choir.

CD 1 includes a variety of anthems from the popular Anglican tradition such as Wesley’s Blessed be the God and Father and Parry’s I was glad through to classical evergreens such as Mozart’s Laudate Dominum and Fauré’s Cantique de Jean Racine. There are some seasonal items too – Stainer’s God so loved the world for an Easter wedding and Lauridsen’s O magnum mysterium for a Christmas wedding.

CD 2 is a re-packaged version of Abide with Me (8557578), and includes a wide selection of congregational hymns such as sing-along favourites Jerusalem and Praise, my soul, the King of Heaven.