It has taken me quite a while to listen through Magnificat 4, a recent disc from St John's College Choir (Cambridge). This CD includes a beautiful performance of my own Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, originally commissioned by this choir - alongside other "Mag and Nunc" commissions (by Jonathan Dove, for instance) and historical, mostly twentieth century, settings of the same texts. Even that seemingly obscure musical corner covers a huge repertory. For instance, I've just learned from the liner notes that Herbert Howells set these "Evening Canticles" twenty times !
The recording catalogue of this justly famous choir in recent years under Andrew Nethsingha is extraordinary, including a Jonathan Harvey collection and a whole double album of Michael Finnissy. Once again, I marvel at how much new choral music is being written generally, and then professionally recorded and released. I need hardly add that the majority of the performers on these St John's College discs are in the choir's treble sections, children aged 12 and below.
Pictured: 14th century wall paintings from the Chapter House, Westminster Abbey.
