Beginning with an expectedly rousing and expertly rendered God is gone up by Gerald Finzi, the Choir of the Queen’s College, Oxford and organist George Parsons offer a stylistically varied yet thematically cohesive program that ranges from Tallis and Byrd to Bach and Finzi, ending with Kenneth Leighton’s exuberant anthem Let all the world. In between we hear three chorale-based organ works by Bach–brilliantly played, the contrapuntal lines clearly articulated, the voicings fully exploiting both the instrument’s bright and dark colors and its nimbleness and power–and some well-chosen pieces from renaissance Spain (Guerrero, Victoria), Portugal (Lobo), and Italy (Palestrina). Perhaps the disc’s highlight is Jonathan Harvey’s (b. 1939) setting of Come, Holy Ghost, a masterful evocation of the mystical, surprising, and incomprehensible visitation of the Holy Spirit. Harvey employs the familiar hymn melody (Veni creator spiritus) and embellishes it with tone clusters, exotic harmonies, a couple of ear-catching solos (tenor James Gilchrist is especially notable), random, arrhythmic utterances, and in general draws us into a strange sound-world that’s fully worthy of its subject.
The choir of mixed voices (female sopranos; the alto section includes at least one male voice) is excellent, showing an overall mastery of the various styles and voice configurations. However, in the more thick-textured pieces–such as Tallis’ Loquebantur variis linguis and Guerrero’s Duo seraphim–interior voice-parts are somewhat mushy in the relatively close-up recording. Mostly, the singing is clear and detailed and well-balanced but for the occasional soprano emphasis. And although we’ve heard Tallis’ “If ye love me” more times than we can count, this choir’s lovely rendition allows us the chance to appreciate its simple beauty yet once more–and no one will complain. Highly recommended to all choral music fans.
