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Offer,My Beloved Spake

Anthems by Henry Purcell & Pelham Humfrey

Iestyn Davies (counter-tenor), James Gilchrist (tenor), David Stout (baritone) & Neal Davies (bass)

Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge & St John’s Sinfonia, Andrew Nethsingha

The warm continental sound of the boys' voices might sometimes bestow an unexpectedly 'foreign' accent on this music (albeit shot through with imports from France and Italy), but the commitment,... — BBC Music Magazine, February 2013, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 29th Oct 2012
Catalogue No: CHAN0790
Label: Chandos
Series: Chaconne
Length: 69 minutes

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Purcell: Remember not, O Lord, our offences, Z50

Work length3:21

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$1.30

$1.75

Choir of St. Johns College, Andrew Nethsingha

Purcell: Jehova, quam multi sunt hostes mei, Z135

Work length6:32

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Choir of St. Johns College, Andrew Nethsingha, James Gilchrist, Neal Davies, John Challenger

Purcell: O sing unto the Lord, Z44

Work length13:08

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

Choir of St. Johns College, Andrew Nethsingha, St John's Sinfonia, James Gilchrist, Neal Davies, Iestyn Davies, John Challenger, Peter Hicks

Humfrey: O Lord my God

Work length12:29

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

Choir of St. Johns College, Andrew Nethsingha, St John's Sinfonia, James Gilchrist, Neal Davies, Iestyn Davies, John Challenger

Humfrey: Magnificat and Nunc dimittis in E Minor

Work length5:51

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

Choir of St. Johns College, Andrew Nethsingha, Alec D'Oyly, Peter Hicks, James Imam, Tom Blackie, Julian Gregory, Huw Leslie

I. Magnificat

Track length3:39

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$1.30

$1.75

II. Nunc dimittis

Track length2:12

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Purcell: Behold now, praise the Lord, Z3

Work length6:10

$1.00

$1.30

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Choir of St. Johns College, Andrew Nethsingha, St John's Sinfonia, James Gilchrist, Neal Davies, Iestyn Davies, John Challenger

Purcell: My beloved spake, Z28

Work length11:22

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

Choir of St. Johns College, Andrew Nethsingha, James Gilchrist, Neal Davies, Iestyn Davies, David Stout, John Challenger

Purcell: Hear my prayer, O Lord, Z. 15: Hear my prayer, O lord, Z. 15

Work length2:40

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$1.30

$1.75

Choir of St. Johns College, Andrew Nethsingha

Purcell: Rejoice in the Lord alway ('The Bell Anthem'), Z49

Work length8:03

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$2.60

$3.50

Choir of St. Johns College, Andrew Nethsingha, St John's Sinfonia, James Gilchrist, Neal Davies, Iestyn Davies, John Challenger

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About

Established in the 1670s, the Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge is today one of the finest college choirs in the world, known and loved by millions for its recordings and concert tours. On this album, the Choir and St John’s Sinfonia, conducted by Andrew Nethsingha, perform works by Henry Purcell and Pelham Humfrey. They are joined by four soloists: Iestyn Davies, James Gilchrist, David Stout, and Neal Davies.

Humfrey was an English composer of the seventeenth century, known mainly for his verse anthems. Being well travelled, he produced works that in their vocal character show the influence of Italian music, and in the instrumental writing that of French music. That said, from these major foreign influences Humfrey forged a personal style that is uniquely English. Although as a composer he was generally forward-looking, his music also shows sub-elements of the English Golden Age of yesteryear. O Lord my God, for instance, is influenced by John Dowland’s celebrated Lachrimae Pavan of almost eighty years earlier.

In contrast, the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis were composed simply to be liturgically appropriate, with a text setting that is naturalistic and direct. Humfrey died at the age of twenty-seven, but even at this young age, he exerted a strong influence on his peers, including Henry Purcell, who as a young boy sang treble in Humfrey’s Chapel Royal Choir.

The works by Purcell recorded here range from works written when the composer was in his teenage years (Jehova, quam multi sunt hostes mei being a masterly example) to the crowning glory of the recording, O sing unto the Lord, which Purcell wrote when he was in his thirties, and compositionally on fire. At this stage of his career no other composer could touch him. Instruments and voices sing from the same hymn sheet, form and content are inseparable, past and present musical styles seamlessly intermingle, technique and virtuosity are indistinguishable from each other – and soloists and choir mesh together in a dazzling and life-affirming way.

Reviews

February 2013

The warm continental sound of the boys' voices might sometimes bestow an unexpectedly 'foreign' accent on this music (albeit shot through with imports from France and Italy), but the commitment, intensity and lucidity compels. And Nethsingha has assembled a formidable team.

January 2013

It is nice these days to have a chance to hear some of Purcell's church anthems sung by a choir of boys and men...It is in integrated works such as O Lord my God, where the expressive urgency of this choir's soloists can rub off, that the choir is at its best; less successful are the more patchwork pieces

2nd December 2012

Nethsingha juxtaposes such relatively unfamiliar fare with masterpieces including O Sing unto the Lord. He is a committed custodian of the Oxbridge choral tradition, as are his fine soloists

Offer,My Beloved Spake

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