Composer: Michael Finnissy
Performer: Choir of St John’s College Cambridge
Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Signum
Catalogue: SIGCD624
Release: 2020
Size: 1.35 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
01. Dum transisset Sabbatum
02. Dum transisset Sabbatum – double
03. Videte miraculum
04. Videte miraculum – double
05. Commentary on ‘Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern’
Herr Christ, der einge Gottessohn
06. I. ‘Herr Christ, der einge Gottessohn’
07. II. ‘Ach führe mich, o Gott’
08. III. ‘Ach, ziehe die Seele’
09. IV. ‘O Wunderkraft der Liebe’
10. V. ‘Bald zur Rechten’
11. VI. ‘Für uns ein Mensch geboren’
12. Commentary on BWV 562
13. Plebs angelica
14. Plebs angelica – alternativo
Pious Anthems and Voluntaries aspires, in Finnissy’s words, ‘to be a work of guts and brains’. It embodies both in spades…Nethsingha and his forces do it proud. Indeed one of their greatest achievements is to make the music sound as lived-in as more customary chapel fare such as Byrd or Howells. The warmth of sound never obscures the clarity of Finnissy’s contrapuntal thinking.
It’s great, in the first place, for an institution of this type to have approached a composer whose demands were always likely to challenge it. The Choir of St John’s College rise to those challenges gamely, their advocacy naturally essential to the success of the project. And it is a success. The Taverner parody and its organ double seem to me especially fine, both as compositions and performances.