Stanford: 3 Motets & Other Choral Music The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge & Stephen Layton

• Charles Villiers Stanford (1852 - 1924): For Lo, I Raise Up, Op. 145:
• 1 Stanford: For Lo, I Raise Up, Op. 145 08:05
• Service in C Major, Op. 115:
• 2 Stanford: Service in C Major, Op. 115: Morning Canticle 1. Te Deum 07:45
• 3 Latin Motets, Op. 38:
• 3 Stanford: 3 Latin Motets, Op. 38: I. Justorum animae 03:23
• 4 Stanford: 3 Latin Motets, Op. 38: II. Caelos ascendit hodie 01:59
• 5 Stanford: 3 Latin Motets, Op. 38: III. Beati quorum via 03:29
• Lighten Our Darkness:
• 6 Stanford: Lighten Our Darkness 03:48
• Service in C Major, Op. 115:
• 7 Stanford: Service in C Major, Op. 115: Morning Canticle 2. Benedictus 05:31
• Bible Songs and 6 Hymns, Op. 113:
• 8 Stanford: Bible Songs and 6 Hymns, Op. 113: VIb. O for a Closer Walk with God 03:35
• Service in C Major, Op. 115:
• 9 Stanford: Service in C Major, Op. 115: Morning Canticle 3. Jubilate 03:34
• Magnificat for 8-Part Chorus in B-Flat Major, Op. 164:
• 10 Stanford: Magnificat for 8-Part Chorus in B-Flat Major, Op. 164 11:51
• Fantasia and Toccata in D Minor, Op. 57:
• 11 Stanford: Fantasia and Toccata in D Minor, Op. 57: I. Fantasia 05:53
• 12 Stanford: Fantasia and Toccata in D Minor, Op. 57: II. Toccata 06:21
• English Motets, Op. 135:
• 13 Stanford: English Motets, Op. 135: II. Eternal Father 06:29
• Anonymous: St Patrick's Breastplate (Arr. Stanford):
• 14 Anonymous: St Patrick's Breastplate (Arr. Stanford) 09:13
• Total Runtime 01:20:56

Info for Stanford: 3 Motets & Other Choral Music

A programme spanning the variety and sheer emotional range of Stanford’s Anglican choral music (with a notable contribution from Owain Park in the Fantasia and Toccata for organ). You are unlikely to hear quite so stirring a rendition of ‘St Patrick’s Breastplate’ for some time to come …

After his apprenticeship in Dublin and a short period at Queens’ College, Cambridge, as one of Cambridge University’s first organ scholars, Charles Villiers Stanford migrated to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1873 to take up the position of organist owing to the failing health and death of John Larkin Hopkins. Inheriting a renovated organ and an expanding choir with its own choir school, Stanford found himself in an advantageous position to further his career. A capable organist, he promoted Easter Term recitals in Trinity College Chapel and, as a lover of English church music, he endeavoured to improve the choir by increasing the number of boy choristers, pensioning off old lay clerks and advertising for new blood including the appointment of undergraduate choral scholars. As the Master of Trinity, W H Thompson, commented to Archdeacon John Allen (of Salop) in November 1877: We had B[isho]p C. Wordsworth here yesterday at S. Mary’s. He came to us to early tea and went to Chapel at 6. He thinks the Services greatly improved since his time, and so they ought to be, for we spend twice as much on our Choir as we did 10 years ago.

"Recordings of Stanford’s great choral anthems are not short on the ground, but if any choir has justification to return to them it’s Trinity Cambridge … by taking the music seriously, treating it with respect but not reverence, [Layton] gives it a freshness calculated to disarm even the staunchest of musical non-believers" (Gramophone)

"This is an extremely fine disc. The Trinity College choir has a well-deserved reputation as a top-rank ensemble and this new addition to their discography is absolutely up to the standards we have come to expect. These are performances which show why Stanford’s reputation as a composer of excellent liturgical music is so deservedly secure." (MusicWeb International)

"Stocked with female voices rather than boy trebles, the Trinity choir attack this repertoire with a brisk attack and mature aplomb under Stephen Layton’s sensitive direction. There is so much to cherish here, whether Stanford is punching the air or praying in quiet wonderment" (BBC Music Magazine)

Madeleine Todd, soprano
Jamie Roberts, tenor
Owain Park, organ
Alexander Hamilton, organ
The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge
Stephen Layton, conductor

Stephen Layton
Awarded with an MBE for services to classical music in October 2020, Stephen Layton is one of the most sought-after conductors of his generation, whose ground-breaking approach has had a profound influence on choral music over the last 30 years. Often described as the finest exponent of choral music in the world today, Layton is regularly invited to work with the world’s leading choirs, orchestras and composers. His interpretations have been heard from Sydney Opera House to the Concertgebouw, from Tallinn to São Paolo, and his recordings have won or been nominated for every major international recording award. He has two Gramophone Awards and a further ten nominations, five Grammy nominations, the Diapason d’Or de l’Année in France, the Echo Klassik award in Germany, the Spanish CD compact award, and Australia’s Limelight Recording of the Year.

Founder and Director of Polyphony, and Director of Holst Singers, Layton has recently announced he is to step down as Fellow and Director of Music at Trinity College Cambridge in the summer of 2023. His former posts include Chief Conductor of Netherlands Chamber Choir, Chief Guest Conductor of Danish National Vocal Ensemble, Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of City of London Sinfonia, and Director of Music at the Temple Church, London.

Layton is constantly in demand to premiere new works by the greatest established and emerging composers of our age. A longstanding partnership with Arvo Pärt has resulted in premiere performances and award-winning recordings, including three discs with Polyphony on Hyperion. With the late Sir John Tavener, premieres include Layton’s bold realisation of his epic seven-hour vigil The Veil of the Temple, a new departure in British choral music. Passionate in his exploration of new music, Layton has introduced a vast range of new choral works to the UK and the rest of the world, transforming the music into some of the most widely performed today. His long association with music from the Baltic includes acclaimed recordings of works by Eriks Ešenvalds, Uģis Prauliņš and Veljo Tormis. His captivating discs, with Polyphony, of the American Morten Lauridsen’s Lux aeterna and Eric Whitacre’s Cloudburst were nominated for Grammy Awards, with Cloudburst spending a year in the USA’s Billboard Classical Album Chart. On the Deutsche Grammophon label, Layton and Polyphony recently recorded a disc of Karl Jenkins’ Motets which entered the Classical Artist Albums Chart at No. 1 during the week of its release, and on Decca they recorded Karl Jenkins’ Miserere with the Britten Sinfonia.

Layton’s recordings have consistently broken new ground, creating a new sound world in British choral music that continues to influence and inform conductors and choirs throughout the world. Award-winning discs with Polyphony include Britten’s Sacred and Profane, James MacMillan’s Seven Last Words from the Cross and Poulenc’s Gloria. In a recent Gramophone critics’ poll of the world’s 20 greatest choirs, not only was Polyphony voted second finest, but The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge also made it into the top five: confounding expectation, Layton had led a student choir into the highest ranks. Now the choir tours at the highest international level and records prolifically, recently receiving a Gramophone award, a Grammy nomination, and Australia’s Limelight Recording of the Year.

Layton guest-conducts widely, working with and inspiring the world’s finest choirs and orchestras: Netherlands Chamber Choir; Danish National Vocal Ensemble; SWR Vokalensemble, MDR Leipzig and NDR Hamburg Radio Choirs in Germany; Latvian State and Radio Choirs, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, and Voces Musicales in the Baltic; Polish Radio, NFM, and Wroclaw Philharmonic Choirs; Slovenian Philharmonic Choir; Eric Ericsson Chamber Choir, Stockholm; Die Konzertisten, Hong Kong; and the inaugural concert of Yale Center for Music and Liturgy at Carnegie Hall. With Britten Sinfonia, his eight highly acclaimed recordings include Handel’s Messiah (“Best Messiah recording” – BBC Music Magazine); with City of London Sinfonia (where Layton succeeded Richard Hickox as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor), tours included Latin America and premieres uniting cathedral choristers across Britain; and with Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment he has recorded Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, B Minor Mass and St John Passion.

Layton’s interpretations of Bach and Handel have been heard with orchestras ranging from Academy of Ancient Music to the London Philharmonic and Philadelphia orchestras. Performances include Messiah in Sydney Opera House, the first staged St John Passion with English National Opera, and regular BBC broadcasts. He has worked with London Sinfonietta; BBC National Orchestra of Wales; Opera North; Scottish and Australian chamber orchestras; Auckland Philharmonia; Seattle, Queensland, Melbourne, Adelaide and West Australian symphony orchestras; and Minnesota, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National and Hallé orchestras. Layton is also Artistic Director of the Annual Christmas Festival at St John’s Smith Square.

Layton continues to innovate, taking bold and original steps, and leading the way in the use of new technologies in choral music. Everything sung by The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge is webcast live and available to listen again online. Layton was the first in the world to webcast every single note sung in this way, laying bare the music-making without any digital editing. This searchable archive of over 4,000 musical tracks recorded live forms an invaluable resource for listeners around the world and forms a major part of his legacy to the Choir.

This album contains no booklet.