Although neither Edmund Rubbra nor Patrick Hadley is a major name in the history of choral music, programming these two 20th century British composers together is a good idea. Not only are their somewhat diverse styles compatible, but combining several of the best works of each strengthens the entire program and provides a good opening for further exploration of their other music. Rubbra was by far the more prolific and better-known: he not only wrote many choral works, but contributed 11 symphonies, several concertos, and numerous chamber works to the repertoire. Hadley will be best remembered by choral fans for his exquisite setting of “I sing of a maiden” (included on this CD). Also on the program is Hadley’s wonderful Lenten Cantata (in its world premiere recording), a work very much in the English cathedral tradition that features some lovely choral sections, among them a carol for women’s voices, “A babe in Bethlem’s manger laid”.
Rubbra’s writing is far less attached than Hadley’s to any tradition or style; it’s eclecticism forms its own individuality, easily accessible in one work, more craggy and difficult in the next. But overall, his music, especially the selections performed here, makes a strong and agreeable impact that speaks easily to most anyone who loves choral church music. In the Three Motets Op. 76 we hear sounds of close-voiced, quartal, and chant-style harmonies familiar from the works of many other English church composers of this period (the 1950s). And in the Three Hymn Tunes Op. 114 Rubbra effectively preserves the purity of the melodies while painting for them a harmonic background of most delicate and beautiful color. The big piece, the Missa in honorem Sancti Dominici Op. 66, is a really fine work, with particularly memorable settings of the Gloria, Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei. (The Credo is strongly reminiscent of sections of Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G minor in its stark, modal harmonic structure.)
The Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, has a very long history (it began in 1348) and has gone through a number of transformations before arriving at its current SATB configuration. These singers prove here to be ideal interpreters of Hadley’s and Rubbra’s music, their full sound and well-learned techniques of cathedral singing–not least of which are clear articulation and proper balance among sections–conveying both inner detail and capturing each work’s mood and meaning. The sound, from the Chapel of the Hospital of St. Cross, Winchester, is resonant and spacious without being boomy or muddy–in other words, just right for the music. [5/10/2001]
