Search - Patrick Hadley, Edmund Rubbra, Geoffrey Webber :: Hadley & Rubbra: Sacred Choral Music (English Church Music, Vol. 3)

Some very fine choral music

Rodney Gavin Bullock | Winchester, Hampshire Angleterre | 05/21/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"A music student who was at Cambridge, England,in 1952 recalled his professor: `I remember him several times coming into our supervision in his pyjamas, carrying his wooden leg, which he then proceeded to strap on'.* This was the Professor of Music and Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Patrick Hadley. This unlikely academic had lost a leg in the First World War, and like Sir Arthur Bliss, a brother. He was friends with that group of hard-drinking English composers which included Philip Hesletine, Constant Lambert, Jack Moeran and Alan Rawsthorne and was also friendly with Vaughan Williams. As a composer, his output was very small but included some very fine pieces such as The Hills and The Trees So High. Although he was a great admirer of Delius, his style is closer to that of Vaughan Williams. The Lenten Cantata was composed in 1962. Here the original orchestra is replaced with the organ. The composer uses biblical texts with poems from 17th and 19th century poets to describe man's yearning for God, Christ's birth and crucifixion. It is unremittingly anguished or sad - even the final `Light of the lonely pilgrim's heart' is wan in its relative optimism. The other four songs, all set to biblical texts or devotional poems, are similarly elegiac in feeling. The music is undoubtedly beautiful but the monotony of mood can be wearing.Edmund Rubbra was a totally different sort of man - deeply religious, even mystical. His choral music is very fine indeed. The Three Motets begin with `Let Us Now Praise Famous Men'. Extravert at first, the music then becomes more withdrawn and a low organ pedal note underpins the whole motet. `There is a Spirit' is breathtakingly beautiful. The choir sing a setting of The Beatitudes while a soprano - who has a glorious voice - soars above with the words of James Naylor. Missa in Honorem Sancti Dominici is Rubbra's best known mass. The Credo is the longest and finest section -exhaltant and mysterious by turns. The short Agnus Dei consists of music of great tenderness. This is a masterpiece of liturgical writing.Of the Three Hymn Tunes, Queen of Mercy is the most memorable. Strophic in form, it is based on a rocking melody.The final Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis is a grand affair with a substantial organ accompaniment. It is fitting that the Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge under Geoffrey Weber should perform the Hadley works. Their performance is very good as is the recording which was made in the Chapel of the Hospital of St Cross, Winchester. This is not a clinical hospital but a place where certain pensioners spend their last days.*`Paddy' - the life and music of Patrick Hadley by Eric Wetherall, Thames Publishing, London, 1997"

The Hadley works are the best material here

Classic Music Lover | Maryland, USA | 12/01/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Fans of Rubbra's rugged, spikey style of writing will certainly be happy with these performances. But this is not the most special part of this disk. That honor goes to the Hadley compositions -- especially the miniatures "I Sing of a Maiden," "The Cup of Blessing" and "My Beloved Spake." The last of these is Hadley's most famous composition, and along with John Ireland's anthem "Greater Love Hath No Man" it's probably the best example of an English anthem written in the modern era. This particular performance is as good as I've ever heard in the original chorus-and-organ arrangement -- you're certain to be transported to another dimension when you hear it.



The Caius and Gonville singers do a stupendous job throughout the entire CD -- it makes one wonder why they aren't as famous as their Cambridge Cathedral counterparts ... they're certainly as deserving of musical praise."