Magnificat 3
George Herbert (organ)
Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge/Andrew Nethsingha
rec. 2022, St John’s College Chapel, Cambridge, UK
Texts included
Signum Classics SIGCD742 [63]

Andrew Nethsingha left St John’s College, Cambridge at the end of 2022 to succeed James O’Donnell as Organist and Master of the Choristers at Westminster Abbey. Happily, for those of us who have enjoyed following his series of CDs with the Cambridge choir, he left some recordings ‘in the can’. At least two more discs are in the pipeline: one, due imminently, is a disc of pieces written for the College choir; in addition, as Nethsingha mentions in his booklet essay, there is to be a fourth volume in the Magnificat series.

For once, I want to start by talking not about the music and performances but about the documentation. The booklets for the St John’s discs are usually extensive and excellent but they’ve really pushed the boat out this time. Taking advantage, perhaps, of the small amount of space needed for texts and translations, the documentation is extensive. As usual, Andrew Nethsingha has written the notes about the music; he writes with insight and in some detail about each set of Canticles. Not content with that, space has been found to reproduce a short but erudite essay on Howells’ St Paul’s Service by Andrew Reid, the former Director of the Royal School of Church Music (2012-2017). These albums invariably include in the booklet an essay about the scriptural aspect of the music. This time the choice has fallen upon Rev Lucy Winkett. She is a trained singer (Royal College of Music) and a former Choral Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. I think I’m correct in saying that on occasion she sang and recorded as a member of John Rutter’s Cambridge Singers. So, as priest and singer she’s especially well qualified to contribute to this booklet.  

The booklet, then, is distinguished. So, too, is the music-making.

As we shall see, Andrew Nethsingha has ranged widely in his selection of Canticles for this programme. But he hasn’t contented himself with “just” providing a set of ‘Mags’ and ‘Nuncs’ written for the Anglican church. Instead, the opening track is something of a surprise; it’s a setting of the Nunc dimittis by the Russian composer, Pavel Chesnokov. In recent years I’ve greatly enjoyed making the acquaintance of this composer’s sacred music; so, I was delighted to find his work represented here. A bass soloist – here, the excellent Thomas Butler – sings the text of the Canticle with the choir providing support. The tone of the soloist’s music is elevated and the background choral music is beautiful. The setting rises to a radiant climax at ‘To be a light…’ The piece is a wonderful way to start the programme.

At the other end of the programme comes something equally enterprising in the shape of Bryan Kelly’sMagnificat & Nunc Dimittis in C. These date from 1965 and were commissioned by Rev Walter Hussey, Dean of Chichester and doyen among twentieth-century ecclesiastical patrons of the arts. Hussey commissioned the Canticles for that year’s Southern Cathedrals Festival; at the same time, he handed out a commission to Leonard Bernstein for what became The Chichester Psalms. I was intrigued to learn from the booklet that Kelly’s Canticles also exist in a version with accompaniment by timpani, percussion, harp and organ. Here, we’re offered the organ version but I’d love to hear the alternative. Kelly could not have known The Chichester Psalms – the two works were conceived contemporaneously – but his Magnificat has the same rhythmic vibrancy and lack of inhibition that Bernstein wrote into his music. Kelly’s music is exuberant and rhythmically exciting. The booklet references the reaction of Kelly’s former teacher, Herbert Howells when shown the manuscript: “My dear, I will tell you one thing about your setting. After each performance the church will have to be re-consecrated”. I love that; it shows, as Andrew Nethsingha points out, how daring Kelly’s composition was at the time. Viewing the Magnificat now, with nearly 60 years of hindsight, we are unlikely to have a fit of the vapours, but the music remains iconoclastic. The St John’s choir gives a fantastic performance. With Kelly’s Nunc dimittis we are in calmer waters. Initially, the music is full of lovely, light-suffused harmonies but Kelly achieves a fine climax before the ‘Glory be’; the Gloria itself is a reprise of the same music from the Magnificat. These Kelly Canticles make a super ending to the programme.

Howells himself is represented twice. His setting of the ‘Mag’ and ‘Nunc’ for St Paul’s Cathedral is one of his greatest settings of the Evening Canticles. The word painting in the Magnificat is marvellous. These canticles must be in the very DNA of a choir like St John’s and they sing them superbly – with a terrific account of the organ part by George Herbert. The ‘Glory be’ is especially effective; the choir sings it fervently, backed up by thrilling organ. I can’t resist quotng the start of Andrew Nethsingha’s note on the companion canticle in which he describes the hushed organ introduction thus: “Nunc Dimittis opens in a murky cave – or from Simeon’s tomb? – and a beam of light enters through a crack in the rock”. What an unforgettable image! Compared with the ending of the Magnificat, the opening pages of the Nunc are fragile; here, the music is performed with great control and sensitivity. Slowly, Howells builds the volume and by so doing he makes possible a reprise of the Magnificat’s ‘Glory be’. This is a memorable account of the St Paul’s canticles.

Less familiar, perhaps, are the canticles that Howells composed for Westminster Abbey six years later. As Nethsingha puts it, the Westminster Magnificat is an “airy, floating canticle”. As in the St Pau’s setting, Howells demonstrates his prowess in word painting. In a fine performance, my ear was especially caught by the way in which the trebles launch into the emphatic, ecstatic ‘Glory be’. (I was interested to read that Howells marks this section Risvegliato, which means reawakening.) In the ‘Nunc’, the music at ‘To be a light…’, with an important organ part, is very striking. The ‘Glory be’ is reprised from the Magnificat and the choir really gets hold of the music; they and George Herbert bring this canticle to a thrilling conclusion.

I’m not sure I’ve previously heard the set of canticles which Philip Moore wrote in 2006 for St John’s College. They’re rather unusual in that the music is deliberately unassuming in its scope and tone of voice; this is emphasised by the deliberate decision that the accompaniment should be played on a chamber organ. The modest scope of the music reflects the fact that the canticles were designed to be appropriate for Lenten performance, I understand (they were unveiled at Evensong on Ash Wednesday). I liked these canticles very much indeed and I appreciated the sensitive performance. A very pleasing feature is the way in which Moore alternates between solo voices and the full choir. Because the ‘Mag’ is deliberately modest, there’s less contrast than one often gets between that canticle and the ‘Nunc’ – not that this matters at all. The skill and restraint, both in composition and performance, are very impressive.

There’s a similar modesty to Dyson’s F major canticles. The Magnificat features a prominent treble solo, very well sung here. It seems to me that Dyson understands that the Magnificat is the Song of Mary; as a result, he gives his musical setting a gentle but firm femineity. The ‘Nunc’ also includes a substantial solo, this time for a bass; the soloist is given spacious, expansive music which he sings very well.  Like its companion, this is a thoughtful setting of the text.  

Stanford’s B flat canticles are staples of the repertoire and need little detailed comment. They are marvellous examples of the genre and here receive a very fine performance. I love the way that a trumpet stop is added to the organ part – to telling effect – at the end of the Magnificat. The tenors and basses make the very most of the spacious unison melody to which they sing the text of the Nunc dimittis – the higher voices only get a look in at the ‘Glory be’.

I’m very glad that room was found in this series for Kenneth Leighton’s canticles for Magdalene College Oxford. The Magnificat is dynamic; it’s extrovert, even dramatic stuff. The St John’s choir perform it with notable bite – sample, for instance, the way they articulate the word ‘scattered’ in the Magnificat. This is a terrific performance by choir and organist. The Nunc dimittis is slow and pensive but gradually grows in power and intensity. The ‘Glory be’ is not sung to the same music as we heard in the Magnificat. Instead, Leighton writes light, gently dancing music that makes a rather special, unusual effect. I can’t better Andrew Nethsingha’s suggestion that “perhaps Simeon’s soul is dancing off into outer space, spinning around until it is way beyond reach”.

This is yet another very fine album from Andrew Nethsingha and the Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge. Throughout the programme the performances are consistently fine; they are clearly the work of a choir that has not only been thoroughly trained in the music but which also has a deep collective understanding of the texts they are singing. George Herbert plays the often challenging organ parts with skill and flair. I’ve already commented on the outstanding documentation. The recorded sound is equally distinguished. Engineers Simon Eadon and Dave Rowell, working with producer Chris Hazell, have recorded the choir and the organ with great fidelity.

This is a rather special disc.

John Quinn

Previous review: William Hedley (May 2023)

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Contents
Pavel Chesnokov (1877-1944)
Six Choruses for Mixed Voices, Op. 40/4: Nunc Dimittis (1914)
Herbert Howells (1892-1983)
Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis (St Paul’s Service) (1951)
Philip Moore (b. 1943)
Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis (Sancti Johannis Cantabrigiense) (2006)
Kenneth Leighton (1929-1988)
Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis (Collegium Magdalenae Oxoniense) (1960)
Herbert Howells
Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis (Westminster Service) (1957)
George Dyson (1883-1964)
Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis in F (1945)
Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924)
Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis in B flat (1879)
Bryan Kelly (b. 1934)
Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis in C (1965)