Britten Saint Nicolas

£13.00

Andrew Kennedy Tenor
Stephen Cleobury Organ

The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge
Britten Sinfonia
Directed by Stephen Cleobury

Released 21 October 2013

CD & SACD

SKU: KGS0003

The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge under conductor Stephen Cleobury presents Britten’s enchanting choral masterpiece, Saint Nicolas, with Hymn to St Cecilia and Rejoice in the Lamb, celebrating 100 years since Benjamin Britten’s birth. The recording features soloist Andrew Kennedy, a former Choral Scholar at King’s College, Cambridge, the renowned Britten Sinfonia, Sawston Village College Choir and Cambridge University Musical Society.

Director of Music, Stephen Cleobury, said: “I am delighted to have been able to record Saint Nicolas in King’s. The cantata was written in the year I was born, and I have known it and performed in it in various roles since I was a teenager. Britten’s links with King’s were strong; he frequently visited EM Forster in the College, and my two predecessors, David Willcocks and Philip Ledger, both worked closely with the composer.”

This was the first recording on the King’s College own label to be released in surround sound, capturing the unique acoustics of King’s College Chapel. The two-disc package comes with a standard CD and an SACD containing high definition stereo and 5.1 surround mixes.

***** – Classical Music Magazine

***** – Financial Times

Saint Nicolas Britten, Benjamin
1 i. Introduction 05:35
2 ii. The Birth of Nicolas 02:43
3 iii. Nicolas devotes himself to God 04:34
4 iv. He journeys to Palestine * 08:19
5 v. Nicolas comes to Myra and is chosen Bishop *^ 07:02
6 vi. Nicolas from Prison 02:59
7 vii. Nicolas and the Pickled Boys * 06:42
8 viii. His piety and marvellous works * 05:03
9 ix. The Death of Nicolas *^ 06:45
10 Hymn to St Cecilia 10:25
11 Rejoice in the Lamb 16:25
Total playing time – 76:32
* Sawston Village College Choir
^ CUMS Chorus

kgs0003-digital-booklet-cover

Disc One (standard CD) contains 44.1kHz 16-bit stereo audio. Disc Two (Dual Layer SACD) contains high-resolution stereo (2.0) and multichannel surround (5.1) mixes.

Recorded at 96kHz 24-bit PCM in the Chapel of King’s College, Cambridge, by kind permission of the Provost and Fellows, 23-24 June 2012 (Hymn to St Cecilia & Rejoice in the Lamb) and 14-15 January & 20 May 2013 (Saint Nicolas).

Producer & Editor  Simon Kiln
Recording Engineers  Arne Akselberg, Jonathan Allen
Mixing Engineer  Arne Akselberg
Technical Engineer  Richard Hale
CD Mastering Engineer  Simon Kiln
SACD Mastering Engineer  Andrew Walter

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