Music for Holy Week from King's College

I'm happy to welcome back the Choir of King's College, Cambridge in this selection of music for Holy Week, which begins Sunday.

The choir has often appeared here, although more frequently under an earlier director, David Willcocks, than under Philip Ledger  (1937-2012), the choir's leader from 1974-82.

Philip Ledger

The King's/Ledger combination was previously featured here in music by Henry Purcell, a recording I strongly recommend.

Today's program is composed of music from the Renaissance and Baroque, leavened with four English hymns, and capped by a setting of George Herbert's Let all the world in every corner sing by the 20th century composer Kenneth Leighton.

The documentation on the LP is not overly user-friendly, so let me list the contents of the program, along with the composers (or sources), their dates and nationalities as relevant:

• Antonio Lotti (1667–1740) [Italian] - Crucifixus (Crucified)

• William Horsley (1774-1858) [English] - There is a green hill far away

• Tomás Luis de Victoria (c. 1548–1611) [Spanish] - O vos omnes qui transitis per viam (All of you who pass by)

• Thomas Morley (1557-1602) [English] - Nolo mortem peccatoris (I desire not the death of a sinner)

Orlando Gibbons, Thomas Morley, Orlando di Lasso

• Orlando di Lasso (c. 1532-94) [Netherlands-Germany] - Tristis est anima mea (My soul is sorrowful)

• King John (João) IV (1604–56) [Portuguese] - Crux fidelis (Faithful cross)

• Tomás Luis de Victoria (c. 1548–1611) [Spanish] - Videte omnes populi (Let all peoples see)

• Orlando Gibbons (c. 1583–1625) [English] - Drop, drop slow tears

• Edward Miller (1731 or 1735–1807), Samuel Webbe (1740-1816) [English] - When I survey the wondrous cross

• John Taverner (c. 1490–1545) [English] - Dum transisset Sabbatum (When the Sabbath was over)

• Traditional - Jesus Christ is risen today

• Traditional [arr. George R. Woodward (1848-1934)] - This joyful Eastertide

• John Sheppard (c. 1515–58) [English] - Haec dies (This day)

• Kenneth Leighton (1929-88) [English] - Let all the world in every corner sing

The performances were hailed by reviewer Stanley Webb in The Gramophone - at least the early music component: "All lovely things to sing and to hear and nowhere is such music better sung than by the choir of King's College Chapel, under Philip Ledger."

He, however, was not taken with the 19th century music: "After such august company the listener comes down to earth with a bump to Victorian sentimentality with the texts of Mrs Alexander's hymn There is a green hill and my namesake's (S. Webbe, 1820) When I survey. The Anglican tradition produced better things than this, however, in Orlando Gibbons's Drop, drop slow tears and Jesus Christ is risen today. Easter Day is indeed reached at last with a vigorous performance of Kenneth Leighton's Let all the world, with its taxing accompaniment brilliantly played by the new [King's] organ scholar, Thomas Trotter."

Thomas Trotter

The cover note by Cambridge musicologist Iain Fenlon similarly is dismissive of the hymn tunes, which undoubtedly were included to provide some variety in texture: "Three of the hymns are taken from The English Hymnal, that erratic though panoramic account of English hymn tunes produced under the musical editorship of Vaughan Williams."

Kenneth Leighton

The mention of Vaughan Williams reminds me that he too produced a setting of Let all the world in every corner sing which is far more jubilant than the angular music by Kenneth Leighton (a composer I admire). You can hear Vaughan Williams' setting here, as part of his Five Mystical Songs.

The sound on this 1977 analogue recording is quite good; the choir's voices and the resonant King's College Chapel are captured perfectly.

LINK