Stanford: Sacred Choral Music, Vol. 1 “The Cambridge Years” (FLAC)

Performer: Christopher Monks, Stephen Farr
Composer: Charles Villiers Stanford
Audio CD
SPARS Code: DDD
Number of Discs: 1
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Hyperion
Size: 277 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes

01. Magnificat in B flat
02. Nunc dimittis in B flat
03. The Lord is my Shepherd
04. Three Latin Motels: Justorum animae
05. Three Latin Motels: Coelos ascendit hodie
06. Three Latin Motels: Beati quorum via
07. Magnificat in A
08. Nunc dimittis in A
09. If you shalt confess with my mouth
10. Magnificat in F
11. Nunc dimittis in F
12. And I saw another angel
13. Pater noster
14. Magnificat in E flat
15. Nunc dimittis in E flat
16. Jubilate in B flat
17. Te Deum in B flat

Superb Stanford, Gloriously Performed and Recorded.

Anyone growing up in an Anglican Church choir should have sung Stanford at some time. This is inspiring church music, beautifully crafted and full of fine tunes and deeply-felt hormonic invention.
Winchester Cathedral under David Hill give these works their very considerable all. This is a terrific CD in superb sound, deep and suitably clear, within a rich cathedral acoustic. With the right equipment, the organ pedals really throb authentically.
It is a poor heart which does not rejoice in this glorious Christian music, I think!
(I had the privilege of playing timpani in the Poulenc Concerto for Organ, Timpani and Strings when David Hill played the organ solo whilst still at St John’s Cambridge, as Organ Scholar.)
This is the best recorded version of this music to have come my way, much better with the organ accompaniment than the rather inflated orchestral versions recorded.