Christmastide at Blackburn Cathedral

CD Details

Product Description

There has been a long tradition of music in worship at Blackburn Cathedral. In 1514 Thomas Stanley, second Earl of Derby, founded a school and its twelve boys formed part of the choir to sing Masses and Sunday services at what was then Blackburn Parish Church. Clearly music was held in great esteem then, and a long succession of distinguished musicians has maintained and enhanced the high standard of choral singing.

In 1926 the Diocese of Blackburn was created and the Parish Church became the Cathedral. In the past 75 years a series of building programmes has increased the proportion and stature of the original Church, making it a wonderful setting for the varied Diocesan, Civic, Community, Cathedral and Parish events that take place there each year.

Blackburn Cathedral has no choir school, or links with any selected schools and all of the singers join the choirs on a voluntary basis. As well as the well-established Cathedral Choir of boys and men, there has been a Young People’s Choir, which sings Matins each Sunday, for over thirty years. The Cathedral’s musical outreach has recently been enhanced by the foundation of a Girls’ Choir which sings Evensong each Tuesday and Thursday. The Renaissance Singers is a chamber choir of about forty adults which sings sacred and secular music; although not formally a Cathedral Choir, they have been closely associated with the Cathedral for thirty five years and their conductor has always been the Cathedral’s Organist and Director of Music.

Recorded in Blackburn Cathedral on 10th – 13th February and 30th June 2000, by kind permission of the Dean and Chapter.
Produced by Howard Seymour
Recorded and edited by Lance Andrews
Front cover painting by R A Brown (R J L Smith and Associates)

Review

There is a total of four separate choirs singing on the disc from Blackburn Cathedral. The boys and men give a gracefully expressive performance on their tracks, and the adult Renaissance Singers create a warm sound with some sensitive singing. However, the real excitement is created with the full sound of the choirs together backed by splendid organ accompaniments played by Timothy Cooke. The flourishing choral tradition at Blackburn is evident on this disc, and while the programme may not be terribly exciting, the performances are. Richard Tanner draws some splendid musicianship from all his singers, and this is complemented by a typically high standard of recording from Lammas Records.

Recommended.

Kit Perona-Wrlght –Church Music Quarterly – September 2002

Most of the material on this disc is thoroughly familiar, but a few tracks are highlights. Our friend and colleague John Bertalot (Organist Emeritus at Blackburn) has made a lovely arrangement of Holst’s In the Bleak Midwinter. John Tavener’s Today the Virgin is no longer a novelty, but its inclusion here is welcome. Andrew Simpson’s Veni, Domine Jesu, to a text from the final chapters of the Book of Revelation, is most intriguing, building to a stunning climax (not easy, but a piece well worth consideration for broadening a Christmas program). I am also happy to find another disc including the lovely Cornelius/Atkins gem The Three Kings, and John Rutter’s arrangement of The Twelve Days of Christmas is simply a delight. The performance is very fine, as is the recorded sound. Texts are provided only for the two anthems sung in Latin. –The Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians, USA – April 2002

Blackburn has an impressive recording reputation, and this CD maintains that standard handsomely. One is lost in admiration at what love and elbow grease manage to achieve – as at Leeds – in the absence of generous external endowment. This collection of 25 pieces includes musicianly arrangements by such practiced hands as Gower, Willcocks, Rose, Goodenough and Rutter. There are also important original compositions by Tavener, Andrew Simpson and Rutter.

DW –Choir Schools Today – 2002