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Track(s) taken from CDA67576

There is a flower

composer
1986
author of text

Quintin Beer (treble), St John's College Choir Cambridge, David Hill (conductor)
Recording details: January 2006
St John's College Chapel, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Produced by Mark Brown
Engineered by Julian Millard
Release date: October 2006
Total duration: 4 minutes 28 seconds
 

Other recordings available for download

Cecilia Osmond (soprano), Polyphony, Stephen Layton (conductor)
The Gesualdo Six, Owain Park (director)
Ruth Holton (soprano), The Cambridge Singers, John Rutter (conductor)
Ruth Holton (soprano), The Cambridge Singers, John Rutter (conductor)
The King's Singers
Tenebrae, Nigel Short (conductor)
The King's Singers

Reviews

‘David Hill's Advent programme imaginatively mingles antiphons, carols, hymns and motets. Favourites alternate with relative rarities such as Edward Naylor's Vox dicentis: Clama, whose sumptuous sonorities unfold gloriously in the chapel's acoustic … the John's choir, fielding what sounds like a vintage crop of trebles, sings throughout with its trademark mixture of refinement and gutsy energy’ (The Daily Telegraph)

‘This recording holds some of the most exquisite choral singing I have ever heard. They must be one of the finest choirs in England. Not only is the technical standard dazzlingly high, but the readings are engaging, animated and sensitively shaped’ (American Record Guide)

‘Blend, balance, intonation and diction are all unfailingly top-drawer, and the choir's unanimity of phrasing and dynamic shading come across as something quite special … both engineering and annotation are well up to the same standard’ (Fanfare, USA)

‘This is a very fine disc indeed … the overall impression with which I’m left is one of great satisfaction and pleasure. The programme has been assembled with great imagination and the execution is well nigh flawless. When one adds in excellent and very atmospheric sound, first rate notes and texts and translations, it all adds up to a very distinguished package indeed. I shall be surprised if I encounter a finer CD of Christmas music this year’ (MusicWeb International)
The wistful, unaccompanied There is a flower, to words by the fifteenth-century poet John Audelay, was written in the mid-1980s at the request of the legendary organist and choir director of St John’s College, Cambridge, George Guest. It was first sung at an Advent carol service—a form of service which had become (and remains) immensely popular in the heady musical climate of Cambridge University, especially given that undergraduates leave for home several weeks before the season of Christmas truly gets under way. The opening solo recalls the talents of a particularly fine treble in the St John’s Choir at the time in question, whose name nonetheless seems lost to posterity.

from notes by Andrew Green © 2001

Sur des mots de John Audelay, un poète du Xve siècle, le nostalgique There is a flower pour chœur seul vit le jour au milieu des années 80 à la demande de l’organiste et chef de chœur de St John’s College de Cambridge, le légendaire George Guest. Sa première audition eut lieu au cours d’un service de carols de l’Avent—une forme de service qui est devenu (et demeure) immensément populaire dans le climat intensément musical de l’Université de Cambridge, d’autant plus que les étudiants quittent le campus plusieurs semaines avant que la saison de Noël ne débute à proprement parler. Le solo initial rappelle les talents d’un jeune sopraniste de l’époque appartenant au chœur de St John’s don’t le nom n’est toutefois pas passé à la postérité.

extrait des notes rédigées par Andrew Green © 2001

Das wehmütige, unbegleitete There is a flower, dessen Text von John Audelay stammt, einem Dichter des fünfzehnten Jahrhunderts, wurde Mitte der 1980er Jahre auf Bitten von George Guest komponiert, dem legendären Organisten und Chorleiter am St. John’s College Cambridge. Es wurde zum ersten Mal bei einem Carol Service zu Advent gesungen—einer Form des Gottesdienstes, die im berauschenden musikalischen Klima der Universität Cambridge vor allem deshalb ungeheuer populär geworden war (und es heute noch ist), weil die Studenten schon mehrere Wochen vor dem eigentlichen Fest aufbrechen, um nach Hause zu fahren. Das einleitende Solo erinnert an die Talente eines besonders edlen Knabensoprans im St. John’s Choir um die fragliche Zeit, dessen Name aber dennoch für die Nachwelt verloren zu sein scheint.

aus dem Begleittext von Andrew Green © 2001

Other albums featuring this work

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Rutter: Music for Christmas
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