Page 45 - Church Music Quarterly September 2018

responded to with contemporary sensibilities. Particularly striking are the strong, punchy response
to the Magnificat from Roxanna Panufnik in her St Pancras Service and the exhilarating and virtuosic response of Cheryl Frances-Hoad
in Gaude et laetare. Most of the pieces are written for the core six voices
of the Marian Consort, but the programme uses between three and ten singers as appropriate, performing with outstanding skill and artistry.
Julian Elloway
ORGAN CDS
★
FRANCIS POTT ORGAN WORKS
Christian Wilson plays the organ of the Chapel of St Augustine, Tonbridge● AcisAPL67065
There is much to enjoy here in the music, its performance, the organ and the recording. The big piece is La Chiesa del Sole of 2016, written for Thomas Trotter at the inauguration of Manchester Cathedral’s Kenneth Tickell organ, and inscribed
‘To the honoured, happy memory of John Scott’. Over its 23 minutes a fantasia-like opening leads to
a fugue that eventually becomes a toccata but throughout with much recapitulation and transformation of earlier material, and a chorale-like passage that reappears triumphantly near the end. It is
a journey through a richly evolving landscape, yet which logically holds together as one glances forward and back.
More likely to find liturgical use are Three Hymn Tune Fantasias of 2013: ‘Prelude and Fugue on Iste Confessor’ (lasting over 15 minutes) and the shorter, ‘Improvisation on Slane’ and ‘Toccata on King’s Lynn’. The disc opens with a Toccata (with a substantial introduction), and
two Mosaici di Ravenna, the second of which is also a toccata. Christian Wilson plays with a virtuosity that makes light of the considerable technical demands. The large organ has a clean yet powerful sound, well captured in this recording.
★★★
MESSIAEN: LA NATIVITÉ
DU SEIGNEUR
Le Banquet Céleste ● Colin Walsh plays the organ of Lincoln Cathedral ● Priory PRCD 1194 Recorded live at a public concert four days before Christmas in 2014, this is an astonishing performance that somehow manages to make the 1898 Father Willis organ at Lincoln sound appropriate for Messiaen’s youthful 1935 masterpiece. The gamut of emotion in the nine meditations on the Birth of the Lord is all captured, from the wonder and adoration of ‘La Vierge et L’Enfant’ (the Virgin and Child) and ‘Les Bergers’ (the Shepherds), through the power of ‘Le Verbe’
(the Word) to the overwhelming ecstasy of ‘Dieu parmi nous’ (God among us). La nativité du Seigneur is preceded by what must be the piece by Messiaen most played by parish organists Sunday by Sunday,
Le banquet céleste.
★★
ORGUE HÉROÏQUE
Scott Farrell plays the organ of Rochester Cathedral ● Regent REGCD507
The big piece here is Joseph Jongen’s Sonata Eroïca that joins César Franck’s Pièce héroïque in suggesting the title of this album. Also receiving a heroic performance is Howells’s C sharp minor Rhapsody, Op.17 No.3. The recording certainly stretches the dynamic range in those, and in ‘Mars, the bringer of war’ (from Holst’s The Planets). There is quieter music in the form of an arrangement of J.S. Bach’s Komm,
süsser Tod, Vierne’s ‘Épitaphe’ from 24 pièces en style libre and Mendelssohn’s third Sonata. But it is above all in the truly heroic works that Scott Farrell’s mastery of organ and acoustic provide assured and impressive results – and not least in a well-judged performance of William Harris’s arrangement of Elgar’s ‘Nimrod’ from Enigma Variations.
Judith Markwith
BOOKS
SINGING THROUGHOUT LIFE
SO YOU WANT TO SING FOR
A LIFETIME: A Guide for Performers Brenda Smith
Rowman & Littlefield: 219pp.
P/B 978-1-5381-0400-2 £24.95
The National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) has produced a series of guides ‘So you want to sing ...’ where the final word might be ‘Barbershop’ or ‘Jazz’ or ‘Gospel’ or indeed ‘Sacred Music’ –
a total of 12 to date, plus this one that is somewhat different. Rather than any one style, it looks at vocal health over the lifetime of a singer
– something that concerned CMQ only last March with articles on ‘Vocal health for young singers’ and ‘Vocal health and the ageing voice’.
The author, Brenda Smith, is based at the University of Florida, and is joined by specialist contributors Scott McCoy on voice production, Wendy LeBorgne on vocal health for the lifetime of a singer, and Robert Sataloff and
two other researchers on the effects of age on the voice. The writers are all on top of their subjects and the book reflects the latest research,
but it is written in an accessible
and easy-to-follow style, with clear questions and answers. The book can easily be read by singers unaccustomed to technical writing about the voice, as well as by those responsible for training or directing them. There is also a very full glossary of words and terms found not only in this book but in other writings about voice production. Although NATS is active throughout the world, it is a pity that the editors have left the book so US- centric – even the brief history of choral singing concerns just ‘the
major traditions in American choral singing’. But singing is singing, and there is much vocal wisdom offered here that will benefit readers everywhere. As church choirs
seem increasingly to polarize between children and much older adults, this approach to singing as a lifelong skill is all the more useful.
Julian Elloway
You will find reviews of recent printed music publications
in this issue of Sunday by Sunday (no. 86). All the latest reviews are available online at > www.rscm.org.uk/reviews
Printed music and books (not CDs) reviewed by the RSCM, with the occasional exception of private publications, can be obtained from RSCM Music Direct. Tel: +44 (0)845 021 7726; fax: +44 (0)845 021 8826; email: musicdirect@rscm.com
Items for review should be sent to the Reviews Editor, Ashleigh House, Cirencester Road, Minchinhampton, Stroud, Glos GL6 9EL. Tel: +44 (0)7879 406048; email: cmqreviews@rscm.com
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