Every once in a while a recording from the distant past, one that we have never reviewed–in this case from exactly 20 years ago–reasserts itself in the process of research or making a comparison with a current release. This one is an unqualified gem discontinued from EMI’s catalog but that is currently available through Arkivmusic.com’s “on-demand” reissue program. If you are a choral music fan and somehow missed its initial release, you will be truly gladdened and uplifted by this well-produced and superbly sung program, recorded at Washington National Cathedral as part of the events celebrating the church’s 1990 completion.
The concert begins with a work for carillon specially composed for the cathedral’s consecration and follows with such revered works as Vaughan Williams’ O Clap Your Hands, Sowerby’s Come, Holy Ghost, Mozart’s Ave verum corpus, Tallis’ If Ye Love Me, Finzi’s God is Gone Up, Palestrina’s Sicut cervus, and Stanford’s Psalm 150. For me, however, the highlights are two: Vaughan Williams’ lovely, perfectly realized organ prelude on the Welsh hymn tune Rhosymedre (for me, one of those jewels of 20th-century organ repertoire that you can’t hear too often), played with ideal sensitivity and grace by Douglas Major, and the truly magnificent Magnificat by David Hogan, a masterpiece that should be in the repertoire of every serious cathedral and church choir. And how engineers John Newton, Henk Kooistra, and Brad Michael managed to capture so flawlessly the substantial choral, brass, and organ forces in the challenging acoustic of Washington National Cathedral is a tribute to their genius and an essential component of the recording’s success. A classic. [6/7/2010]
