Advent Live Volume 3
The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge/Andrew Nethsingha, George Herbert
James Anderson-Besant, Joseph Wicks, George Herbert (organ)
Oliver Wass (harp)
rec. live, 2020-22, Chapel of St John’s College, Cambridge, UK
Texts included
Signum Classics SIGCD768 [56]

This, the third Advent Live disc to be released by St John’s College, Cambridge, is also the last to feature its former music director Andrew Nethsingha. His final Cambridge Advent was in 2022, after which he left to take up the top musical job at Westminster Abbey. Nethsingha doesn’t conduct everything here, more of which below, but that doesn’t detract from the astonishingly high quality of what’s on offer. I loved the first two discs in this series, and this one makes an excellent final instalment.  

The most striking thing about the choice of repertoire is that there is a lot less new music; perhaps, I guess, because that was such a heavy component of the first two volumes. The new work is very striking, however, nowhere more so than at the very opening of the disc because, if you’re anything like me, the very first sound you hear will catch you unawares! It’s the deep thwang of a low string struck by the college harpist, and serves as a launchpad for Cheryl Frances-Hoad’s spirited Lo! The desert-depths are stirr’d for choir and harp, which makes a terrifically energetic way to launch the disc. Helen Grimes, a familiar name especially in Scotland, where I live, contributes Telling, her first work for unaccompanied choir, and sounding remarkably assured. Harry L’Estrange’s O virgo virginum is delightfully warm in its textures and harmonies, while Peter Maxwell Davies’ One star, at last is unsurprisingly more spiky, but still very effective.  

The rest of the disc is more traditional repertoire or, at least, traditional-sounding. There are congregational hymns, though they’re all sung only by the choir, and some older Advent carols sung with the choir’s classic combination of security and warmth. Philip Ledger’s Advent Calendar, a classic-sounding setting of words by Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, dates from as recently as 2002, but sounds as if it came from the middle of the last century, and that’s not a criticism. Francis Pott sets There is no rose with some beautiful harmonies, far more sensual and seductive than the text normally receives. The close-knit harmonies of John Raymond Williams’ Pan fo’r Stormydd Garwa’n Curo sound lovely, as do Judith Weir’s now familiar setting of the Advent Prose and Simon Preston’s lively and now familiar There is no rose. John Gardner’s lusty rendition of A Gallery Carol ends the disc with the heft of a football chant. 

There is some atmospheric plainsong, chanted in the empty chapel of the 2020 covid seasons, and four chorale preludes for organ by J.S. Bach provide reflective anchor-points. They also showcase how terrific the college organ sounds, and how atmospherically it has been captured by the engineers from Signum and the BBC. 

That last point is an important one. The music on this disc was recorded on three different Advent seasons, and the chapel’s acoustic changes according to lots of things, not least the quantity of people in there, so the recording engineers should be credited for creating a sound that is not only beautiful and evocative of the place, but also remarkably consistent so that there is never a sense of moving from one year’s service into another.  

That’s even more of an achievement when you consider Nethsingha’s booklet note, which makes the point that all three of these years were “special” for separate reasons. Advent 2020 was during the depths of covid, when there was no congregation in the chapel and the choir sang socially distanced. Nethsingha himself, along with several members of the choir, caught covid in 2021, so the service was conducted at very short notice by organ scholar George Herbert, and then 2022 was Nethsingha’s final farewell to the service and the St John’s tradition. All of that helps to add some atmosphere and, perhaps, a little poignancy to what you hear, but it would mean nothing were it not for the excellent quality of both the music and the performances. Some might grumble that the running time is relatively miserly when you consider the years of riches on which the choir must be sitting, but it’s consistent with that of volumes 1 and 2, and this doesn’t detract from the fact that this is both a beautiful disc and a culminating celebration of a wonderful tradition. 

Simon Thompson 

Previous review: John Quinn (December 2023)

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Contents
1. Lo! The desert-depths are stirr’d (Cheryl Frances Hoad)
2. Advent Calendar (Philip Ledger)
3. Telling (Helen Grime)
4. There is no rose (Francis Pott)
5. Herr Christ, der ein’ge Gottes-Sohn, BWV 601 (J.S. Bach)
6. Pan fo’r stormydd garwa’n curo (John Raymond Williams)
7. Hymn – O come, O come, Emmanuel! 
8. Nowel, nowel. Owt of your slepe (Anon.)
9. Drop down, ye heavens, from above (Judith Weir)
10. Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 659 (J.S. Bach)
11. There is no rose (Simon Preston)
12. Hymn – Come, thou long-expected Jesus
13. O virgo virginum (Harry L’Estrange)
14. One star, at last (Peter Maxwell Davies)
15. Antiphons – O Dayspring; O King of the nations (trad.)
16. Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 645 (J.S. Bach)
17. Adam lay ybounden (Peter Warlock)
18. Gottes Sohn ist kommen (J.S. Bach)
19. Hymn – On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry
20. Antiphon – O Emmanuel (trad.)
21. Adam lay ybounden (Philip Ledger)
22. A Gallery Carol (John Gardner)