£20.00
Britten: Saint Nicolas
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
Favourite Carols from King’s
The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge
Douglas Tang, Tom Etheridge & Parker Ramsay organ
Directed by Stephen Cleobury
Released 3 November 2014
1 CD
Britten: Saint Nicolas
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
Favourite Carols from King’s
‘Favourite Carols from King’s’ is a collection of the most popular carols featured in A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols over the years. Highlights include ‘Once in Royal David’s City’, with the opening verse sung by treble Adam Banwell, ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’, solo performed by bass Hugo Herman-Wilson and ‘Hark! the herald angels sing’. It provides at once a survey of the King’s Christmas tradition and a snapshot of the choir as it is today.
Recording of the Month – Friends of Cathedral Music
**** – BBC Music Magazine
Britten: Saint Nicolas
| 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 |
Favourite Carols from King’s
| 1 | Once in royal David’s city | 04:38 | Gauntlett, Henry John & Mann, Arthur Henry desc. Stephen Cleobury |
| 2 | Ding! Dong! merrily on high | 02:07 | XVI Century French arr. Charles Wood |
| 3 | Herefordshire Carol | 02:43 | English Trad arr. Ralph Vaughan Williams |
| 4 | Adam lay ybounden | 01:08 | Ord, Boris |
| 5 | Sussex Carol | 02:00 | English Trad arr. Philip Ledger |
| 6 | In dulci jubilo | 03:28 | Anon arr. Robert Lucas de Pearsal ed. Reginald Jacques |
| 7 | Joy to the world | 03:00 | Holford, William arr. Hugh Keyte & Andrew Parrott |
| 8 | Gabriel’s message | 02:40 | Basque Trad arr. Edgar Pettman |
| 9 | The holly and the ivy | 02:48 | French Trad arr. Henry Walford Davies |
| 10 | O little town of Bethlehem | 03:33 | English Trad arr. Ralph Vaughan Williams desc. Thomas Armstrong |
| 11 | A spotless Rose | 03:17 | Howells, Herbert |
| 12 | The shepherd’s Carol | 03:09 | Chilcott, Bob |
| 13 | Angels from the realms of glory | 03:43 | French Trad arr. Reginald Jacques |
| 14 | Silent night | 03:40 | Gruber, Franz arr. Stephen Cleobury |
| 15 | It came upon the midnight clear | 03:24 | English Trad arr. Arthur Sullivan desc. Stephen Cleobury |
| 16 | In the bleak midwinter | 04:32 | Darke, Harold |
| 17 | I saw three ships | 02:06 | English Trad arr. Simon Preston |
| 18 | While shepherds watched their flocks | 02:44 | Este’s Psalter desc. Stephen Cleobury |
| 19 | The three kings | 02:17 | Cornelius, Peter arr. Ivor Atkins |
| 20 | Coventry Carol | 02:50 | XV Century Anon |
| 21 | God rest you merry, gentlemen | 03:41 | English Trad arr. David Willcocks |
| 22 | Away in a manger | 02:29 | Kirkpatrick, William arr. David Willcocks |
| 23 | All bells in paradise | 04:34 | Rutter, John |
| 24 | Hark! the herald angels sing | 03:11 | Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Felix desc. Stephen Cleobury |
| 25 | O come, all ye faithful | 04:29 | Wade, John Francis arr. David Willcocks |
| Total playing time – 78:11 |
Britten: Saint Nicolas
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
Favourite Carols from King’s
Recorded at 96kHz 24-bit PCM in the Chapel of King’s College, Cambridge, by kind permission of the Provost and Fellows, 16, 17, 18 & 20 March 2014.
Producer & Editor Simon Kiln
Recording Engineer Arne Akselberg
Mixing Engineer Arne Akselberg
Technical Engineer Richard Hale
CD Mastering Engineer Simon Gibson
