A Year at Birmingham Cathedral

Humphrey Clucas Rorate caeli; June Nixon The holly and the ivy; Mitchell B Southall In silent night; Mendelssohn There shall a star from Jacob come forth; Holst Nunc dimittis; Florence Price Resignation; Ben Ponniah Ave Maria; John Ireland Ex ore innocentium; Stanford Ye choirs of new Jerusalem; Théodore Dubois Offertoire pour la fête de l’Ascension; William Harris Come down O love divine; Charles Wood Great Lord of Lords; César Franck Panis Angelicus; Judith Bingham Corpus Christi Carol; William Nathias Let the people praise thee O God; Bruckner Locus iste; Ernest Bullock Give us the wings of faith; Philip Moore In paradisum; James MacMillan A Child’s Prayer; Edward Bairstow Let all mortal flesh keep silence.

The Choir of Birmingham Cathedral
Ashley Wagner Organ David Hardie Director

Regent REGCD590
https://www.regent-records.co.uk

The joy of being able to eavesdrop on our cathedral choirs around the country is a privilege that Regent allows us through its 'A Year at...' series, where the excellent recording team drops in at a cathedral to record the mainstay repertoire that a choir performs throughout the liturgical year.

This recent release takes us to Birmingham, England's second-largest metropolis, which is home to one of the country's smaller cathedrals – the wonderful baroque church of St Philip located in its heart. Having received cathedral status with the new Birmingham Diocese in 1905, it provides an opportunity to hear new and old repertoire that conjoin superbly well.

As we enter through the door from the hustle and bustle outside, taking our seats to admire the graceful Italianate architecture and the remarkable late nineteenth-century stained glass windows (many by Edward Burne-Jones), David Hardie's choir permeates through our speakers in this, the choir's first recording under Hardie's direction. From the opening moments, the choir commands attention.

There is so much to lift the spirit and enjoy. The ensemble is beautifully balanced, particularly evident in Phillip Moore's In paradisum, where intonation remains excellent throughout and the top line soars with ethereal charm. The lower voices prove equally resonant in works such as Holst's Nunc dimittis, Bruckner's Locus Iste, and Bairstow's Let all mortal flesh. Ashley Wagner's accompaniments are judicious and superbly controlled, never intruding yet making considerable impact when crescendos are called for, as in Mathias's royal anthem Let the people praise thee. He demonstrates particular skill in his choice of registrations in Dubois's Offertoire pour la fête de l'Ascension.

James MacMillan's beautiful A Child's Prayer, written in memory of the victims of the Dunblane Primary School shooting in March 1996 and used at Birmingham on Safeguarding Sunday, proves an effective miniature sung with genuine sensitivity.

Throughout the various soloists – Caitlin Cornewell, Poppy Brigham, Jacob Romano, Beth Taylor, Sarah Colgan, Tim Burton, and Harry Brookes-Owen – are a credit to Hardie's training. Throughout, diction remains exemplary, and lyrical lines shine with rhythmical vitality. Bairstow's hauntingly beautiful Let all mortal flesh particularly demonstrates the ensemble's quality as they carefully navigate the work's harmonic tensions.

After such spiritual uplift, we inevitably re-enter the rat race, knowing of course that we can always return to Birmingham's sacred sanctuary simply by pressing play on our devices. This recording stands as powerful testimony to the continuum that is the English choral tradition – a precious moment of tranquillity in our increasingly frantic world.