Reviews
GMCD 7256 Love Divine
The Organ No. 325 - September 2003
Wesleyan Music from The
Choir of Lincoln College, Oxford - Christopher Bucknall, organ – Christopher
Eastwood, conductor
Guild GMCD 7256 –
64’47’’
Honouring one of their
most famous predecessors, the Choir of Lincoln College Oxford, under their
conductor, Christopher Eastwood begin this recording of Wesleyan music with a
wonderfully inspirational and uplifting rendition of Samuel Sebastian Wesley’s
anthem – Blessed be the God and Father. Thus the mood is set and
continues in similar vein until another fine trio of works by the same composer
– Cast me not away; O thou who camest from above and The
Wilderness brings the recording to a triumphant close.
The choral music to be
heard on this disc gives testimony to the quality of sound produced by the mixed
voices of this superb chapel choir, regarded as one of Oxford University’s
finest. They are now building an impressive collection of CDs to enhance their
‘everyday’ role that requires them to sing for the principal College Chapel
services.
The choice of hymns
includes many firm favourites such as Charles Wesley’s – Love divine, all
loves excelling to Rowlands’ wonderful music, Thou wilt keep him in
perfect peace with music by the aforementioned Samuel Sebastian Wesley and
Charles Wesley’s Rejoice the Lord is King with music by GF Handel.
It would be difficult
for any lover of hymns singing not to join in on many occasions – this listener
certainly did so. However, the concert effort of remaining quiet in order to
listen to the singing of the choir pays dividends and leaves one with the
abiding feeling that choral hymn singing is alive and well and in this
particular recording is of the highest order. JW
MusicWeb Wednesday June 04 03
Love Divine - Wesleyan Music
Samuel Sebastian WESLEY, (1766-1837):
Anthem - Blessed be the God and Father 1-5vv. & organ. (1833-35) [7’10]
Wash me throughly from my wickedness (4vv) (pub.1853) [3’59]
Anthem - Ascribe unto the Lord (7/4vv & organ) (1849-53) [13’04] .
Anthem: Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace (5vv) (pub.1853) [3’44]
Anthem: Cast me not away (6vv. & organ) (1848) [4’26]
Hymn: O thou who camest from above (pub.1904) [2’39]
Anthem: The Wilderness (4vv. & organ) (1832) [13’09]
Paderborn Gesangbuch (1765): Hymn - Ye
servants of God (4vv) [2’37]
William ROWLANDS, (1860 - 1937): Hymn:
(tune "Blaenwern") - Love divine, all loves excelling.
[3’23]
Johann Sebastian BACH, (1685 - 1750):
Hymn - Lo! God is here! (from melody by J.H. Schein)
(4vv) [1’47]
George Frideric HANDEL, (1685 - 1759):
Hymn: Rejoice the Lord is King [2’43]
Traditional 18th. Century: Hymn: Lo, he
comes with clouds descending [4’55]
 The
Choir of Lincoln College, Oxford/Christopher Eastwood
Christopher Bucknall (Organ)
Rec. Exeter College, Oxford, 13-15 March 2002
GUILD
GMCD7256 [64’47"]
John
Wesley studied at Lincoln College, Oxford and it was there, with his brother
Charles, that he formed the Holy Club designed to give the like-minded young men
a disciplined regime of holy living. It was that regime which led to the name
Methodism, at first applied satirically. Singing hymns was always a large part
of the Wesley's itinerant evangelism and their first collection of hymns was
published in 1738.
This
disc, recorded by the choir of Lincoln College is designed to celebrate the
Wesley's connection to the College. But the disc is not what it might first
appear to be as the choir sing just six hymns by the Wesleys and it is to Samuel
Sebastian Wesley that the bulk of the programme belongs.
There
is just one hymn by John Wesley (a translation from the German) and five by
Charles Wesley. Of these, only one (‘Lo! He comes with clouds descending') is
sung to the tune that was associated with it by the Wesleys. All the others have
acquired new tunes subsequently and the choir sing these more familiar versions.
Another hymn, ('Rejoice the Lord is King') was set by Handel, who was an older
contemporary of the Wesleys, but this setting was not published until Samuel
Sebastian Wesley (the grandson of Charles) published it in the 19th
century.
Besides one of his hymns, setting his grandfather's words, the choir sing six of
Samuel Sebastian's anthems. Organist of Hereford, Exeter, Winchester and
Gloucester Cathedrals and Leeds Parish Church, Samuel Sebastian did much to
reform Anglican church music and introduce contemporary harmony and forms into
the rather stale and old-fashioned Anglican anthem.
This
is an attractive programme and it is useful to have the collection of Samuel
Sebastian's anthems. But his sublimely Anglican anthems rather dilute the
Methodist fervour of John’s and Charles's hymns, a fervour further diluted by
using the traditional tunes rather than ones known to John and Charles. A case
could be made for a programme devoted to the Wesley family, but then you would
surely have to include something by Samuel Sebastian's father, Samuel Wesley.
Samuel Wesley was a child prodigy (writing his first oratorio at the age of
eight). Whilst his music might not stand extensive revival, a programme devoted
to his father, uncle and son could have fitted in one of his own pieces and it
would have made a far stronger selection. What we are left with sounds like
typical fare from the college services. This is no bad thing, but the programme
had the potential to be something more memorable.
That
said, the choir of Lincoln College make a wonderfully clean wholesome sound and
sound ideal in this music. A choir with female sopranos and a mixture of female
and male altos, the choir has all the virtues (and the odd problem) that come
with young voices. The upper parts can make an ethereally pure sound and all
voices sing with crispness and liveliness. But the inner parts can lack
definition, there are occasional moments of untidiness and the extremes of
Samuel Sebastian's bass parts tax the young baritones in the choir.
The
choir fields a fine array of soloists, particularly Silvie Garnsey who
contributes a lovely pure, clean treble solo in Samuel Sebastian's 'Blessed be
God the Father'. Where the soloists act as a semi-chorus, then they sound
heavenly. But the soloists are taxed by the more complex, operatically inspired
solo passages in Samuel Sebastian's anthems. In chapel, on a Sunday evening,
they undoubtedly make a fine impression, but on record the fine detail and
experience is lacking so that these solo passages lack finesse.
They
are not always helped by the conductor, Christopher Eastwood (for two tracks he
and organist Christopher Bucknall enterprisingly swap roles). He does not have
an adequate feel for the structure of Samuel Sebastian's extensive multi-section
structures. Samuel Sebastian started his working life at the English Opera House
and brought these influences to bear in his early anthems. Too often, you feel
that conductor, choir and soloists, consider each section as a separate entity
and any overall structural feeling is lost. This may, however, be a fault of the
recording process if the anthems were recorded in sections.
Regarding the hymns, some radical rethinking was called for. The choir sing them
musically enough, varying between unison and harmony. They would make an
inspiring backing during college services. But listening to these hymns on a CD
player, they all sound terribly slow and not a little dreary. Rather than
perform them in the standard congregational way, choir, organist and conductor
should have remade them anew as small anthems, suitable for armchair listening.
In the hymns, the choir's diction is adequate, but entirely lacks the feeling
for the text and the fervour that would surely come from the original
performances. Rather than giving us an insight into Charles Wesley's
revolutionary hymnody, these performances resound with comfortable Anglicanism.
Whilst Samuel Sebastian Wesley's anthems remain popular on anthologies of
English choral and cathedral music, collections of his anthems are rarer. Both
the New College collection on CRD and Worcester College's collection on Hyperion
seem to have been deleted. So if you are interested in a collection of Samuel
Sebastian's anthems, then consider this collection. But if you are interested in
John and Charles Wesley's hymns, then I suggest that you look elsewhere.
Robert Hugill
revised 18.09.03
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