Originally recorded and released on two LPs in the 1980s, these 22 selections, ranging from repertoire staples to a few rarely heard gems, are issued for the first time on CD. Serious choral music fans will know the potential value of this recording, as the Trinity College Choir is one of the world’s finest vocal ensembles–and they won’t be disappointed, whether the music is Vaughan Williams’ O Clap Your Hands, Walton’s Set me as a Seal, Stanford’s Ye Choirs of New Jerusalem, or the several Britten selections, including two that I’ve never seen recorded anywhere else. Yet for me, the program’s highlight lies in the six Frank Bridge songs that close the disc. Scored both a cappella and with piano accompaniment, these are extremely engaging, characterful pieces that treat English folk/poetic texts with lighthearted spirit allied with clever, catchy musical settings. We also hear Britten’s virtually ignored 1934 Jubilate Deo, along with two other “extracts” from 1940s stage works–Deus in adjutorium meum and an arrangement of Carry her over the water, from Britten’s Paul Bunyan (1941). In these remasterings by Roger Beardsley the analog sound is absolutely fine (although the Holst Turn Back, O Man is oddly confined and wheezy, the arrangement a bit hokey for this collection), and overall we can celebrate a first-time-on-CD issue that really merits its reappearance.
