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Track(s) taken from CDA67643

Laus Deo

composer
Jonathan Harvey (1939-2012)
1969

Robert Quinney (organ)
Recording details: February 2007
Westminster Abbey, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Jeremy Summerly
Engineered by Simon Eadon
Release date: September 2007
Total duration: 4 minutes 5 seconds
 

Other recordings available for download

Edward Picton-Turbervill (organ)

Reviews

‘The disc is a splendid and colourful addition to the Abbey Choir's recordings of special services. They themselves are in fine form, sovereign (as befits the status of their church) in musical confidence, as well placed as the bright-toned voices of the boys who rise with an aplomb many opera house choruses might envy to the high Cs of the Langlais Mass, and show their mastery in still more wonderful ways by finding the notes scattered with hide-and-seek devilry in Tippet's Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis. And in that connection the soloist Nicholas Trapp deserves particular mention. Their style, under James O'Donnell's sure direction, is forthright and spirited, well attuned to the Jacobean mysticism of Dering's Factus est silentium as to Howell's ecstatic Sequence for St Michael … Kenneth Leighton's Responses are subtly varied and inventive’ (Gramophone)

‘The choir, atmospherically recorded in the Abbey itself, sings this demanding repertoire with its customary zeal and a well-blended sound, and the performances are directed with the panache and style one has come to expect from James O'Donnell. Robert Quinney's contribution as organist culminates in a Laus Deo from Jonathan Harvey aptly described by O'Donnell in his booklet note as "the opulent psychedelia of [Messiaen's] Turangalîla compressed into four minutes"’ (The Daily Telegraph)
Laus Deo (1969) dates from the same year as Ludus Amoris, written for Christopher Robinson, who had been a chorister with Harvey in Tenbury, a work described by one critic as the most striking premiere at the Three Choirs Festival for nearly 50 years. Harvey gave the following description of the extraordinary creation of Laus Deo: Having given up all hope of finding time to fulfil a commission from Simon Preston before the deadline, I had one night a vivid dream in which a shimmering ‘cinquecento’ angel played an organ. What he played formed the main substance of Laus Deo, and within twelve hours of wakening the piece was finished. In describing a similar experience Gustav Mahler had whilst composing his Seventh Symphony, Harvey wrote: The way in which the principal material emerged and the speed with which it was eventually completed suggest that it was in some sense already fully formed in the unconscious: the epiphanaic moment was one of revelation rather than invention.

from notes by Andrew Nethsingha © 2015

Other albums featuring this work

Harvey: Deo
St John's College Choir Cambridge, Andrew Nethsingha (conductor)
Studio Master: SIGCD456Download onlyStudio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available

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