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Track(s) taken from CDA67853

Coventry Antiphon

First line:
My house shall be called an house of prayer for all people
composer
Herbert Howells (1892-1983)
25 December 1961; SATB + organ; composed on Christmas Day 1961 for the May 1962 service of dedication for the new Coventry Cathedral
author of text
Bible
Isaiah 56: 7; Haggai 2: 9

Winchester Cathedral Choir, Andrew Lumsden (conductor)
Recording details: March 2010
Winchester Cathedral, United Kingdom
Produced by Adrian Peacock
Engineered by David Hinitt
Release date: June 2011
Total duration: 4 minutes 49 seconds

Cover artwork: Golden Days. Lee Campbell (b1951)
Private Collection / Bridgeman Images
 

Reviews

‘The performances of Winchester Cathedral Choir are so good you hardly register the need to 'assess' them—exactly as it should be in devotional music. That's a huge tribute to the state of the singing at the cathedral, and to Andrew Lumsden, who directs it. A marvellous CD, beautifully planned and executed’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘Howells's later works have failed to find their way into the regular repertoire but this recording by a radiant Winchester Cathedral Choir urges a thorough reappraisal. The long, fluid lines, startling cadences and massive chords which are so unique to Howells are all here in 'their' service’ (The Observer)

‘These are uniformly excellent performances and the recording quality is detailed yet superbly spacious. It's the first release from a renewed relationship between Winchester and Hyperion and, although I will hope for more rare Howells, I look forward to whatever else is on the cards. I highly commend this disc’ (International Record Review)
Inscribed on a tablet set into the face of the ruined tower of Coventry’s old cathedral, reduced to a burnt-out shell in the German bombing of the city during the night of 14 November 1940, are verses from the Old Testament prophecy of Haggai: ‘The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts: and in this place will I give peace …’ In the Coventry Antiphon, composed on Christmas Day 1961 for the service of dedication of Basil Spence’s new cathedral in May 1962, Howells frames these words with a verse from Isaiah 56: ‘My house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.’

from notes by Paul Andrews © 2011

Sur la façade de la tour ruinée de la vieille cathédrale de Coventry, réduite à une carcasse en cendres par le bombardement allemand de la ville dans la nuit du 14 novembre 1940, on peut lire, gravés sur une plaque commémorative, ces versets vétéro-testamentaires de la prophétie d’Aggée: «The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts: and in this place will I give peace …» («La gloire de cette dernière maison sera plus grande que celle de la première, dit le Seigneur des armées: et dans ce lieu je donnerai la paix …»). Dans la Coventry Antiphon composée à la Noël de 1961 pour le service de dédicace de la nouvelle cathédrale de Basil Spence, en mai 1962, Howells ceint ces mots d’un verset tiré d’Isaïe 56: «Ma maison sera appelée une maison de prière pour tous les peuples.»

extrait des notes rédigées par Paul Andrews © 2011
Français: Hypérion

Auf einer Tafel, die auf der Vorderseite des zerstörten Turms der alten Kathedrale zu Coventry (die in der Nacht des 14. November 1940 in dem deutschen Bombenangriff auf die Stadt zu einer ausgebrannten Ruine reduziert wurde) eingelassen ist, stehen Verse der alttestamentarischen Weissagung Haggais: „Es soll die Herrlichkeit dieses neuen Hauses größer werden, als die des ersten gewesen ist, spricht der Herr Zebaoth; und ich will Frieden geben an dieser Stätte …“ In der Coventry Antiphon, die am 25. Dezember 1961 für den Einweihungsgottesdienst (im Mai 1962) der neuen, von Basil Spence erbauten Kathedrale entstand, umrahmte Howells diese Worte mit einem Vers aus Jesaja 56: „Mein Haus wird ein Bethaus heißen für alle Völker.“

aus dem Begleittext von Paul Andrews © 2011
Deutsch: Viola Scheffel

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