Composer: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
Performer: London Choral Sinfonia
Conductor: Michael Waldron
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Orchid
Release: 2023
Size: 3.09 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
CD 01
01. Morning & Evening Service in F Major, Op. 18: I. Te Deum
02. The Lord Is My Strength
03. In Thee, O Lord
04. Morning & Evening Service in F Major, Op. 18: III. Jubilate Deo
05. O Ye That Love the Lord
06. Morning & Evening Service in F Major, Op. 18: II. Benedictus
07. By the Waters of Babylon
08. 3 Short Pieces for Organ: No. 3, Arietta
09. Lift Up Your Heads
10. Morning & Evening Service in F Major, Op. 18: IV. Magnificat
11. Morning & Evening Service in F Major, Op. 18: V. Nunc dimittis
12. Now Late on the Sabbath Day
CD 02
01. Sea Drift, Op. 69
02. By the Lone Sea Shore
03. Whispers of Summer
04. The Evening Star
05. 3 Short Pieces for Organ: No. 2, Elegy
06. The Lee Shore
07. Song of Proserpine
08. Summer Is Gone
09. 3 Short Pieces for Organ: No. 1, Melody
10. Viking Song
Most of the music on this double album of music by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor has been rediscovered by conductor Michael Waldron, who writes that he was “shocked that all the sacred works were unfamiliar to me, particularly given how much of my early musical training was in church/cathedral music.” The secular pieces (in the second of the two parts) are hardly better known. It is indeed shocking, given the high quality of the music here, and given that Coleridge-Taylor, in his own time, was best known for a choral work, the big cantata The Song of Hiawatha, Op. 30. That piece is not present here, but much of this music is stirring and altogether distinctive. The problem may be that in his choral music, Coleridge-Taylor seems rarely to have explored the African and African American influences that appear in his instrumental works, although listeners will have to decide for themselves about Sea Drift, Op. 69. This high-powered piece sets not Walt Whitman but a poem by another American, Thomas Bailey Aldrich. Another richly evocative sea piece is The Lee Shore, to a text by Thomas Hood. The sacred pieces are vigorous, and it does seem regrettable that they are in the repertories of so few choirs; perhaps Waldron’s work will change the situation. The Magnificat from the Morning & Evening Service that is interspersed among the works in the first part is especially joyous. The London Choral Society is an amateur group, and another draw of this album is how many of the pieces are within the reach of amateur choirs; this one articulates the texts cleanly and with spirit. A marvelous release, strongly commended to those looking to incorporate more music by Black composers into their repertories or those in search of neglected choral repertories of any kind. This release landed on classical best-seller charts in the summer of 2023.