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Track(s) taken from CDA66826

For lo, I raise up, Op 145

composer
1914; ST soli, SATB divisi + organ; published in 1939
author of text
Habakkuk 1: 6-12; 2: 1-3, 14, 20, adapted

St Paul's Cathedral Choir, John Scott (conductor), Andrew Lucas (organ)
Recording details: June 1995
St Paul's Cathedral, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Arthur Johnson
Engineered by Antony Howell & Julian Millard
Release date: April 1996
Total duration: 9 minutes 16 seconds
 

Other recordings available for download

The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge, Stephen Layton (conductor), Madeleine Todd (soprano), Jamie Roberts (tenor), Owain Park (organ)
Westminster Abbey Choir, James O'Donnell (conductor), Peter Holder (organ), James Thomson (treble), Simon Wall (tenor)
Worcester Cathedral Choir, Donald Hunt (conductor), Paul Trepte (organ)
Kenan Burrows (treble), William Kendall (tenor), Winchester Cathedral Choir, Stephen Farr (organ), David Hill (conductor)
Chichester Cathedral Choir, Charles Harrison (conductor), Dominic Harry (treble), Thomas Perkins (tenor), Timothy Ravalde (organ)

Reviews

‘St Paul's is the king of cathedral choirs, and the sound of their singing, with the majesty of the organ in the awesome reverberance of the great building to match, is as rich and noble as any sound on earth’ (Gramophone)

‘Truly heroic performances from the St Paul's Choir which is on top form. A memorable record’ (Organists' Review)
For lo, I raise up, Op 145, Stanford’s most dramatic anthem, was composed in 1914, though it was left unpublished until 1939. When the strategic bombing of London began in January 1915, Stanford moved out to Windsor where it was safer and, according to E H Fellowes, he subsequently became a regular visitor to St George’s Chapel where his RCM colleague, Parratt, was organist and music director. (The manuscript of the anthem still resides in the Library of St George’s.) Horrified by the war and what he saw as Germany’s betrayal of its artistic heritage, Stanford attempted to articulate his hope for Britain’s future deliverance through the analogy of Habakkuk’s Old Testament prophecies. Set in F minor, the first part of this extended work is a turbulent affair, an indictment of the war-mongers who plundered and laid waste to the land. Yet, in the face of inexorable violence and destruction, Stanford mirrored Habakkuk’s vision of peace in a climactic statement of hope and deliverance (‘We shall not die’) in F major. Building on this declaration of spiritual confidence the momentum increases, animated by a sense of divine destiny (‘The vision is yet for the appointed time’) and an impassioned acclamation of faith (‘For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord’) which is tempered only by the gripping tranquillity of the hushed coda (‘But the Lord is in his holy temple’).

from notes by Jeremy Dibble © 2017

Other albums featuring this work

Bairstow, Harris & Stanford: Choral works
Studio Master: CDA68259Studio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
Lest we forget
Studio Master: SIGCD562Download onlyStudio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
Stanford: Cathedral Music
CDA66030Download only
Stanford: Choral Music
Studio Master: CDA68174Studio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
Stanford: Sacred choral music
CDS44311/33CDs Boxed set (at a special price)
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