Welcome to Hyperion Records, an independent British classical label devoted to presenting high-quality recordings of music of all styles and from all periods from the twelfth century to the twenty-first.
Hyperion offers both CDs, and downloads in a number of formats. The site is also available in several languages.
Please use the dropdown buttons to set your preferred options, or use the checkbox to accept the defaults.
Jerusalem on High,
My song and city is,
My home whene’er I die,
The centre of my bliss.
Contemplation of an afterlife where all things would be happily resolved was a recurrent theme in Victorian hymnody. Steggall’s response is to write an optimistic theme beginning with an ascending chord of C major, an exact inversion of the gesture found in the chorale Jerusalem, du hochgebaute Stadt, popular in Germany, which starts with a descending chord of C major. In Steggall’s Postlude, the restless mood of the introduction and ensuing ‘Allegro moderato’ gives way to calm assurance as the hymn melody emerges, played on the Cremona stop. After further musical rhetoric, the hymn eventually reappears triumphant at the end.
from notes by Graham Barber © 2003