Beautiful archive recordings of choral classics sung by the choir of St Mary’s Nottingham.

The choir of St Mary’s, Nottingham, have distinguished themselves over the centuries. David Butterworth, who played for our DVD release Towards a Modernist Organ, was director of music at St Mary’s from 1967 to 1983. During this time he oversaw the installation of the Marcussen organ, one of the best neo-baroque organs in the UK, and also led the choir of men and boys from strength to strength. This was a period when not only cathedrals, but all big and many smaller parish churches had excellent choirs. At the parish church level many of these were amateur, and yet sang to a very high standard.

St Mary’s, Nottingham is the perfect example. During the 1960s, 70 s and 80s it had an excellent choir of men and boys singing the weekly services. All singers were amateur, the boys being drawn from a range of local schools and the men either working in other fields or being students at the university.

Under David Butterworth’s direction, the choir recorded an LP and undertook several tour of Denmark, of which some of the concerts were recorded. The choir blended the standard Anglican choral repertoire with modernist continental elements, so music by Weelkes and Gibbons rubs shoulders with works by Einar Trærup Sark and Flor Peeters – an approach that reflects St Mary’s itself, a quintessentially English church that nonetheless houses a modernist Danish organ.

For the first time these archive recordings, are gathered together and released on CD. The result is a wonderful journey back in time to when amateur choirs sang ambitious repertoire with both great skill but also a kind of laid back charm that doesn’t exist anymore in the highly rehearsed and professionalised environments of our choral foundations.

Therefore the recordings are like a beautiful time capsule, and we hope that they will provide you with a lovely snapshot of an exciting part of the history of one of England’s major churches.

The tracklist is as follows:

CD I (The original LP, released in 1975, plus additional tracks recorded at the time):

1) In pace in idipsum – William Blitheman

2) Hosanna! to the son of David – Orlando Gibbons

3) Crucifixus- Antonio Lotti

4) Lord, let me know mine end – Maurice Greene

5) Blessed be the God and Father – S.S. Wesley

Organ solo:

6) Prelude and Fugue in G minor – Nicolaus Bruhns

7) Allegro in D – João de Sousa Carvalho

8) Sonata de primo tono – José Lidón

9) Toccata in F – Diderik Buxtehude (BuxWV 157)

Additional tracks (not previously released)

10) Locus iste – Anton Bruckner

11) This is the record of John – Orlando Gibbons

12) Hosanna! to the son of David – Thomas Weelkes

13) O lord, increase my faith – Orlando Gibbons

14) All the ends of the world – William Boyce

15) Remember not, Lord, our offences – Henry Purcell

16) In paradisum (Requiem) – Gabriel Fauré

17) Judge me, O God – Felix Mendelssoh-Bartholdy

18) God be in my head – Sir Henry Walford Davies

CD II Live recording of a concert given on 8 August 1976 in the Abbey Church of Løgumkloster

1) Tu es Petrus – Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

2) Miserere mei – William Byrd

3) O clap your hands together, all ye people – Orlando Gibbons

Organ solo:

4) Toccatina for Flute (‘Humoresque’ L’Organo Primitivo) – Pietro Yon

5) Concertstück op. 59a – Flor Peeters

6) Rejoice in the Lamb – Benjamin Britten

7) Blessed be the God and Father – S.S. Wesley

8) God be in my head – H. Walford Davies

9) Zadok the Priest – George Frideric Handel

 

CD III Live recording of a concert given on 29 July, 1980 in the Abbey Church of Sct Catharinae, Ribe

1) Tu es Petrus – Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

2) Jesu, dulcis memoria – Tomás Luis de Victoria

3) Sing joyfully – William Byrd

4) Agnus Dei (Missa á 5) – William Byrd

Messe Solennelle – Jean Langlais:

5) Kyrie eleison

6) Sanctus

7) Benedictus

8) Agnus Dei

9) Gloria in excelsis Deo

Organ solo: from ‘L’Ascension’ – Olivier Messiaen:

10) Prière du Christ

11) Transports de joie

Three Shakespeare Songs – R. Vaughan Williams:

12) Full Fathom Five

13) The Cloud-Capp’d Towers

14) Over Hill, Over Dale

15) Hymn to St Cecilia – Benjamin Britten

16) Coelos ascendit hodie – Charles Villiers Stanford

 

CD IV A further selection from the tour concerts:

Århus, Lucaskirke, 6 August, 1976

1) Hosanna! to the son of David – Thomas Weelkes

2) O Lord, in thy wrath – Orlando Gibbons

Organ solo:

3) Toccata primi toni – Einar Trærup Sark

4) A Picture of Graham Sutherland – Alan Ridout

5) Hear my prayer – Felix Mendelssohn

Augustenborg Palace, 28 July, 1980

6) O, praise the Lord – Thomas Tomkins

7) Thou knowest, Lord – Henry Purcell

8) Beati quorum via – Charles V. Stanford

9) I was glad when they said unto me – C. Hubert H. Parry

Vejle, Sct Johannes kirke, 30 July, 1980

10) When David heard – Thomas Weelkes

11) Cantantibus organis – Peter Phillips

12) Ave verum corpus – William Byrd

13) A Hymn to the Virgin – Benjamin Britten

Åbenrå, Sct Nicolai kirke, 31 July, 1980

14) Coelos ascendit hodie – Charles V. Stanford

15) Ubi caritas – Maurice Duruflé

16) Give unto the Lord – Edward Elgar

17) The Turtle-Dove – Ralph Vaughan Williams

The Choir of St Mary’s, Nottingham; Director and Organist: David Butterworth