Reviews for
GMCD 7201  - Wesley, SS: Anthems

Recorded July 2000; TT 60’53". PRIORY PRCD 750

As the PRIORY team reaches the end of its imaginative Great Cathedral Anthems series it turns to Worcester, that cathedral where over the centuries so much marvellous music has first heard its voice, from Tomkins in the seventeenth century to Elgar in the nineteenth & twentieth, along with composing organists and assistants Blair, Atkins, Day, Guest, Willcocks, Robinson, Trepte, Hunt and Lucas. What an imaginative idea it was to invite Sir David Willcocks (Organist at Worcester 1950-57) to conduct this programme, and to hear Adrian Lucas playing his own cathedral organ, now with its dramatic south transept Solo and Pedal stops restored to working order by Nicholsons and heard to splendid effect Here.

Whilst it is customary in some circles to decry the compositional output of cathedral musicians as second-rate, even a cursory listen to this disc would convince most unbiased listeners that there is fine music a-plenty to be heard at Worcester, some of it by figures hardly known in the wider world. In fact this programme is a particularly satisfying blend of familiar and unfamiliar, lean and rich, reflective and impassioned, linear and massive. Each rarity turns out to be a delight, and each familiar work a welcome revisiting. Just consider how the liturgy at Worcester must have been enhanced over the centuries by anthems such as these.

Much the same can be said of the York Wesley programme, which centres on three blockbusters - Let us lift up our heart (17mins), Praise the Lord, O my soul (12 mins) and To my request and earnest cry (16 mins). The last of these is receiving its first recording, and the first has been recorded or broadcast extremely rarely. Wesley was another jobbing cathedral musician, but he was also a man with a purpose: the reforming of cathedral music and its standards, at the same time as Maria Hackett was approaching cathedral choir schools with similar reforming zeal. Peter Horton's excellent essay on Wesley's career should be required reading of all interested in nineteenth century music-making in cathedrals; indeed this recording has been made to complement Mr Horton's study of S S Wesley's life, soon to be published by OUP. The York selection of Wesley's anthems (composed over a forty-year period) is particularly interesting, being a mixture of familiar and unfamiliar, and demonstrating clearly to what creative effect Wesley put mainstream influences from Bach to Spohr. The large-scale works contain much of beauty, much of dramatic power, and not least that uniquely Weslian device of a rising sequence of suspensions.

The York choir has the size, the power - and the bluster - to respond to these large-scale works with unfettered enthusiasm, spaciously recorded in the glorious York acoustic. It is not perhaps too unkind to say that the creamy tones of guest baritone Stephen Varcoe show up an occasional coarseness amongst the lay clerks. Despite a lack of really distinguished voices in the Worcester choir at present, they too demonstrate an unfaltering enthusiasm for the task in hand, and are firmly directed by Sir David to great purpose. Particular joys for me are their performances of the least familiar repertoire: the colourful anthems by Atkins, Day, Guest, Lucas and Willcocks, for which alone the CD is worth buying.                                                                             Walter Reeves

Classical Music on the Web April 2001

Samuel Sebastian WESLEY
ANTHEMS
Let us lift up our heart
O God, whose name and property
Praise the Lord, O my soul
Introduction & Fugue in C# minor
Trust ye in the Lord
Andante in D major
Man that is born of woman
To my request and earnest cry
The Choir of York Minster/Philip Moore
Recorded May 1999
Guild GMCD 7201 [68:03]

Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810-76) is one of the most intriguing figures in nineteenth century English music. At an early age he made his mark in London, as both organist and composer, but forsook the capital to become organist at Hereford Cathedral in 1832. He seems to have been of a disputatious temperament, and quarrels with deans and chapters arising from his outspoken comments on the need for the reform of church music were to be a constant feature of his career. He must hold some sort of record for the number of major organ posts he occupied: Hereford was to be followed by Exeter (1835), Leeds Parish Church (1841), Winchester (1849) and finally Gloucester (1865).

As an organist he was particularly renowned for his improvisations. As a composer, his early promise was never quite fulfilled: his output was relatively small and rarely ventured beyond the fields of church and organ music. Yet on the evidence of this disc he stood head and shoulders above his contemporaries. Unfortunately he was easily discouraged - in the 1850s he gave up composing altogether - which is not surprising given that his music seemingly did not find favour with the church authorities (the magnificent anthem To My Request and Earnest Cry, here recorded for the first time, was written while he was at Exeter: but it was probably never performed in his lifetime).

He possessed an easy mastery of chromatic harmony, boldly deploying a notable degree of dissonance. Another quality he displayed was a wonderful ability to match music to the meaning of particular texts. Take Trust Ye in the Lord (another anthem receiving its first recording): the words ' … the labour of the olive shall fail and the fields shall give no wheat' are clothed in music of gentle pathos; but the following 'Yet will I rejoice in the Lord' is notable for the soaring, exultant treble line to which they are entrusted.

The whole disc abounds with similar felicities - the exquisite dissonances in the concise, moving Man that is Born of a Woman, written for the Burial Sentences, the affecting simplicity of Lead Me Lord, the tremendous fugue leading to the climax of To My Request and Earnest Cry, followed by a coda of moving serenity. And the organ Introduction & Fugue in C# minor is a splendidly structured affair.

I cannot recommend this disc too highly. The acoustic of York Minster is a perfect setting for the music, and the choir is thoroughly on top of its work: it fields splendid soloists, trebles Alastair Hewish and Matthew Ferguson are particularly outstanding). Telling contributions come from Stephen Varcoe (baritone) and John Scott Whiteley (organ); and Philip Moore is the authoritative conductor. Peter Horton's sleeve notes are a model of their kind.                                                                                                            Adrian Smith

American Record Guide January / February 2001

WESLEY,SS-.Anthems

Let Us Lift Up Our Heart, 0 God, Whose Nature and Property, Praise the Lord, 0 My Soul,- Trust Ye in the Lord, Man That Is Born of Woman, To My Request and Earnest Cry, Introduction & Fugue in C-sharp minor; Anclante in D Let Us Lift Up Our Heart, 0 God, Whose Nature and Property, Praise the Lord, 0 My Soul,- Trust Ye in the Lord, Man That Is Born of Woman, To My Request and Earnest Cry, Introduction & Fugue in C-sharp minor; Anclante in D
John Scott Whiteley, org; Stephen Varcoe, bar; York Minster Choir/ Philip Moore
Guild 7201--68 minutes