Hyperion Records | O magnum misterium

CDA66925
Superseded by CDH55216

Recording details: August 1996
St Jude-on-the-Hill, Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Andrew Lucas
Engineered by Ken Blair
Release date: October 1996
Total duration: 76 minutes 31 seconds
Available for download on iTunes: No

'Polyphony is superb ... the most completely recommendable new issue for Christmas I've found so far' (The Independent on Sunday)

'A gloriously sung collection ... captures the tranquil pastoral mood of Christmas Eve. The recording could hardly be bettered' (The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs)

'The choir conveys Warlock's genius quite irresistibly. These are superlative performances, beautifully recorded. A first-rate production' (Organists' Review)

O magnum misterium

Polyphony, Stephen Layton (conductor)

1		O Radix Iesse [0:44] Anonymous - liturgical Libby Crabtree (soprano)
		Three Carols, Op 17 Peter Wishart (1921-1984)
2		No 3: Alleluya, a new Work is come on Hand [1:50]
		Three Carol-Anthems Herbert Howells (1892-1983)
3		No 2: A Spotless Rose [3:21]
		Five Carols Richard Rodney Bennett (b1936)
4		No 2: Out of your sleep [1:39]
5		Of a rose is all my song [5:45] Kenneth Leighton (1929-1988)
		Five Carols Richard Rodney Bennett (b1936)
6		No 1: There is no rose [2:14]
7		As dew in Aprylle [1:49] Peter Warlock (1894-1930)
8		O magnum misterium [1:35] Anonymous - Medieval
9		Bethlehem Down 'When he is King we will give him the King's gifts' [4:26] Peter Warlock (1894-1930)
		Five Carols Richard Rodney Bennett (b1936)
10		No 3: That younge child [1:14]
11		I saw a fair maiden [4:02] Peter Warlock (1894-1930)
		Three Carol-Anthems Herbert Howells (1892-1983)
12		No 3: Sing lullaby [3:10]
13		Ave Maria [1:29] Anonymous - Medieval Rebecca Outram (soprano)
		Five Carols Richard Rodney Bennett (b1936)
14		No 4: Sweet was the song [2:17]
15		A Hymn of the Nativity [6:23] Kenneth Leighton (1929-1988)
16		Lullaby my Jesus [2:55] Peter Warlock (1894-1930), arr. Andrew Carter (b1939)
17		Hodie Christus natus est [0:54] Anonymous - liturgical
18		All and some [2:01] John Byrt (b1939)
		Three Carols, Op 25 Kenneth Leighton (1929-1988)
19		No 3: An ode of the birth of our Saviour [3:45]
		Five Carols Richard Rodney Bennett (b1936)
20		No 5: Susanni [1:20]
21		Puer natus est nobis [1:03] Anonymous - Medieval
22		Benedicamus Domino [1:23] Peter Warlock (1894-1930)
23		A Cornish Christmas Carol [4:27] Peter Warlock (1894-1930)
24		Reges Tharsis [0:55] Anonymous - Medieval
		Three Carol-Anthems Herbert Howells (1892-1983)
25		No 1: Here is the little door [3:29]
		Three Carols, Op 25 Kenneth Leighton (1929-1988)
26		No 1: The Star-song [4:29]
27		What cheer? [1:04] Sir William Walton (1902-1983)
		Three Carols, Op 25 Kenneth Leighton (1929-1988)
28		No 2: Lully, lulla, thou little tiny child [3:13]
29		Verbum caro factum est [3:35] Anonymous - Medieval

This disc brings together some of the best examples from the English carol revival, a genre which had largely fallen from favour in the three centuries before our own. Works by Warlock, Howells and their contemporaries sit ideally alongside contemplative chant from the medieval tradition at Salisbury, in its time as quintessentially English as the twenty-two twentieth-century carols here so crisply performed by the exciting group Polyphony.